Crokes focus is fixed on regaining the Cup
ONE final act for Dr Crokes as a busy latter part to 2018 is about to come to an end with Crokes back in East Kerry’s showpiece for the 14th time since the turn of the century. However, selector Edmund O’Sullivan was happy with how the Killarney side dealt with Rathmore’s fightback in the second period of Sunday’s semi-final.
“They are an excellent side and a great club team. We knew that they would come at us in the second half and they ran strongly and we’re very happy with how composed we were in the last six or seven minutes when the game was back in the balance. Our lads had a tremendous response to their goal in the opening minute but and I think that run of 1-9 we got was down to our sharpness from the run of games. Rathmore probably didn’t have that sharpness waiting to play this so long and you can’t beat competitive games this time of year,” he said.
O’Sullivan said that the exploits of the Gneeveguilla game the previous Friday weren’t really a factor in Crokes’ second half display due to the number of players in their panel they used for both games in the space of 48 hours. However, he agreed that Eoin Brosnan and Kieran O’Leary played big parts in Sunday’s success.
“Eoin’s experience for his age and the physicality he brings is immense especially in how well he reads the game. Kieran was brilliant for us again today as well, no different that he has been all year,” he said when asked about the duo.
Saturday’s final brings with it a novel battle for Crokes in facing another Munster Club Championship winning side from the year in Intermediate winners Kilcummin.
“They’ve had a great run in Munster like ourselves and we are expecting a very competitive challenge from them. Any thoughts about Mullinalaghta (All-Ireland semi-final opponents) are for the new year as this final is all we will be thinking about this week,” the Crokes selector said. Indeed, when you read this observation from O’Sullivan it tells you how much Crokes want to regain a cup that may be small in physical size but massive to their history.
“It’s strange that we have players in the dressing room with All-Ireland and Munster Club medals but no O’Donoghue Cup medal. This is something we really want to win and a lot of our focus since winning the Munster has been on trying to win this competition again.”