Dr Crokes should have enough to triumph

ALL IRELAND CLUB SFC SEMI-FINAL

Saturday, February 18 Semple Stadium, 3.30pm (live TG4)

LIGHTNING, it doesn’t strike twice... does it?

Dr Crokes will certainly hope not. The mood music, you see, is remarkably similar to that before the Leinster club final. Mullinalaghta will again be massive underdogs against a side called Crokes – the bookmakers’ odds towards the end of last week were near identical to those before the Leinster decider.

Mullinalaghta will be going into a game thinking they’re in bonus territory, thinking and knowing really, that they’ve got nothing to lose. Knowing conversely that all the pressure is on their much more vaunted opponents. For Dr Crokes this is a must win game in a way that it really isn’t for Mullinalaghta.

Of course, Mullinalaghta will want to win. Of course, Mullinalaghta will be doing everything within their power to win. Being an underdog, though, carries with it a different mindset. The expectation just isn’t there.

The county, indeed the entire country, will expect Dr Crokes to win. That’s the difference. How the Kingdom kingpins cope with that will likely determine the winning and the losing of this game.

Given their vast experience it’s hard to see Dr Crokes falling into any of the potential traps which might await them this weekend. Could they fall into the trap of taking Mullinalaghta lightly?

Unlikely with a man as meticulous as Pat O’Shea as manager and unlikely with memories of previous All Ireland semi-final disappointments – Crossmaglen, Castlebar Mitchels and Ballymun to name a few – to serve as warnings.

It’s equally unlikely, we suspect, that the Lewis Road outfit will find themselves over-thinking this one too much either. They don’t strike us as a bunch of footballers who would find themselves paralysed by fear and by expectation, blinded by science and muddled in too much information.

No Dr Crokes will do what they always do. They’ll do their due diligence. They’ll put their plans in place and they’ll work their way through them methodically, reacting nimbly to whatever circumstances they might find themselves in. That’s just the way they are. That’s how they’ve got to where they are, so why change now?

Dr Crokes have the mindset, the quality and the experience to overcome Mullinalaghta this Saturday afternoon on a pitch that should suit them – albeit a pitch of which they might not have especially happy memories after losing to Ballymun in 2013.

Mullinalaghta, of course, are not without quality and not without merit. You don’t qualify for an All Ireland club semi-final without having something about you. You don’t become the first ever Longford club to win a Leinster title and qualify for an All Ireland semi-final through luck alone.

Yes the way they won that Leinster title required certain things to fall their way – Mullinalaghta’s goal in the final came at just the right time, catching

Kilmacud at the perfect moment to knock them off their balance – but they still had to get themselves into the position where they could strike late for their smash and grab.

They’ve been coming for a number of years in Longford, even before the appointment of Mickey Graham as manager. It’s with the Cavan man’s appointment, however, that they’ve really flourished.

In each of his three years in charge Mullinalaghta have claimed ultimate honours in Longford, with their challenge and competitiveness in Leinster increasing year-on-year to the point it brought them that most famous of victories.

Pat O’Shea will probably have a certain amount of sympathy for Graham’s present circumstances. In 2007 O’Shea was, as Graham is now, a recently appointed manager of an inter-county team with an All Ireland club campaign to navigate at the same time.

It didn’t stop Crokes from reaching the All Ireland final in 2007 and if Mullinalaghta are good enough this time around it won’t stop them either, but it is a little extra wrinkle for the Cavan manager to overcome.

His team play a relatively nice brand of a football, but they are pragmatic when the occasion demands it as the Leinster final did and as this weekend’s clash with the Crokes undoubtedly will.

Mullinalaghta will get numbers behind the ball, they’ll work their socks off. Mullinalaghta have generally played a twoman inside forward line with livewire corner-forwards Jayson Matthew and county man Rian Brady.

Aidan McElligott – generally named at number fifteen – will probably drop back to midfield, aiming to bolster Mullinalaghta around the middle third of the pitch alongside John Keegan and David McGivney, who are both Longford senior footballers.

As a matter of fact Mullinalaghta have quite a number of current and former Leinster senior footballers in their ranks – full-back Patrick Fox (man of the match against Kilmacud Crokes), centre-back Donal McElligott and centre-forward James McGivney along with those we’ve already mentioned.

Longford are a pretty solid inter-county outfit and for Mullinalaghta to supply that many players to them – Shane Mulligan at wing-back is a former Longford senior – speaks to their quality

What they lack and what the Crokes have in abundance, however, is strength in depth. Beyond the starting fifteen Mullinalaghta will struggle to make an impact. Dr Crokes, meanwhile, have a frightening bench to draw upon.

If the team lines up as it had been in county and provincial competition, Dr Crokes should be able to call upon Colm Cooper off the bench, they’ll be able to call upon Jordan Kiely and Michael Potts, they’ll be able to call upon David Naughton or the ageless Eoin Brosnan.

And as much quality as Mullinalaghta do have on their starting fifteen they still don’t match the Crokes in that department. For Matthews and Brady, Crokes have John Payne and Fionn Fitzgerald. For James McGivney they’ve got Gavin White.

For Patrick Fox they’ve got David Shaw or Tony Brosnan. For Donal McElligott they’ve got Micheál Burns and Gavin O’Shea. For John Keegan and David McGivney they’ve got Johnny Buckley and Dáithí Casey.

That’s the thing – for whatever questions we can come up with for Dr Crokes, they’ve got answers. Could they lose on Sunday afternoon? Of course they could, that’s the nature of sport, nothing is certain.

It’s just that, viewed from this perspective, it would be a surprise. The bookies give Crokes about a 90% chance of success. They’re unlikely to lose their shirt two times in-a-row on Mullinalaghta... are they?

Verdict: Dr Crokes

And that’s the thing – for whatever questions we can come up with for Dr Crokes they’ve got the answers