Tony Brosnan excelled for Crokes as they see off Mid Kerry

Crokes controlled the game during their time down to 14 men with Mid Kerry unable to make the most of the extra man.

CONTROLLED GAME: Darragh O'Connor Mid Kerry and Tony Brosnan Dr Crokes ( Black ) in action during the game. Picture: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD .

Kerry SFC: Dr Crokes 1-16 Mid Kerry 1-8

Once the county championship favourites had taken care of business in the curtain-raiser, East Kerry’s main challengers for the throne took to the stage and enhanced their status.

East Kerry and Dr Crokes got a good look at each other across Sunday’s Tralee double-header. The ease of the champions’ progression meant Crokes learned nothing they didn’t already know about the three-in-a-row chasing divisional side.

For the East Kerry contingent that hung around after their own win, they will once again have noted Crokes’ rising stock. How could they not. This was a Crokes performance of Tony Brosnan excellence in the opening half and collective control in the second. Clinical finishing then clinical game-management.

Not even a final quarter spent with 14 men could remotely trouble Pat O’Shea’s charges. Their passage to the quarter-final was stress-free. It’s a juncture of the championship they’ve not gone further than since 2021. The evidence here suggests three years won’t become four, irrespective of which Round 3 winner they draw.

It was the long-serving Brian Looney who was shown the line on 48 minutes, the Crokes half-back picking up two yellow cards in the space of eight minutes.

Trailing by 1-14 to 1-8, the presumption was that the beaten county finalists of the last two years would rouse themselves for an all-out final quarter to close the gap on their numerically disadvantaged opponents.

What actually happened was that Mid Kerry never raised a flag while a man up. They never scored from the 46th minute onward. They rarely threatened to score when a man up.

In an otherwise dull contest, Crokes were so impressive in how they adapted to losing Looney and still managing to retain control. If anything, they actually went and tightened their grip on proceedings.

David Shaw, fed by Mark O’Shea, shoved them seven clear on 52 minutes. Shaw finished with four points and would have stood out even more than he did were it not for Tony Brosnan’s first-half excellence beside him.

The Lewis Road men led 1-10 to 1-4 at the break. Brosnan was responsible for 1-6 of that total.

Where Paudie Clifford had gone for six points from six shots in the opening 25 minutes of the curtain-raiser, his Kerry teammate had chalked up 1-5 from six shots in the first 20 minutes of the main event. The breakdown of that 1-5 was two frees, a mark, two from play, and a goal from a short restart gone wrong.

On 19 minutes, Cian McMahon collected Seán Coffey’s short restart, offloaded to Brosnan, and he beat the Mid Kerry No.1 with a low shot into the right corner.

Following it as he did with a mark, which was followed by a Tom Doyle point, Brosnan and Crokes had taken a two-point contest and sped 1-8 to 0-4 clear.

The necessary Mid Kerry response was a one-man response. Ciaran Kennedy, with a jabbed pick-up on the endline, took on and beat two defenders before then beating Shane Murphy. Kennedy became only Mid Kerry’s second scorer, with Eoghan Hassett having supplied their four earlier points.

A subsequent Keith Evans black card disrupted the momentum Mid Kerry might have hoped to mine from the green flag. In truth, they never developed a crumb of momentum in this contest.

The Round 3 draw was not massively kind to them. Kenmare was one of the tougher draws they could have got. Their season will be hard saved.

Scorers for Dr Crokes: T Brosnan (1-7, 0-3 frees, 0-1 mark); D Shaw (0-4, 0-1 mark); M Burns (0-3, 0-1 free); T Doyle, D Casey (0-1 each).

Scorers for Mid Kerry: E Hassett (0-6, 0-3 frees); C Kennedy (1-0); S O’Brien (0-1 mark), K Evans (0-1 each).

DR CROKES: S Murphy; N O’Shea, G White, F Fitzgerald; M Potts, E Looney, B Looney; C Keating, M O’Shea; M Burns, G O’Shea, C McMahon; T Brosnan, T Doyle, D Shaw.

Subs: M Lynch for N O’Shea (25); M Cooper for Potts (45, inj); K O’Leary for Doyle (49); D Casey for O’Leary (54 inj); D Naughten for McMahon (59).

MID KERRY: S Coffey (Beaufort); N Breen (Beaufort), E Clifford (Laune Rangers), P Kilkenny (Glenbeigh/Glencar); G Evans (Keel), S Cleary (Laune Rangers), J Brosnan (Glenbeigh/Glencar); S O’Brien (Beaufort), L Smith (Glenbeigh/Glencar); D O’Connor (Beaufort), K Evans (Keel), D Cleary (Laune Rangers); E Hassett (Laune Rangers), D Houlihan (Cromane), C Kennedy (Beaufort).

Subs: D Mangan (Laune Rangers) for G Evans (35); J O’Connor (Beaufort) for D O’Connor (36); S Evans (Keel) for D Cleary, R Murphy (Beaufort) for Houlihan (both 48); L Evans (Keel) for Hassett (52).

Referee: B Griffin.