Dr Crokes' Brian Looney proof that you can sidestep Father Time
FLYING: Dr Crokes' Gavin White is chased down by St Brendan's Tom Hoare in Saturday's Kerry SFC semi-final at Austin Stack Park. Pic: Domnick Walsh.
THEY had another Quest Adventure race in Killarney the weekend, but Dr Crokes mentor Denis Coleman was minded to remember the last time the grueller was in town.
“He did the Quest on the Sunday and was in training on the Tuesday night. That’s Brian Looney. And you are asking yourself, how is he doing that at 37? He just looks after himself so well.”
Ironic that on the topic of transition at Kerry’s winningest championship club that a pair of their elder lemons are still the glue holding their Kerry SFC aspirations in place. Looney’s feats are absurd. He has been shifted back to wing back from wing forward by Pat O’Shea without breaking stride. He kicked a point for good measure.
But Kieran O’Leary’s introduction in Saturday’s tighter-than-necessary semi-final win was also key in taking the sting out of a threatening St Brendan’s revival. The extent to which Crokes mixed the delightful with the banal is underlined by the fact that O’Leary’s point in the 63rd minute was their first from play in the second half. Part profligate for sure, but there are still underwhelming periods in their performances, which could be very costly.
Given so much of the first period was played on Crokes’ terms, it was a testament to the collective will of the Tralee amalgamation that they were somehow within a score at the break, 0-8 to 0-5. Or maybe that is a Crokes tendency to keep the opposition interested and in touch.
Reflected St Brendan’s manager James Costello: “It wasn't our intention in the first half to drop off Crokes that much. We had a couple too many bodies back in defence allowing them to play the ball around the middle of the field. You give them ball like that, they will pick you apart, even though individually our defenders put in really strong shifts.
“But you just have to admire the Crokes, the way they play the game, everything they do is slick and sharp. But we dug in and we got back to a couple of points, and got ourselves in a position where something might fall our way. We had danger men up front, we had a 45 to bring it back to one…”
In fairness it would have been larcenous for Brendan’s to pinch this one.
When Gavin White hared past his Kerry colleague Joe O’Connor to set up another productive offence, with Micheal Burns pointing, it was 0-7 to 0-2 after 20 minutes, and a fair indicator of the lop-sided nature of the opening half.
Gavin O’Shea didn’t waste a ball in his linking and creative role but that didn’t mark him out as exceptional in black and amber. Crokes’ three wides in the half, all scoreable, were perhaps the blemish on an otherwise delightful display of possession and movement. Looney was in the cockpit.
Whisper it, quietly if you are around Killarney, but Dr Crokes are now sixty minutes away from a remarkable Kerry football treble. If they clinch their 14th county championship title in a fortnight, the Bishop Moynihan Cup will take pride of place in their Lewis Road lair, nudging sideways the Club SFC and Division 1 titles annexed already this season.
Not bad for a side emerging from a period of transition.
“It is absolutely immense for the club to be back in a county final,” agreed mentor Coleman. “We went through a golden period where county finals were just a matter of form but over thr past four or five years we’ve been very unfortunate with injuries to key players. That hurt us. But this gives everybody a lift, lads arer up watching training. We are going to fight the smiles on the faces for the next couple of days.”
And then thoughts will turn to Dingle, who left their calling card on the weekend by dethroning three-in-a-row chasing East Kerry. The final will be their third championship meeting this year with the score 1-1.
It will not be lost on Padraig Corcoran and his Dingle management that St Brendan’s rolled the dice and placed David Moran at full forward in the second half, forcing Gavin White to track back to the edge of the square. It may not have produced the scores divisional side needed, but it certainly curbed White’s attacking forays. They are a lot of things, but Crokes are not a big side defensively.
Further out the field, they are a sight to behold when they hit their stride. And that's with Tony Brosnan was relatively quiet, forced to drift out the field to get on ball. When he pointed from a 46th minute free, it was only their second score of the half. There is food for thought there.
But these are first world problems.
T Brosnan (0-5, frees), M Burns, B Looney and D Shaw (0-2 each), G O’Shea, T Doyle, K O’Leary (0-1 each).
J Savage (0-3, 2f, m), T Kennedy (0-2), J O’Connor, P Lane, D Griffin, D Kirby (0-1 each).
: S Murphy; M Lynch, F Fitzgerald, J Payne; E Looney, G White, B Looney; M O’Shea, C Keating; M Burns, G O’Shea, T Doyle; T Brosnan, D Shaw, C McMahon.
for K O’Leary for Keating (inj, 37), M Potts for Lynch (47), D Naughten for McMahon (54), A Hennigan for Doyle (56).
M Tansley (Austin Stacks); C Griffin (Austin Stacks), D Casey (do.), J Nagle (do.); T Hoare (Kerins O’Rahilly’s), A Heinrich (Austin Stacks), P White (John Mitchels); J O’Connor (Austin Stacks), D Moran (Kerins O’Rahilly’s); O Ferris (Ardfert), T Kennedy (Kerins O’Rahilly’s), J Savage (do.); D Kirby (Austin Stacks); P Lane (Austin Stacks), , D Griffin (Ardfert).
D Buckley (Kerins O’Rahilly’s) for White (25), C Holden (John Mitchels) for Ferris (35), B Hanafin (Kerins O’Rahilly’s) for Kirby (42), A O’Donoghue (John Mitchels) for Griffin (49), E Ferris for Savage (59).
: Seamus Mulvihill (St Senan’s).
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