Fáilte chuig gaa.ie - suíomh oifigiúil CLG

Football

football

Deep talent pool means Crokes never stand still

Dr Crokes’ Gavin White pictured ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Club Championship Final taking place at Croke Park on Sunday, March 17th. 

Dr Crokes’ Gavin White pictured ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Club Championship Final taking place at Croke Park on Sunday, March 17th. 

By John Harrington

The best barometer of just how talented the starting 15 that Dr. Crokes will field for Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland Club Final is the list of players who won’t make the cut.

Michael Potts, Jordan Kiely, David Naughton, and Billy Courtney are members of a gilded generation that have won multiple All-Ireland minor medals with Kerry in recent years but have yet to establish themselves as nailed on starters for Crokes.

Alan O’Sullivan has played at all levels for Kerry – minor, U-21, Junior and Senior.

Mike Milner is a former Cork minor and U-21 footballer and Chris Brady a former Kerry U-21 footballer.

Three-time All-Ireland medal winner, Eoin Brosnan, might feel a little aggrieved to be held in reserve this Sunday were it not for the fact that one of the greatest forwards in the history of the game, Colm Cooper, will be sitting on the bench beside him.

There’s surely no other club in the country who even think about fielding a starting XV without the eight-time All-Star and five-time Kerry All-Ireland winner if he was available to them, but Crokes really do have an embarrassment of attacking riches.

Rising star David Shaw is currently keeping Cooper out of the team and he certainly justified team manager Pat O’Shea’s faith in him by scoring three classy points from play in the All-Ireland semi-final victory over Mullinalaghta.

Cooper’s reaction to being supplanted in the team says a lot about the sort of character he is.

Colm Cooper of Dr Crokes looks on from the sideline during the 2018 AIB Munster GAA Football Senior Club Championship semi-final match between Dr Crokes and St Finbarr's at Dr Crokes GAA, in Killarney, Co. Kerry. 

Colm Cooper of Dr Crokes looks on from the sideline during the 2018 AIB Munster GAA Football Senior Club Championship semi-final match between Dr Crokes and St Finbarr's at Dr Crokes GAA, in Killarney, Co. Kerry. 

He’s doing all he can in training to force his way back into the team, but while at the same time making a special effort to pass on all the advice and knowledge he can to the new generation of players in the club.

“When I first came into the Crokes senior team, Gooch gave me so much advice that any other fella might not have noticed,” says Crokes centre-back, Gavin White.

“He maybe recognised things going on in a game that people might not have noticed.

“Gooch has an eye for the game that not many people do. He might be able to pick out things that you might not necessarily see or anyone else might not necessarily see and a small bit of advice might make the difference in a game or to your performance on a daily basis.

“From a performance point of view, this year I suppose he’d prefer to be starting but equally he’s delighted to be part of this Crokes team in an All-Ireland final.

“But from a performance point of view, he does his part. He comes on, he dictates the game whenever he can.

“After games or off the pitch before games, he’s a real leader. In team talks, he’d be very vocal in the dressing room. Trying to get fellas right for the club and get his team over the line.”

When Dr. Crokes defeated Slaughtneil in the 2017 AIB All-Ireland Club Final, Cooper was still very much the beating heart of their team. Young players like Micheal Burns and Tony Brosnan were impact substitutes while David Shaw didn’t feature at all in the match.

White played in that 2017 Final but in the intervening two years has also matured impressively as a player.

The extent to which the younger generation of players are now driving this team was very apparent in the All-Ireland semi-final when Dr. Crokes conceded two early goals and were reduced to 14-men by the dismissal of Johnny Buckley.

David Shaw of Dr Crokes in action against David McGivney of Mullinalaghta St Columba's during the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Semi-Final match between Mullinalaghta St Columba’s and Dr Crokes at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary.

David Shaw of Dr Crokes in action against David McGivney of Mullinalaghta St Columba's during the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Semi-Final match between Mullinalaghta St Columba’s and Dr Crokes at Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary.

There was no sense of panic. Brosnan and Shaw kept showing for ball and were the very picture of calm under pressure as they kicked seven points from play between them.

The ever-dynamic Burns kept working hard at the coal-face in the middle third of the field, but no-one was more inspirational than White himself.

Time and again the centre-back turned over ball in his own half and then drove at Mullinalaghta with his remarkable ability to carry the ball at pace and weave between would-be tacklers.

The young players who were happy to chip in wherever and however they could in 2017 are now the ones setting the standard in this Dr. Crokes team.

“Yeah, I think there is (an element of that) I suppose,” said White. “With any club team or any performance that you look at yourself, you want to get the best out of yourself.

“Leadership is a big thing, if you can show leadership on the pitch, everything else will fall into place.

“Mullinalaghta was a funny game because when we went down to 14 men, everyone kind of had to spring to life, give that extra ten per cent, work harder for the loss of a body.

“That’s something that we’re getting out of each other this year, that we all want 15 leaders on the pitch, we don’t just have one or two leaders. We want to have 15, 16, 17, 30 plus leaders to help us get over the line.

“Especially when we went down to 14, we were under the cosh an awful lot. After Mullinalaghta got their second goal, we kind of just had to fight it out.

“Mullinalaghta were always in touching distance. We just kind of had to keep it that way and keep pushing on in the last ten minutes when you’re playing most of the game with only 14 players, boys are getting tired.

“When there’s an All-Ireland final on the line, you’re going to do anything within your power to get there.”

Dr Crokes captain, Johnny Buckley, and his team-mates celebrate after victory over Slaughtneil in the 2017 AIB All-Ireland Club SFC Final. 

Dr Crokes captain, Johnny Buckley, and his team-mates celebrate after victory over Slaughtneil in the 2017 AIB All-Ireland Club SFC Final. 

What makes Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland Club SFC Final show-down with Corofin such a fascinating one is that it’s a clash of two true heavy-weight clubs, the 2017 champions against the 2018 champions.

Both clubs have a hard-wired winning culture and boast extraordinary firepower in attack. It’s difficult to imagine the game anything other than a spectacular contest.

“Yeah, look, Corofin are an extraordinary team, in fairness to them,” said White.

“They've won multiple All-Irelands and you could say that it's the 2017 versus 2018 champions, and who's the best?

“I suppose we're just taking it from our own perspective - we've won an All-Ireland and want to win another one. I don't really think anything else is coming to mind.

“We're concentrating on ourselves and I don't think we can do much more than that. Just bring what we can bring and concentrate on our own performance and see can we get over the line with that.”