Dr Crokes 0-15 Loughmore-Castleiney 1-6
Without tension, there was no suspense.
A goal in the second minute of stoppage time was an aspirin for some of their scoreboard pain, but Loughmore’s resistance cracked in the second half, even if their heads never dropped.
It has been another monumental year for this extraordinary group of players, but this was a bridge too far.
The gulf in class was plain to see and when space eventually opened up Dr Crokes had the wit and the finishers to put daylight between the teams. Micheál Burns and Tony Brosnan kicked 10 points between them, and before the late goal, the Kerry champions had outscored Loughmore by 0-10 to 0-3 in the second half.
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Dr Crokes’ ninth Munster championship, their first since 2018, has come at the end of a restorative year. Five years had passed since they last contested a Kerry county final and last year they failed to even progress from their group. This year, though, they swept the boards: county league, club championship, county championship.
When they emerge from Kerry their record in the province is astonishing. According to Christy O’Connor this was their 33rd match in Munster and they have lost just three. That number never looked like growing yesterday.
“When I came into the senior group, there was a fierce talented team there,” said Burns. “We rode on the coattails of them for a small bit. We are back now with a new group, while a few of the older lads are still there.
“The new group have really driven it on, and it is a brilliant feeling to be back because back in 2018, I don’t think we would have thought it would have been this long.
“The sacrifices they have put in this year, the work that has gone on behind the scenes, we meet three and four times a week – we met last night up in Crokes – and it is just a powerful feeling at the moment. We are riding on momentum, and nobody wants it to stop. Thank God it is going for another while.”
One of the old guard, Kieran O’Leary, came off the bench in the middle of the second half and kicked two outstanding points within a few minutes but by then the tide had turned.
After a suffocating first half, Dr Crokes played with greater tempo and directness after the break and Loughmore lost their footing in the game.
Mark O’Shea took a stranglehold on centre field, Dr Crokes pushed up on Loughmore’s kick-outs and the Kerry champions forced more turnovers in the attacking half. With a strong breeze at their backs the borders of the scoring zone were extended, and Dr Crokes worked the ball to their shooters with more alacrity.
They didn’t kick their first wide until the 45th minute, and apart from a goal chance that Burns should have converted, it was their only miss of the game. At the other end, Loughmore were shot shy.
“We’re massively disappointed,” said Shane Hennessy the Loughmore manager.
“Probably didn’t hit the heights of our best football but at the same time, Dr Crokes didn’t let us. They’re seasoned campaigners, they know what they’re about, and they had their homework done on us. They knew where we were strong and they were able to stop us there.
“[In the first half] we felt that we should’ve had more scores on the board, [with the breeze] but we just weren’t getting forward enough or getting into the right positions. We weren’t getting shots off.”
The first half was a galling spectacle. Trenches were dug. Loughmore-Castleiney defended with 14 players behind their 45, or 15 players in the case of an emergency. Dr Crokes moved the ball patiently; the Tipperary champions waited them out.
Four or five times, Dr Crokes’ careful attacks ended with a turnover, but before Loughmore could escape their half the ball carrier was fouled. It was a stalemate. Dr Crokes kept the ball like Man City in the old days, but against the breeze they couldn’t get close enough to the Loughmore goal to get shots away.
The last thing Loughmore wanted was a free-for-all on the scoreboard but for a team depending on counterattack they didn’t have the kind of pace or dynamic passing to disturb Crokes’ defence either.
It was 19 minutes and 13 seconds before Loughmore attempted their first shot at the target, a fine kick by Liam Treacy that kissed the upright and dropped over the bar. Dr Crokes had only scored two points in 20 minutes, but in a fit of giddiness, they responded with two points in as many minutes.
By half-time Dr Crokes led by 0-4 to 0-3, and with the breeze to come in the second half, they cashed in their advantages.
Dr Crokes: S Murphy, E Looney, F Fitzgerald, M Lynch, C Keating, G White, B Looney (0-1), M O’Shea, M Potts, M Burns (0-5, 0-2 frees), G O’Shea, T Doyle (0-2), T Brosnan (0-5), D Shaw, C McMahon. Subs: K O’Leary (0-2) for McMahon 45 mins; D Naughton for Keating 54 mins; D Casey for Shaw 58 mins; A Hennigan for Doyle 58 mins.
Loughmore-Castleiney: J Hennessy, L Egan, W Eviston, J Ryan, T Maher, T McGrath, E O’Connell, N McGrath, L Treacy (0-2), J Meagher, B McGrath, E Connolly, L McGrath (0-3 frees), C McGrath, J McGrath. Subs: P O’Connell (1-0) for C McGrath h-t; C Connolly for J McGrath 46 mins; A McGrath (0-1) for T McGrath 52 mins; E Connolly for T Maher 52 mins.
Referee: Conor Lane (Cork)
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