Cracking Dr Crokes take final step

Dr Crokes (Kerry) 1-9 Slaughtneil (Derry) 1-7: “For 25 years, we’ve tried to come back up those steps,” gushed Dr Crokes captain Johnny Buckley from the Hogan Stand podium. “We’ve had a lot of disappointments but I’m here to say that the Andy Merrigan Cup is coming back to Killarney.”

And with those words you could understand why Dr Crokes did what they did. Why they opted for suffocation over style in seeing off a doughty Slaughtneil who were reduced to 14 men for the entirety of the second half. Why they won’t give a smidgeon of a consideration to the flak they might receive for resorting to possession-spoiled football to get their way.

Throw at them that they played beneath never mind within themselves and they will direct you back to 2007 when Crossmaglen stole glory from them, their crushing 2012 and ‘14 semi-final losses in what had developed into an O’Moore Park graveyard or 2013 when Ballymun Kickhams outmuscled them in Thurles. “They lacked that bit of badness or physicality,” Irish Examiner columnist Oisín McConville recalled in 2014 of those ’07 games.