Good start decisive, says proud Casey as Crokes sets sights on ‘Holy Grail’

Dr Crokes joint manager Vince Casey believes yesterday’s county final win was proof the team have learned the lessons from last February’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Ballymun Kickhams.

Casey agreed with Austin Stacks manager Stephen Stack’s assessment they have upped their strength and conditioning work.

However, he laid all the garlands of praise at the feet of the players after the 16-point victory.

“It was a magnificent performance. All we were concentrating was on our own game and putting in a performance.

“These guys have worked so hard since last March because we were very disappointed in February after the Ballymun defeat.

“So we looked at a few areas that we needed to improve and we identified a few things.

“But if you don’t have the bunch of players to improve then you are going nowhere and these lads have put in an absolutely phenomenal effort.

“It is great to get everyone to play so well on county final day considering the level of training that they have been doing.

“They have been training three nights a week and a big game the weekend (club final v Legion). It’s great to be able to bring it on to the pitch today against the Stacks.”

According to Casey, Crokes had paid attention to Stacks’ impressive starts to games on their way to the final and had made a point of honing in on stopping them taking an early lead.

“I always thought Stacks would play an attacking game and we had noticed that Stacks had opened very well in all their games and what can be your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness.

“So we targeted the first 15 minutes and wanted to get the good start because that put doubts in the minds of the opposition.

“We started very well. They started well in the two previous games so we did that today and when Colm (Cooper) got the goal it gave us a good cushion and then in the second half to get the two goals early killed the game off.”

Prior to throw-in and with both teams wearing alternative strips because of a colour clash Crokes appeared to be upset with Stacks’ choice, which was not the one agreed with the county board.

However, Casey said there was no issue. “We didn’t get involved in that, we weren’t interested in what jerseys they wore. The jerseys didn’t make any difference to us. We just focused in on our own team. We knew what colour we were wearing and just made sure we were going to give the ball to a guy in that colour jersey.”

Casey described an All-Ireland title as “the Holy Grail” and admitted doing the five-in-a-row next year will be an ambition

Castlehaven will occupy their thoughts over the coming days but he said: “We’re going to sit back and enjoy this. This is a magnificent achievement by an absolutely magnificent bunch of players.”