Casey: Players had the character to drive each other on

For four years in a row Dr Crokes have been kings in the Kingdom, and for the latter three they’ve ruled the roost in Munster.

But yesterday, despite being 1/33 favourites, they faced their most searching test from Clare champions Cratloe.

Relief was the overriding emotion from joint manager Vince Casey at the final whistle. “It was a heart-stopper. The bookies had crazy odds — we were playing the Clare county champions. Cratloe are a very good side and they really showed it. We just couldn’t get our hands on the ball in the second-half — it was a game of two halves really. We were brilliant in the first-half, won so much breaking ball, broke a lot of tackles, turned them over a good few times. The one negative thing was we missed six or seven shots we normally wouldn’t. We could have been ahead by even more than seven at half-time (0-10 to 0-3). In fairness to them though in the second-half we just couldn’t get our hands on the ball, they were running it out of defence and we couldn’t stop them, it was wave after wave.”

He dismissed suggestions the Kerry champions had underestimated their opponents. Casey reasoned: “The standard of football in Clare is very high, it’s just a pity some players can’t play with the county because Clare should definitely be more competitive. Go back over the last five or six years of the Munster club, the Clare champions have been competitive every year and they’re the teams who have given us the hardest games.

“That should be translating across to the county team. Cratloe have a lot of very good footballers and we saw that today. The entertainment that the likes of Podge Collins and Shane McGrath gave us this year in hurling and then to be able to come out and play football to this standard — that’s such a difficult thing to do but those guys did it so naturally.”

Trailing by a point as the game entered its final minutes and down the 14 men with Colm Cooper sent to the line in the 54th minute, character and composure was what Crokes needed, character and composure was what they got.

“That comes from experience — Kieran O’Leary, Brossie (Eoin Brosnan), Johnny Buckley, that experience of playing for Kerry, Ambrose (O’Donovan) too, the way they worked the space for the last point (was great). Michael Burns too was a huge addition when he came on. He is only 17 and that was his first big championship game in Munster. We brought him in after the county championship and he has well justified that faith in him. The last five or six minutes is when it really shone through. Other teams might have dropped the heads and said ‘the momentum has swung against us, Colm is gone, we’ve been around for too many years — it’s all over.’

“But this team has just too much character for that, they lifted each other, drove one another on and got the win. It’s a fantastic day for the club again to be Munster champions for the third year in a row and in another All-Ireland semi-final. Ultimately that’s all that matters to us now.

“Next February, when people look back, they won’t be thinking of the score or how we got there; what matters is that we are there. We have unfinished business, obviously, but obviously too we have a lot of work to do.”