Facing kingpins Crossmaglen is all the motivation O’Leary and Crokes need

REVENGE will not be Dr Crokes’ key motivator ahead of their mouth-watering semi-final against All-Ireland champions Crossmaglen Rangers in February, says star forward Kieran O’Leary.

The Kerry senior still has vivid memories of Crokes’ All-Ireland club final replay loss to Crossmaglen back in 2007 but while he admits the Kerry club were unlucky not to win that day, this tussle is not a revenge mission for the newly crowned Munster champions.

“This won’t be about revenge, not at all. We were beaten fair and square by Crossmaglen in the replay. We don’t have any complaints about that. We could have left it behind us on the actual day of the original final in Croke Park but we aren’t sore losers because the better team won the replay,” O’Leary said.

“It’s a huge game for the team, the club and the town because we will be taking on the best club side in Ireland and the team that have been at the top, consistently, for the last number of years. They are the kingpins of football, their record speaks for itself and nobody is going to take that away from them.”

Dr Crokes will enjoy this Christmas, a lot more than they did last year’s, as back then the Killarney side were still waiting to play last season’s Munster club final against Nemo Rangers. When it eventually did go ahead in Mallow at the tail-end of January, a first half to forget gift-wrapped the provincial title for the Cork side, so Sunday’s victory over UCC exorcised that particular demon.

“If you said to me after that game that we would be back in a Munster club final in December, not alone win it, I don’t know would I have believed you because it’s a very long and hard road to get out of Kerry, not to mind win through in Munster,” O’Leary said. “It’s a fantastic achievement for this group of players because after losing to Nemo, and the circumstances of that defeat, people probably wrote us off. But we showed the character that is in our dressing room to come back, and win what we wanted to win this year.”

Reflecting on the 3-14 to 2-10 win over UCC, O’Leary feels that Crokes’ two quick-fire first-half goals, scored by himself and Daithí Casey, were key: “The goals came at a crucial time for us because if they didn’t come at that stage I don’t know when they were going to come..”