Ardfert reaction: Proud O’Driscoll hails ‘unbelievable bunch’

Pat O’Driscoll pointed to David Griffin’s first-half goal as the decisive score in Ardfert’s latest All-Ireland intermediate triumph.

The Ardfert manager hailed his charges as an “unbelievable and special bunch” in returning to Croke Park after an eight-year absence to secure the Kerry club’s third All-Ireland football crown.

“The goal was huge,” noted O’Driscoll. “St Croan’s haven’t been led all year. They have won every match and won well. They play a sweeper and work from short kick-outs. We watched videos and studied them. We put their kick-outs under pressure, forced their goalkeeper to go long. They were unlucky not to get two or three goals so I think the scoreline was a bit unfair on them, But definitely our goal was the turning point.

“I could pick holes and flaws in our display. We mixed the good, the bad and the ugly, but we are All-Ireland champions so who cares.

“This is a very special victory because we have three-quarters of a new team compared to the last time we were up here. It is very hard to win a third All-Ireland after an eight-year gap. The back-to-back titles in 2006 and ’07 was a huge achievement for that team, but to come back with a new team eight-years later is unbelievable.”

O’Driscoll, manager in the junior and intermediate victories of 2006 and ’07, said Croke Park success in February appeared hugely unlikely when Spa laid siege to their goal in the opening half hour of October’s Kerry IFC decider.

“We were involved in the hurling and desperately trying to win back-to-back county titles because the club have never done that. Lixnaw knocked us out by a point (in the hurling) and we didn’t want the year to go by without some bit of silverware. We had a settled team and started to get some momentum. There is no selfishness in that team, they are an unique bunch. There is great leaders there, young and old. They are a credit to Ardfert.”

St Croan’s boss David Casey took issue with referee Seán Hurson’s failure to award Shane Smyth a penalty on 12 minutes.

“In the first-half the penalty decision went against us and their performance was top class,” he noted. “I think we were coming out second best in the physicality stakes straight away. That was a big factor in the game. After the opening 15 minutes, I thought Ardfert were the better team for much of the game. We’ve no qualms in that regard.

“The goal, while it may be a well-worn cliché, they do win games. Even at 0-6 to 0-3 you have a chance, the goal was a blow and it is hard to recover from, especially when Ardfert have won here twice before. The experience of that was crucial.”

He added: “We had a lot of goal chances. They got two to three chances, they took one and in taking their points they were far more clinical. In the first ten minutes, we were taking that pass too much instead of putting it over the bar. That came back to haunt us.”