Parkinson proves worth as ‘big guys’ perform

WHATEVER was expected of the Dublin champions in yesterday’s AIB Leinster Club football championship Carlow, a six points defeat at the hands of Portlaoise would hardly have been anticipated.

But, winning manager Tommy Conroy was pleasantly surprised by the margin, while Kilmacud Crokes coach Mick Dillon readily accepted it was the result of the team’s experienced players not performing on the day.

Conroy, a member of the last Portlaoise team to win the Leinster title back in 1987, said that before the game they would have settled for a one-point win. In the circumstances, he was delighted with the outcome.

Concern over a lack of application for periods of the first-half gave away to a more satisfying response later on, he explained. “In the last ten minutes of the half, we finally woke up. For a long time we weren’t competing; we just weren’t working hard enough.

“We got some very good individual scores which got us back into the game and in the second-half we increased our workrate.”

Asked about the impressive performance from Colm Parkinson - who had made a much-publicised court appearance last week - Conroy made it clear he was only available to talk about football.

“Colm is a very good player. He has been a great leader and a great ambassador for us and he showed his worth again today,” he added.

Mick Dillon, a member of the All-Ireland winning team of 1995 (coached by Tommy Lyons) balanced his disappointment with the acceptance that his team hadn’t played well.

“They outplayed us, particularly in the second-half. We were 5-2 up and, I thought, in control of the game. I felt that if we got another score they were in serious trouble. We had chances of two or three scores and didn’t take them.”

He agreed that the loss of Darren Magee (who went off to Australia), the absence of Mark Davoren and the inability of Ray Cosgrove to start, had limited them.

“Darren and Johnny were instrumental in us winning a Dublin championship, as was Ray Cosgrove. And, Mark Davoren was coming into form. He was probably the biggest loss, an outlet for us putting ball in.

“On the day, they were much better than us. Our big guys didn’t play today. In the Dublin championship our big guys played. If your big inter-county stars don’t play you are in trouble. Their inter-county stars played superbly well, Parkinson and Fitzgerald were excellent.

One or two of ours were - Paul Griffin and Liam Óg (Ó hÉineacháin) - but a couple of them didn’t play well. That’s life.”