Paul Keane reports from Parnell Park
AT TIMES IN this year’s Dublin SFC campaign, Kilmacud Crokes looked to be just about hanging in there.
Truth be told, they were fortunate to even be in this final after requiring a penalty shoot-out to defeat Raheny in the last four.
But when the need was greatest and the silverware was on the line, Robbie Brennan’s terrific team duly stood up with their best performance of the season, resulting in their biggest winning margin of the campaign.
Where to begin with the list of heroes in this Crokes team. Galway star Shane Walsh will naturally grab the headlines for his terrific 40th-minute goal which doubled his team’s advantage at that stage from three to six.
Walsh finished with 1-2 but his goal was the strike that appeared to break ‘Boden’s bid for a first title since 2019. Shane Cunningham was excellent in attack too for Robbie Brennan’s side.
Yet if it wasn’t for their brilliant defence, the cup wouldn’t be returning to Glenalbyn this evening and Crokes wouldn’t be three-in-a-row Dublin SFC champions for the first time ever.
In all, they held Kenny Naughton’s side to just six points from open play, no mean feat when you consider the cricket scores ‘Boden had been putting up in the championship previously.
The sense that Crokes are just getting going is strong and they will return to the Leinster club championship next Saturday week to play Eire Og of Carlow, in Carlow, under lights.
Crokes must have enjoyed the rare experience of coming into this game as underdogs having narrowly scraped past Raheny.
Before that, their largest win in this year’s campaign was a six-point dismissal of Castleknock in the group. For the most part, Brennan’s side did just about enough to return to the decider.
In defence of the back to back Leinster club champions, they have been without injured Dublin midfielder Craig Dias while Galway star Walsh, tightly marked this time by Cathal Flaherty, has been battling injuries for a number of months.
The latest injury to affect the 2022 All-Star was a broken nose suffered in the county quarter-final defeat of Ballymun Kickhams, requiring him to wear a protective mask against Raheny.
As for ‘Boden, they reached the final with a cumulative 47 points to spare following double-digit victory margins in both the quarter-final win over Castleknock and the semi-final defeat of St Judes.
Backboned by Dublin duo Colm and Ryan Basquel in attack, along with Ross McGarry who featured for the Sky Blues in this year’s Championship, they possessed the potential to cut through Crokes’ typically miserly defence without ever managing to do so.
Maybe Crokes, who contested the last two All-Ireland finals, were simply pacing themselves, however, because when the need was greatest they rose to the occasion with their most impressive display of the season so far.
Mark O’Leary opened the scoring for the Stillorgan side in the third minute and while the teams were level twice in the early stages, the six-time provincial winners moved ahead in the 10th minute and remained in that position throughout.
At one stage, with 21 minutes on the clock, they held a double scores 0-6 to 0-3 advantage with Mannion and then defender Dan O’Brien stroking over eye-catching scores from long-range.
Ballyboden cut the deficit to the minimum with back to back Ryan Basquel points before Mannion lofted over another beauty to leave Crokes 0-07 to 0-05 clear at the interval.
The match-ups were intriguing with All-Star nominee Colm Basquel tracked by Theo Clancy, Flaherty trailing Crokes dangerman Walsh and James Holland keeping tabs on Mannion.
Cunningham was excellent for Crokes in the second-half and hit their first two points of the third quarter before Walsh slammed in that goal.
It was a cracking finish off his left foot after he was set free following a turnover at midfield and left Crokes 1-9 to 0-6 ahead.
In truth, there only ever looked like being one winner after that with ‘Boden ringing the changes and emptying their bench but painfully unable to find the openings to trouble the champions.
Dara Mullin chimed in with a point for Crokes too and they were full value for their eight-point win with substitute Anthony Quinn firing a goal attempt back off the cross in stoppage time.
Scorers for Kilmacud Crokes: Shane Walsh 1-2, Paul Mannion 0-3 (0-1f), Shane Cunningham 0-3, Shane Horan 0-1, Mark O’Leary 0-1, Aidan Jones 0-1, Dan O’Brien 0-1, Dara Mullin 0-1, Cian O’Connor 0-1.
Scorers for Ballyboden St Enda’s: Ryan Basquel 0-3 (0-2f), Colm Basquel 0-3 (0-1f), Ross McGarry 0-2, Daire Sweeney 0-1.
16. David Higgins
2. James Murphy
4. Dan O’Brien
3. Theo Clancy
7. Andrew McGowan
6. Aidan Jones
9. Rory O’Carroll
8. Mark O’Leary
17. Brian Sheehy
10. Shane Horan
11. Paul Mannion
12. Dara Mullin
13. Hugh Kenny
14. Shane Cunningham
15. Shane Walsh
Substitutes:
5. Cian O’Connor for Horan (42)
22. Luke Ward for Kenny (51)
19. Darragh Dempsey for Cunningham (58)
18. Anthony Quinn for Jones (59)
20. Liam Flatman for O’Leary (62)
1. Darragh Gogan
4. Cathal Flaherty
5. Kieran Kennedy
2. Shane Clayton
3. Brian Bobbett
6. James Holland
7. Alex Gavin
8. Cein Darcy
9. Michael Darragh Macauley
10. Luke O’Donohue
12. Warren Egan
11. Ross McGarry
15. Colm Basquel
14. Ryan Basquel
13. Ryan O’Dwyer
Substitutes:
23. Mick McDonald for Macauley (h/t)
20. Daire Sweeney for Egan (42)
22. Ryan Baynes for Kennedy (45)
21. Darren O’Reilly for O’Dwyer (49)
17. Leo McHugh for Bobbett (52)
Referee: Dave Feeney (Parnells).
Written by Paul Keane and posted on the42.ie
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