Kilmacud’s ominous march to Croker
It was an understandable joint statement. Bereft of several key players, the Dublin champions belied such blows to take control of this provincial climax after the break and establish a lead they never relinquished at Portlaoise’s O’Moore Park.
Rhode won’t be kicking themselves as much as they did three years ago when they let slip a six-points advantage over the Stillorgan club. However, skipper Niall McNamee painted a tearful figure in the dressing room afterwards after missing a late penalty and earlier in the second half cracking the crossbar with a stinging shot.
The penalty, which was awarded after Anton Sullivan was brought down by Pat Duggan, came with just four minutes to go and while David Nestor’s save was a solid one, McNamee’s strike wasn’t his best. Nor was Roy Malone’s effort from the rebound when he managed to fresh-air his shot.
While they had issues with referee Eddie Kinsella throughout the second-half, Rhode were solely responsible for this defeat. Scoring two points in the second half and going 28 minutes without a score (Anton Sullivan’s 45th minute effort bridging a yawning gap to McNamee’s 17th minute point) were damning statistics.
In the interim, Crokes were magnificent not only in shutting out their opponents but tagging on the scores. Trailing 0-7 to 1-5 at half-time, they scored four points in the space of three minutes on the resumption— each from a different player.
Sullivan’s score was cancelled out by a Brian Kavanagh free shortly after and the Longford man picked off one from play to expand Crokes’ lead to four before McNamee was denied from the penalty spot.
He managed to find his range from the resultant 45’ but Crokes closed out the game masterfully, Declan Kellegher pointing and Kavanagh converting his fourth free. To add insult to injury, Rhode’s Alan McNamee was sent to the line for a second yellow card in injury-time.
Crokes’ manager Carr felt the victory was an indication of how well Crokes had absorbed the loss of the likes of Rory O’Carroll, Paul Griffin and Mark Davoren.
“Better than anything,” he said. “To do that ... there during the week we had a few knocks and bruises but we didn’t really have a whole lot of worries and we were just saying ‘there must be something wrong when we don’t have much to worry about.’ The truth is, so far we’ve had a lot of blows, a lot of serious blows. We haven’t felt sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got on with it and I think that’s been the secret to it.”
Carr’s opposite number Coffey was the happier boss in the first half. Rhode’s start to the game was as convincing as the roar that greeted their arrival onto the pitch. Niall Darby hooked over a point after 30 seconds and although Crokes responded with a brace via Kavanagh frees the initiative was definitely with Coffey’s side.
Pumping quality ball into McNamee and Kelleghan was reaping dividends and when Alan McNamee found his younger brother with a free in the seventh minute Kelleghan anticipated the break to shoot past Nestor.
Crokes replied quickly through the impressive Liam Óg Ó hEineachain but Rhode maintained their lead into the break with McNamee and Niall Darby profiting from a steady supply.
They couldn’t shake off their bogey team, though, as Eddie McDonald’s poor kick-outs put pressure on his half-back line and saw the likes of Kellegher and Vaughan take advantage to ensure their team’s deficit was minimal at the break.
Both managers took the opportunity afterwards to air some grievances. Carr was keen to respond to the perception of Crokes as a super team.
“I think people use the term ‘super’ and they don’t mean it in the sense that we would understand it. Super for me means putting in and drawing on character that is in young lads.
“Sometimes that word super is used because they think that things come soft to us. Those lads, they just do that for pure love of football. There’s no frills, no hang ons, we have all the difficulties at times in and around training grounds and all kinds of things.”
Coffey, meanwhile, lashed out at the GAA for their handling of the fixture which was twice postponed before Christmas due to bad weather.
“I think it is very unfair. There are a lot of write-ups at the minute about the training ban being broken and penalties being issued to counties that broke that. And they turn around and ask two clubs to train right through the Christmas for a Leinster final. I think the consistency of the GAA is very poor there. Also the fact that Croke Park is available in January but wasn’t available in December. I don’t see any difference.”
No sour grapes from Coffey, just disappointment in the hierarchy — and that Crokes had foiled them. Again.
Scorers for Kilmacud Crokes: B Kavanagh (0-4f) 0-5, D Kellegher 0-3, M Vaughan 0-2, L Óg Ó hEineachain, C Dias, P Burke, A Morrissey, B McGrath (0-1) each.
Scorers for Rhode: P Kelleghan 1-0, N McNamee (0-1 45’) 0-3, N Darby 0-2, D Hope, A Sullivan (0-1) each.
KILMACUD CROKES: D Nestor; R O’Carroll, K Nolan, C Lamb; C O’Sullivan, B McGrath, R Ryan; P Duggan, C Dias; L Óg Ó hEineachain; D Kellegher, A Morrissey; P Burke, B Kavanagh, M Vaughan.
Subs: B O’Rorke for Morrissey (46); N McGrath for Lamb (58)
RHODE: E McDonald; S Sullivan, B Darby, D Murphy; C Heavey, D Hope, E Byrne; A McNamee, M Dunne; G O’Connell, P Sullivan, A Sullivan; N Darby, P Kelleghan, N McNamee.
Sub: R Malone for O’Connell (49). Red card: A McNamee (second yellow, 63).
Referee: E Kinsella (Laois)
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