Crokes experience should militate against a slip up on latest trip to Tipp
MUNSTER CLUB SFC QUARTER-FINAL
Moyle Rovers v Dr Crokes
Sunday, November 4 Ardfinnan, 1.30pm
JUDGING by the odds the bookies are quoting this week – Dr Crokes were 1/10 on Tuesday afternoon with one online bookmarker, which carries an implied probability of about 90% – it would be an unmerciful shock if Moyle Rovers downed the champions of Kerry this weekend.
The bookies are rarely wrong and on this occasion we doubt that they will be either. Dr Crokes are simply too experienced to take their eye off the ball as they bid for a third ever All Ireland club title.
Since Moyle Rovers last sampled the choppy waters of provincial competition Dr Crokes have participated in Munster competition six times, winning four times as well as winning a famous All Ireland title in 2017.
That sort of experience is just invaluable. They even have the memory – from the first of those six times in Munster competition – of a dangerous assignment in south Tipperary to forewarn and forearm them ahead of Sunday afternoon.
Current Tipp senior boss Liam Kearns plotted and very nearly pulled off a coup with his Aherlow outfit that day in 2010. It was touch a go for a time before the Crokes dug deep and saw out a typical Dr Crokes victory.
“The Munster Club Championship is difficult at every stage because you are playing county champions and county champions have belief in themselves,” Dr Crokes selector Vince Casey said this week.
“It doesn’t matter who you play, if you try and take any of them for granted you will be caught out. We’ve seen results where they call them smaller clubs and they go on and win All Irelands. So, you take it one game at a time.”
Crokes know what it takes in a way that Moyle Rovers simply cannot. Crokes too have the hurt of defeat in last year’s Munster championship to Nemo Rangers to drive them this year.
When a club has won as much domestically as this Crokes side has done their ambitions are – pretty much by necessity – that bit grander. There’s nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact it’s right and proper.
It’s healthy to want to get back to the summit two years after they scaled it, to want to test themselves against the very best. Hunger and motivation shouldn’t be an issue for Pat O’Shea’s men this weekend and that being the case they should come through this game.
Most likely it’ll be something of a battle with the newly crowned Tipperary champions, who are no bad side themselves. They were really impressive in seeing off a John Evans trained Ardfinnan in last weekend’s final.
Niall Fitzgerald’s Rovers ran out eight point victors – 1-15 to 1-7 – over this weekend’s hosts and will carry that momentum with them into the clash with the Kingdom blue bloods.
Their key player is probably recently retired inter-county star Peter Acheson – who looks set to miss the match – but corner-forward Liam Boland will take watching too. Full-forward Shane Foley scored 1-2 from play in the game with Ardfinnan.
Still it’s unlikely that Moyle Rovers will have enough quality to match Crokes in every department – and the Killarney outfit are strong in pretty much every department, their somewhat maligned defence has bounced back over the course of the county championship in a major way.
Moyle Rovers just don’t seem to have the same breath and depth of talent at their disposal – in all fairness very few club sides do.
Arguably it was Crokes’ capacity to spring talent from the bench which won them this year’s county championship.
Of course, there’s always a chance. There’s always a chance in a two horse race. The thing is though Dr Crokes know that better than anyone. You’ve got to think they’ve got this one.
Dr Crokes
Verdict: