William Harmon: Kerins O’Rahilly’s 'had to empty everything to get over the line'

David Moran Kerins O'Rahillys and Johnny Buckley Dr Crokes in action at the Kerry County Senior Football Championship Semi-Final. Picture: Domnick Walsh

While stopping short of declaring this a long overdue result for Kerins O’Rahilly’s, winning manager William Harmon did praise his troops for leaving everything they have out on the Austin Stack Park turf.

In overcoming a six-point second-half deficit to end the club’s 13-year wait for a county final appearance, Harmon said his players emptied themselves several times over.

“Crokes are a club that have done everything, achieved everything. They have high-quality players with good people behind them. We had to empty everything to get over the line today and we did that,” Harmon remarked.

“In the first-half, we were disappointed with our application. At half-time, we asked the question: do we want to go for this or do we want to go out the gate? The lads answered that question in the second-half.

“They brought a bit of physicality, madness, and fitness. They brought it all together. To be six points down against a high-quality team, the way the lads responded was admirable. Going the man down probably galvanised us. Everyone raised their game around 10%.”

For Crokes manager Edmund O’Sullivan, he was in no doubt that his team’s wastefulness had cost the club a fifth final appearance in six years.

Another definite problem for the Crokes is their inability to safeguard sizeable leads, O’Sullivan added.

“We were nine up against Kenmare this year in the club championship, couldn't see it out. We were four up against Mid Kerry with a minute or two to go in the county semi-final last year, couldn't see it out. It is a problem why we are not seeing out games when we are putting ourselves in good positions. We seem to drop intensity.” The Crokes boss had no issue with either the black card shown to Gavin O’Shea or the straight red card given to David Naughton on 46 minutes.