Crokes chief O’Neill’s plea to Kerry board — give us a break
It was the Crokes side’s eighth weekend in a row in action, and probably their toughest battle of all; requiring extra-time to eventually see off the fired-up footballers from the Glen.
O’Neill is hopeful that Kingdom bosses will give them a break on the domestic front.
“The only game we have left to play (in Kerry) is the county league final, and I would be hoping and praying that the Kerry County Board would have the common sense to give us a weekend off, so we can represent Kerry properly in a Munster club final.”
Two injury-time points from centre-back Luke Quinn, followed shortly afterwards by his goal — the first score of extra-time and a real heartbreaker for Aherlow — made the centre-back the game-winner. But Crokes had several other outstanding performers, not least wing-back Shane Myers and county star Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper.
It was the strength of their bench, however, that ultimately proved the difference between the sides. Two of their subs, Kieran O’Leary and Ambrose O’Donovan would certainly have been on the starting 15 but for mitigating circumstances — O’Leary had suffered a broken leg in the Kerry county quarter-final over West Kerry in September, while O’Donovan had been injured in a car crash a few weeks ago.
On the day, both were a bit of a gamble — one more so than the other — but a gamble O’Neill felt he had to take.
“Kieran’s return was a big plus for us. He had done a couple of training sessions so we felt happy enough with him. But Ambrose — last week, there was no way he was playing. He texted during the week to say he wouldn’t be down for the team meeting on Saturday night and I said ‘Grand, I’ll see you in Cashel’. Next thing I got another text — ‘I’m bringing my boots to Cashel’. He turned up for the team meeting on Saturday night, walked in the door, and I said to myself — ‘that guy can play football’. I only hope Ambrose was fine afterwards, but he showed no ill-effects anyway. He was fantastic. He’s a powerhouse for us. I don’t think anyone could have played after what he’s been through. We weren’t going to risk those guys unless we were desperate, and we were desperate.”
Desperate, yes, but not in the sense that Crokes played badly — it was just that Aherlow played so well, dictating the game from the start and dominating Crokes defensively, to such an extent that even the Gooch was unable to work his scoring magic inside. There’s more to this man’s genius, however, than the ability — invaluable as it is — to put away even the half-chance, and when he shifted out the field, he then ran the show for Crokes.
More than anyone else, however, Cooper is aware now of just how good this Aherlow team is, and of how admirable an achievement it was for Crokes to come out of Cashel with their Munster title hopes still intact.
“We were very lucky,” was his verdict. “With two minutes to go, it wasn’t looking good but a bit of character from the lads got us the draw. We were delighted to get back to the dressing room, another 20 minutes, extra-time, and we managed to control that, but we were fierce lucky to get out of here with the win.
“I’d say Aherlow will look back on this with a lot of regret, disgusted with themselves, within touching distance of the finish line. All that stuff written about it going to be one-way traffic, but we knew it wouldn’t be like that.
“They were well coached (by Kerryman Liam Kearns, former Limerick and Laois manager), they were very disciplined and a battle-hardened side. They probably surprised us early on. They were very direct and caused us a lot of problems up front. They defended very well and were well organised — you could see they were well up for it, they had their homework done.”
Next up for Crokes is Cork’s Nemo Rangers — a very different challenge again, says O’Neill. “Both teams like to play fast football, throwing the ball around.
“If our guys thought they were under pressure against Aherlow trying to get scores, they’ll be under a lot more pressure against Nemo. It’s another step up, a fantastic opportunity, another test to see exactly where we are, and the same for Nemo. Hopefully it will be a fantastic game of football.”
