'It irks when you hear, 'Oh, you're paying Shane Walsh'

2009 All-Ireland winning captain Johnny Magee is unhappy with the perceptions around Kilmacud Crokes

Kilmacud Crokes Shane Walsh with supporters after the Leinster semi-final win over Ardee St Mary's. Pic: ©INPHO/Ciaran Culligan

In the build-up to an All-Ireland semi-final largely billed as Glen’s grudge, it’s easy to forget that Kilmacud Crokes didn’t officially win last year’s All-Ireland club final.

After ordering a replay following Glen’s complaint that their opponents briefly had 16 men on the field in the closing stages of a game they lost by two points, the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) had effectively taken the victory away from them.

The CCCC later awarded the title to Crokes, stressing they had not intentionally sought to gain an unfair advantage with substituted Dara Mullin remaining on the field. However, in giving back something they had taken, value had been lost (although the original result was restored).

In the wake of Shane Walsh’s transfer a few months earlier and the sheer enormity of the club, the controversy also served as an opportunity to pile on Crokes. Former manager and 2009 All-Ireland winning captain Johnny Magee had to bite his lip.

“It hit me a small bit because there were fellas with so-called profiles firing shots from behind Twitter. Going on about this monster… I grew up with Kilmacud. My first memories are of the All-Ireland minor title being brought back to the club by Niall Clancy, whose son Theo is playing this weekend.

“I played above my ages because we were struggling for numbers. The membership is big now but we weren’t always that way. My mam (Daisy) and John Sheridan helped set up the ladies football section because she had a pain in her backside with my sister Denise doing nothing as she was bringing me and my brother Darren to matches.

“My daughter Lauren was part of the team that won the club’s first senior county title last year, 27 years after the section was set up. My sister was part of the team that won the club’s first intermediate county title.

“The whole question about the club’s ethos, there’s a lot of history there. Brian Sheehy in midfield, his mam was my teacher in primary school. When me and Cossie (Ray Cosgrove) came in on the back of ’95, the standard expected of me and Ray was huge. 

"We were Dublin minors but we got a kick in the hole pretty quickly from the Crokes senior players who made no bones about what was expected of us. We passed the torch then onto the likes of Darren and Mark Vaughan who passed it on to Rory O’Carroll and Cian O’Sullivan and Rory’s passing it on now.

“We’ve only one player from outside and, look, one of the best footballers in the country but every other player on that panel is from Kilmacud. People reference Shane Horan being from Offaly – his father is from Offaly. All but one of the lads have come through from under-age, from the academies and the coaches who have brought them up along the way deserve great credit. That has got lost in the whole thing.

“Michael Garry from Clare, who was the chairman of the club, was my principal in St Laurence’s. Good people have come to settle and lay down roots. 

"It irks when you hear, ‘Oh, you’re paying Shane Walsh’ or 'he’s getting a house', but it doesn’t taint anything. I was delighted for the lads last year after the heartbreak against Kilcoo the year before.” 

Tommy Lyons, who led Crokes to their first All-Ireland 29 years ago and later served as chairman, doesn’t expect the fall-out from the clubs’ previous clash to have a major bearing in Páirc Esler.

“The game the last time, it was a great All-Ireland and the nonsense after it was exactly that, a load of nonsense. Both teams will be motivated to beat each other. No matter what went on after the final last year, that’s what will matter most.

“Too much can be read into these things. I’m not so certain club players at this level are interested in anything other than their own performance on the day. Talk about other things is peripheral. If I was in the Kilmacud dressing room, I doubt I would be discussing it and I’d say it’s the same with Glen.

“I can’t see it being a spiky game. It should be a controlled one because both teams like playing that way although I’m not a big fan of the modern game. My appetite for it has waned a lot but both teams have some really skilful footballers.” 

Magee envisages Crokes being all about business. “There is enough experience in the group, in the likes of Rory and Craig (Dias) and Shane Cunningham and Shane Horan. Rory was on the All-Ireland winning team when I was captain and they will take it for what it is, an All-Ireland semi-final.

“The pressure is more on Glen because Kilmacud were the better side in the final last year and they will know where Glen are coming from having been beaten by Kilcoo in the final two years ago.

“The lads will know what they’ll be facing on Sunday and they’ll know the extra motivation never mind all the white noise about the other stuff. Glen are going to be a different beast to what they were last year, the same beast as Kilmacud were.

“The main motivation for Kilmacud will be to take another step towards doing back-to-back All-Irelands for the first time in the club’s history.”