The O’Donoghue Cup final previewed

Dr Crokes v Kilcummin Saturday, December 22 Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney Throw-in at 2.15pm

IT’S taken quite the while to get to this point - and somewhat unusually it will be the East Kerry District Board that will close out the domestic football season - but Saturday’s East Kerry SFC final will, barring a draw, deliver an early Christmas present for either Dr Crokes or Kilcummin in the shape of the Dr O’Donoghue Cup.

With Dr Crokes going for title no.30 on Saturday and Kilcummin still chasing just a second title 45 years after their first, one could be forgiven for believing the latter’s hunger and desire in Fitzgerald Stadium at 2.30pm on Saturday will be ten-fold that of the former’s. You’d be wrong.

Dr Crokes’ 29 titles span from their first in 1954, two years after the inception of this competition (then run on a league basis until 1966), until their most recent in 2013, but that in itself speaks volumes. That most recent title in 2013 was the last of an eight in a row for the Lewis Road club and it won’t be lost on the current team that failure to win the Cup on Saturday will mean that 2014-2018 barren spell will match the longest O’Donoghue Cup-less period in the club since 1981. For a team that has just completed a threein-a-row of county championship titles, that won the All-Ireland Club title less than two years ago, and is two wins away from holding the Andy Merrigan Cup again, it hardly bears thinking about.

Indeed, without a hint of hubris, team selector Edmund O’Sullivan suggested last weekend that it is strange that there are Dr Crokes players with All-Ireland and Munster Club medals but no O’Donoghue Cup medal. And it is.

Of course, that is as much a testament to the East Kerry Championship itself and how competitive and hard won it is in any given year, and few will appreciate that more than Crokes opponent on Sunday.

Kilcummin as a club haven’t contested too many East Kerry finals, and of the six they have they’ve only come out on the right side once (and even that took a replay to get over Glenflesk). That was so long ago that every one of today’s playing squad were mere twinkles in their parents’ eyes, and it’s likely that some of those parents were hardly out of short pants themselves back in 1973.

Kilcummin manager Willie Maher might be from across the district divide being a Milltown/ Castlemaine and Mid Kerry man, but he’s long enough living in Kilcummin now to appreciate how hard these O’Donoghue Cups are to win and what it would mean to the club and team that his two sons belong to.

“The Holy Grail for clubs like Kilcummin has always been the O’Donoghue Cup,” Maher said. “The All-Ireland Club championships for Intermediate and Junior teams have taken over a bit in the last ten or fifteen years but here in Kerry, at least, the district championships still mean an awful lot. Look at the North or South Kerry Championships and see what it means to clubs to win it. East Kerry is the same, they’re hotly contested and dearly wanted by every club. They’re not easily won.”

Indeed they’re not and Kilcummin’s cause won’t be helped by the absence of Kevin McCarthy (hand), Chris O’Leary (shoulder) and Padraig Nagle (ankle) who are all on the injured list. Dr Crokes are hard beaten any day but the absence of that trio - McCarthy in particular - robs Kilcummin of the skill and hard edge needed on a football field three days before Christmas.

Maher isn’t playing mind games when he says that Dr Crokes are the standard-bearers in Kerry and Munster, and have been for quite a while, but he appreciates that Kilcummin are coming to this final on the back of a fine season. Promotion back to the senior club ranks via that county intermediate championship title back in the early summer has been backed up with promotion to Division One of the county league and then, just a month ago, with the Munster Club Intermediate title.

Needless to say Dr Crokes have won all before them too this year - Senior Club, County Championship and County League titles as well as the Munster Club title - and the depth of their panel has afforded their key players some opportunity for some time off en route to this final.

Indeed it would seem the only person they won’t have on Sunday is their manager Pat O’Shea. It’s been customary over the last couple of O’Donoghue Cup campaigns for O’Shea to take himself out of the managerial equation and let his selectors run the show at this stage of the season. As it happens O’Shea is serving a four-week suspension after being sent off in the County League Final win a fortnight ago but he wouldn’t have been active in the Crokes dressing-room or on the sideline last weekend or next anyhow.

With the brains trust in the Crokes management and the motivation among the players to win back this title, O’Shea’s absence shouldn’t be a problem, especially when the real leadership will come from players like Johnny Buckley, Daithi Casey, John Payne, Shane Doolan, Mike Moloney, Brian Looney and, of course, Colm Cooper who, along with Eoin Brosnan, will be looking to win a 12th O’Donoghue Cup medal.

Kilcummin won’t lack for motivation or effort but it’s hard to see Crokes come this far and not finish the job and make it title no.30.