Dr Crokes are "traders of the lost art"

Dank Sundays in December aren’t the stage for a carnival, but there was the faintest sense of a football freak show at Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday.

Roll up, roll up for vaudeville, watch the Old Game in all its former glories. Marvel at Gooch and his box of teasing tricks, swoon every time foot-passes — gasp — are straight and true, count all those green spaces that Dr Crokes players run into. Please, show your appreciation for how they score with contemptuous ease, and from distance, with left foot and right. And both fists to boot.

Only just over 2,100 people were there to witness this footballing throwback of a Munster Club SFC final, but nonetheless a warm glow radiated around the old Blackrock bowl. Even Castlehaven, outclassed on the day, didn’t set up base camp in their own half. James McCarthy’s men came to play.