Crokes at home in Croker

IN the economics of football, this is an undeniable boom period for Dr Crokes.

On Sunday the Killarney club will send five of its sons to Croke Park for the All-Ireland final as part of the Kerry panel.

For an added bonus the playing group of Cooper, Brosnan, Cremin, O’Leary and Moloney will be overseen by a fellow Crokes man, Pat O’Shea.

Last May they supplied five players to the Kerry U21 panel that landed All-Ireland honours while they could have had Fionn Fitzgerald and Daithí Casey lining out in the All-Ireland minor curtain-raiser on Sunday, had Mayo not sacked the Kingdom in a semi-final replay.

These are times for the club to enthuse about and extract pride from. But in Dr Crokes the presence of the boom period evokes memories of days when they stagnated.

“We went through many years with no representation”, says club PRO John Keogh. “From 1962 to when Connie Murphy came on in the mid 80’s, we had no one, bar 1972 when we had Donal Kavanagh and Eamonn Fitzgerald.”

Vice-president Donie Sheehan appreciates the current heights, having experienced the barren spells.

“I was one of the Kerry selectors in 1975 but unfortunately we had no Crokes player, so I was keeping the old flag flying for the Crokes. I tried to persuade Dan Kavanagh to join the panel and I tried my hardest to get him to do a bit of training. But Kavanagh was going to college and he was having a bit of a good time above in the University in Cork! He’d have been on the 1975 team if he’d have made any effort.

“But Dan was a great footballer for Crokes down through the years. The other great players that I remember for the club were Tadghie Lyne, Teddy Connor, Tom Long, Connie Murphy and Noel O’Leary.”

The seeds of the current Crokes revolution were sown back in the early 90’s. Club chairman Vince Casey was full-forward on the team that lifted the 1992 All-Ireland title. Alongside him in attack was a future coaching maestro.

“It is down to the youth structure that would have been put in place by Pat O’Shea himself”, says Casey. “After winning the All-Ireland in 1992, he got a lot of guys involved in teams, getting them qualified in coaching. The Crokes are obviously seeing that benefits but Kerry are as well. You can’t be complacent though. Our near neighbours Spa and Legion are both progressing well. Maybe taking things for granted was the problem in the past.”

The progress on the pitch has been matched by the seismic developments of their club grounds in Killarney.

“We started in late 1993 when this place was just a swamp,” says Keogh of their home off Lewis Road. “We developed it up, commencing work in 1994. The main pitch had to be raised up by two and a half feet and the first game then was played in May 1996. In 1997 we developed the original clubhouse and in 2006 did the extension with the stand. This year we opened a third pitch for juveniles.”

“I remember when the Crokes club had no field of their own”, remarks Sheehan. “We’d be arguing with Fitzgerald Stadium to try and get a match played there. But it was like trying to get into heaven. I often said to the lads we’d get our own pitch and be independent of them. I’m delighted how we’ve progressed and it’ll be still here when I’m dead and gone for generations to come.”

As the time drifts towards throw-in on Sunday, the excitement levels around the town will be ratcheted up.

“We take pride in every one of our players who wears the Kerry jersey”, says Keogh. “That’s the dream of every youngster in the club and we’re just very proud of the lads. Back in the early 1900’s in Kerry’s first All-Ireland we had eight guys on the panel, but in the modern era this is totally unprecedented.”