Dr Crokes warned and wary ahead of Quilty test
Dr Crokes had travelled up to West Clare for a meeting with Kilmurry/Ibrickane in the Munster Club SFC quarter-final and even though the hosts had reigned supreme in the province just three winters previously, the Kerry champions were expected to return home with a semi-final date secured.
Having played into a near gale in the opening period, Crokes returned to the dressing room 1-4 to 0-5 ahead. So far, so good.
Brian Looney pounced on a poor kick-out in the 40th minute to register their second goal and, in the process, shove the visitors eight clear. That should have been that.
“We were well in control and then, all of a sudden, we lost all control,” recalls O’Neill.
“Kilmurry/Ibrickane took over at midfield and began to come at us in waves. We found it very hard to get a foothold at midfield. We had the wind and yet we couldn’t get the ball past halfway. Shane Myers came up with a point not long from the end to put us four in front and thankfully, we just had enough to get through.” 2-8 to 0-13 it finished in Crokes’ favour.
The year previous, O’Neill had been on the sideline when Kilmurry/Ibrickane were the visitors to Lewis Road for the Munster semi-final. A late flurry of scores there saw the home outfit advance by 0-12 to 0-9.
Dr Crokes return to Quilty tomorrow and given 11 of the players who saw action during the recent county final win were involved in those games, O’Neill says they know exactly the welcome they’ll get in West Clare.
“If we’re anyway below par, we’ll be beaten,” the Dr Crokes selector remarked. “We are going to have to scrap and fight around the middle eight.
“If we get possession there and get it into the forwards, then that’ll be fine. If we let them come at us in waves on their home pitch, then there’ll only be one result. We went up to the replay of their county final and they were very, very impressive. They came out in the second-half and blew Cratloe away.”
Half-forward Brian Looney, minutes after Crokes had been crowned county champions for an 11th time, claimed the team hadn’t gone beyond 70% of their total capacity in any of their performances, including the seven-point final win over Kenmare District. O’Neill can’t disagree.
“With every game we have played, we have come out of it knowing we have things to work on.
“At the same time, we’d have been quite happy with the performance in the county final. On county final day, you need as many players as possible playing to a 7/10 standard or above to win. Most of our guys showed good form that day. We are not quite where we want to be, but we’re getting there.”
The collective confidence of the panel, he added, is still somewhat short of where it was this time three years ago. The two barren summers that followed robbed them of the swagger so synonymous with the three-in-a-row Munster championship winning side.
“We are not the finished article, but it is slowly coming together. Our confidence was down given how the last couple of years went.
“Therefore, guys are just taking it one step at a time. We never once looked at Munster throughout the year as our sole objective was taking care of business in Kerry.”
Crucial to their return to the local summit was the contributions of those sprung from the bench during the knockout stages. Tony Brosnan, who was one of the team’s leading scorers en-route to the final, was relegated to the bench last Sunday week.
There beside him in the stand was Micheál Burns and Jordan Kiely, both of whom won All-Ireland minor medals under Jack O’Connor.
“There is no point having Tony, Micheál, Jordan, Luke Quinn, Cillian Fitzgerald, PJ Lawlor and Mike Milner on the bench if we don’t utilise them properly.
“There might be days where it might suit to have one or two of them starting. The trick is to get the balance right. It is a very nice thing to be able to look over your shoulder on the sideline and know that you have that strength behind you. It gives you a certain comfort.”
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