Kilmacud Crokes channel last year’s pain for final glory
REDEMPTION: Kilmacud Crokes goalkeeper Conor Ferris celebrates after the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Final match between Glen of Derry and Kilmacud Crokes of Dublin at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
On the surface, a poetic victory for Kilmacud Crokes, in particular goalkeeper Conor Ferris, being thrown into jeopardy based on a technicality seems unfair.
And yet there they were again in the dying minutes of an All-Ireland final, desperately attempting to hold out the opposition. Only this time they were doing it successfully and for some seconds with one more man than they should.
For Ferris, who felt as if he had cost his team against Kilcoo last year and spoke poignantly afterwards of using his runners-up medal as inspiration, to be at full stretch to keep out a goal-bound Conor Glass shot in the third minute of additional time was the epitome of absolution in strict sporting parlance. For it to be deemed null and void would be cruel but then he knows all about how the game can turn that way.
In front of a 22,890 Croke Park attendance, scores from substitute Cian O’Connor and Shane Walsh (free) had put Crokes in the driving seat against a stout Glen effort. The Derry outfit failed to score for the final 16 minutes of action having done so in the latter period of the first half.
Twice, Glen went into two-point leads in the third quarter only to be clawed back each time. They had been two behind early in the second half but rattled off four in a row, the first point ending over 20 minutes without a score, to come roaring back into the game.
A Walsh free brought Crokes level in the 51st minute and O’Connor put them a point up five minutes later. Walsh duly obliged with another free when another replacement Shane Horan was fouled and it, combined with Ferris’ heroics, was just about enough for them to claim the Andy Merrigan Cup.
After enduring a nervy finish against Kerins O’Rahillys last day out, manager Robbie Brennan once more had to hold his breath.
“It’s mind-boggling that it keeps happening. There’s something in that why it’s happening but I told the lads at the team meeting on Thursday that Conor (Ferris) would win us the All-Ireland.
“I said it at half-time again, Conor would win us the All-Ireland. I knew because Glen would go after goals probably in order to beat us. I was aware of his ability, that he’s a brilliant shot-stopper would come into play. When they were getting through, I still backed him. I even thought he might save the first one in the first minute, he’s that good.”
Thirty-five seconds into the game, though, and he had been beaten. Danny Tallon dummied and then turned his marker Micheál Mullin before shaking off Cillian O’Shea to finish strongly past Ferris. A couple of minutes later, Alex Doherty was splitting the posts and the Watty Grahams men were up and running.
Craig Dias and Tallon (free) swapped scores before Emmet Bradley swung over a left-footed effort to push Glen into a five-point lead in the 15th minute.
And yet they failed to score for the rest of the half as Crokes turned the screw both in terms of possession and scoring opportunities.
“Overall in the first half I just felt we didn’t have the urgency that we had at other times,” said Glen manager Malachy O’Rourke. “I just felt going forward we gave the ball away a wee bit and they were good counterattacking. So, there was a number of things that we could do better in the second half and by and large we did do that but, look, ultimately it wasn’t enough.”
Crokes produced nine scoring chances in the final 16 minutes of the first half, converting six of them.
Paul Mannion looked rusty and finished the half with three misses, two wides and hitting a post from a free, but outside of him and Walsh the Crokes attack was humming. The combination of Dara Mullin and Shane Cunningham earned their side a penalty in the 15th minute, Ryan Dougan bringing down Crokes captain Cunningham.
Walsh dispatched the penalty kick with aplomb and when Mullin sent over a 19th minute effort the margin was a solitary point. Dias and Ben Shovlin were outshining the more vaunted Glen midfield duo and the sides were on level terms in the 25th minute when Cunningham combined nicely with Hugh Kenny to point.
A beautiful Dan O’Brien point in the 27th point was the last of the half and Crokes were deserving of their half-time advantage, 1-4 to 1-3. As they were at full time if only just as they made amends for coming up short 11 months ago.
“We said on Thursday that probably and possibly last year should have broken us, realistically,” Brennan recalled of the loss to Kilcoo. “Not that we lost but how we lost. It should have broken us as a group and management but it didn’t. We took a bit of strength from that as it went on through the weeks and months, as the championship started building. It’s such fine margins.
“We could be sitting here having lost again. I don’t know what we’d be saying if that was the case. Conor mentions his runners’ up medal. We had it there at half-time. It’s sitting in my house for the last year. I was wondering when to pull them out. I basically did the old Joe Kernan, hopped them off the wall at half-time and said, ‘If you want them, you can take them’. I’m just so delighted that they’re still in there. We haven’t gone near them yet.”
S. Walsh (1-3, 1-0 pen, 0-3 frees); S. Cunningham, D. Mullin (0-2 each); C. Dias, D. O’Brien, P. Mannion (free), C. O’Connor (0-1 each).
D. Tallon (1-3, 0-2 frees); A. Doherty (1 mark), E. Bradley (1 free) (0-2 each); J. Doherty, C. McGuckian (0-1 each).
C. Ferris; D. O’Brien, T. Clancy, M. Mullin; C. O’Shea, R. O’Carroll, A. McGowan; B. Shovlin, C. Dias; A. Jones, S. Walsh, D. Mullin; P. Mannion, H. Kenny, S. Cunningham (c).
C. O’Connor for H. Kenny (47); S. Horan for A. Jones (50); L. Ward for S. Cunningham (57); T. Fox for P. Mannion, C. Casey for D. Mullin (both 60+3).
C. Bradley; C. Mulholland, R. Dougan, C. Carville (c); T. Flannagan, M. Warnock, E. Mulholland; C. Glass, E. Bradley; E. Doherty, J. Doherty, C. Convery; C. McGuckian, A. Doherty, D. Tallon.
S. O’Hara for C. Convery (37); P. Gunning for A. Doherty (59).
D. O’Mahoney (Tipperary).
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