Casey wary of motivated ’Haven

One revenge mission quashed, another to stamp out — that is how Daithi Casey views the threat posed by Castlehaven in Sunday week’s Munster Club SFC quarter-final.

The forward knows the Cork champions will be gunning for Crokes after last year’s provincial final defeat, just as Austin Stacks had hoped to avenge their 2010 county final loss.

Having scored the penalty in UCC’s 2011 final win over Castlehaven and picking off a point in Crokes’ victory over them last year, Casey has good memories about facing Finbarr Santry’s side.

“This will be my third time playing against Castlehaven and it’s never been easy. Looking back to my UCC days playing in the Cork final, they’re always a side that are hell bent on winning. Very tough.

“They would be similar to Stacks in some ways in that they’re hoping to get revenge on us and catch us out if we don’t perform.

“Our big mantra this year is we’re taking each game as it comes and we need to be very careful and can’t underestimate anybody, even though we have a good history against them.

Man of the match in Sunday’s Kerry final, Casey was in flying form but is not harbouring any thoughts yet about earning a recall to the Kerry panel.

“I wasn’t mentally in the right position the last time. I didn’t want it enough, but for the time being we’ll worry about Crokes.

“Last year I went to America, I came back and my form had dipped an awful lot — [joint manager] Noel [O’Leary] would tell you that anyway!

” I’m after getting the hunger back in a major way. It’s not just me. Everybody wanted to push on after the [All-Ireland semi-final] defeat to Ballymun last season.”

Casey admits it is a pleasure being part of not just a winning team, but one pulling off victories with such panache.

“It can be made easy at times. Like, Gooch is a genius and Kieran [O’Leary] is well able to pick out a pass, Brian Looney... these fellas have been on the go a long time.

“We’ve have a very settled six or seven which have grown together over the last few years. I trained hard with a lot of fellas and Pat Flanagan had a lot to do with that, going with us to the gym and that’s all down to our strength and conditioning, which we’ve really taken on board this year.”