Crokes must be wary as Benji Whelan’s underdogs have plenty of bite

The Nire have been here before. Tomorrow they face Dr Crokes of Killarney in the Munster SFC club final, but two years ago they had Austin Stacks of Tralee on the rack at the same stage of the competition. They just couldn’t close it out.

Is that loss going to be a motivation tomorrow in Mallow?

“I suppose it is,” says Benji Whelan, manager of The Nire. “I don’t know if I’d use the words ‘driving force’ but it’s certainly something they’d have learned from. I don’t know if we got in our own way of winning that game, did we step on the self-destruct button at times with some of the errors we made. But that’s all part of the process. We have some fantastic displays in recent years to look back on as well, so it balances out. I wouldn’t call it redemption, but it’s fantastic for the club and the players to be back at this level again.