Unfinished business driving Dr Crokes

The sound-bites coming out of the Gaelic Grounds late on Sunday afternoon gave the firmest impression that anything other than All-Ireland club glory for Dr Crokes on March 17 next year would see this campaign written off as a disappointment.

When asked if this was the best Dr Crokes’ panel assembled in recent memory, selector Niall O’Callaghan nodded in agreement.

“It is. I don’t want to insult any of the players who have gone before us, they represented the club well, but they are just a great bunch of young fellas [in the current group].”

It is a group, according to captain John Payne, who are demanding more of themselves than ever before. That’s quite the statement when you consider Payne was one of nine players from the starting team who pocketed their fifth Munster club medal this decade alone at the weekend.

“That has to be our aim now; not just to get over an All-Ireland semi-final, but to get to Croke Park and win,” stressed the 31-year old corner-back who picked up his sixth Munster club medal on Sunday.

Since losing to Kerins O’Rahilly’s in the second round of the Kerry county championship on September 9, Pat O’Shea’s charges have steamrolled through their subsequent seven outings by an average winning margin of 13 points.

The six points between them and Dingle at the end of the county final was the closest any opponent has come to them. In Munster, their aggregate winning total, from their three outings, was 46 points.

David Naughten, who won an All-Ireland minor medal with Kerry in 2016 and was corner-back on this year’s Kerry U20 team, was introduced for David O’Leary with five minutes remaining in Sunday’s contest. It was the first action he has seen since their opening fixture of the Kerry championship.

That’s the level to which Crokes are operating at. Those on the starting team cannot afford to let up even when the result has been assured, given the many All-Ireland medal winners sitting on their bench.

“There was a period there where Miltown-Malbay came back at us and it was just us dropping our levels. If we let our standards slip, I think any team will beat us. We are just playing better. We are demanding more,” Payne continued.

“[The winning margins] are not to do with the teams we are playing at all. Miltown-Malbay were not a bad side. We just clicked again.

“We felt we didn’t perform last year. Obviously, Nemo were better than us on the day (in their Munster final defeat), but we just thought we should have been better. We needed to fix that ourselves, the core group. Fellas didn’t want to leave that unchecked — it was a bad taste last year.”

The 31-year old has no issue with their busy December schedule but accepts it is frustrating for the players who had planned to get away during what is supposed to be the quietest part of the season.

“Where it might annoy fellas is those who have holidays booked. Lads might have a few things booked for when you’re off, but we’re not off. That’s life.”

Payne’s defensive colleague, Gavin White, acknowledged that celebrations were rather muted at the final whistle as there are bigger goals still to be achieved.

There is. Up in Crokes, we always set our standards high. Our performance wasn’t as high as we pulled out two weeks ago against the Barr’s. We are definitely delighted, though, at what we accomplished.

“At the end of the day, we all wanted to get back here. We all wanted to get back a Munster title after what happened last year. We were very disappointed last year after the way we performed. I suppose we wanted to right those wrongs. We can now look forward to an All-Ireland semi-final and hopefully, Croke Park.”

Dr Crokes await the winners of the Leinster final, between Kilmacud Crokes and Longford’s Mullinalaghta, which was yesterday confirmed Tullamore on Sunday, December 9 (1.30pm).