Crowley’s creative muscle worked like a charm
The youngster seems a little mesmerised by the celebrations, but he deserves his place there; dad was quite instrumental in bringing the trophy back to the Kingdom.
It doesn’t matter that Crowley didn’t get on the scoresheet because his role, yesterday, was of the more creative kind. The options were weighed up in Kerry for the past four weeks. Crowley or Mike Frank Russell. They took a chance on the bigger forward, felt his muscle would do more to unnerve the Mayo full-back line.
And for 57 minutes, that is exactly what it did. Cian should be proud of Dad. All of Kerry are. The past couple of seasons haven’t been the most memorable in a Kerry shirt. For a while, after a prolonged period of flitting in and out of the team, it seemed Crowley was destined for the obscurity of a bench role. Yesterday, handed the chance, he grasped it completely.
“I suppose it went well,” he says, as yet another hand is offered in congratulations. “It has been tough the last couple of years, coming in and out of the team, travelling from Cork and all that.
“You just keep your head down as best you can and hope your chance would come. I just got the break in the past couple of weeks with Darragh’s injury. If Darragh didn’t get injured, I wouldn’t have been on the team at all.”
On All-Ireland final days, though, the misfortune of one can make another man. So it proved yesterday. In the opening stages, the Mayo full-back line were bombarded with long, high balls. Under it, Crowley and Colm Cooper thrived.
“That was the game-plan. Pump in those type of balls, do that for 20 minutes and see from there, see what it was going like. On the day, it worked great.”
Crowley points to the performance of those in the full-forward line beside him, to the fielding and distribution of William Kirby, to the display of the defenders. But, even in his self-effacement, he admits he had a decent game.
“It was one of my better performances for Kerry. 2000 is a long time ago, there have been a lot of comings and goings, so I am just delighted.”
Ah, the recent hurt. The tidal wave of green and gold that flowed onto the pitch in the immediate after-math erased that hurt. There was a lot to be repaired this year in Kerry.
“You have to experience the lows to appreciate the highs. The day we were walking off the pitch against Meath was the worst experience I ever had in football.
“But to win the league and championship in the one year, fellas can’t do more than that. The material was always there, we knew that ourselves.
“We were always able to kick football but we weren’t doing the nitty-gritty stuff off the ball, the things you need to do to be successful in football. We certainly did that this year.”
Jack O’Connor made for an unlikely messiah at the start of the year, particularly when Kerry left Longford in the league with a defeat. But the players never wavered in his belief.
“The big thing with Jack is he knew us inside-out. He knew what he wanted from each of us. I am delighted for him too, because he took a lot of stick during the year.”
Criticism is part of life in Kerry football. John Crowley knows that. But he experienced life on the other side again yesterday and he is going to savour it. Cian’s only three, so he doesn’t really understand yet what Dad and his team-mates achieved.
But that cup he stood in was a symbol that Kerry are back where they belong and everything is right with the world again.
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