The O'Donoghue Cup 2007

The Aquila Club East Kerry Championship - O’Donoghue Cup - Final.

The Gooch Inspirational as Dr Crokes beat Rathmore

Dr Crokes 2-13 Rathmore 0-5

Dr Crokes dominance of their own patch continued at the Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney when they captured the East Kerry Championship ( O’Donoghue Cup) for the 23^rd time in 37 finals they have contested as Rathmore were put the sword in the second half. Once again it was the genius of Colm Gooch Cooper that laid the foundations for this 14 point Crokes win as he played a pivotal role on the forty despite coming head to head with Kerry team-mate Tom O’Sullivan, who did as well as any defender has all season in curbing one of the games all time greats. Rathmore were confident of beating the Crokes who were captained by Eoin Brosnan but the Killarney side had too much firepower for them and that proved crucial. Rathmore were in the game for the opening twenty minutes but missed five scoreable frees in front of goal when forced to use four different place kickers. Meanwhile, the Crokes defence was in a mean mood and with Eoin Brosnan dominating midfield, they raced clear with a brace each from Cooper and James Fleming while Johnny Buckley kicked two magnificent points from midfield and Shane Doolan had another to lead 0-7 to 0-1 at the interval and Rathmore had Everest to climb. Crokes also benefited from the introduction of Ambrose O’Donovan to partner Eoin Brosnan at midfield with Johnny Buckley going into the corner. Rathmore had a point from Michael O’Riordan within twenty eight seconds of the restart but O’Donovan and Brosnan took over in the middle and revelled in the heavy hits that Rathmore dished out and a couple bouts of fisticuffs went unpunished which only seemed to drive on the Crokes. The game was decided five minutes into the second half when Cooper took a quick free to Brian Looney down the right and he sent Kerry minor Jamie Doolan racing through, and somehow he threaded the ball low to the corner of the Rathmore net and at 1-7 to 0-2, there was no way back for the underdogs. Cooper added four more points from frees and play, Ambrose O’Donovan and Gavin Tucker, after a sublime Gooch cross field pass, also had points and then it was left to captain Eoin Brosnan to polish off Rathmore with a trademark goal after playing a neat 1-2 with Kerry minor Johnny Buckley. Rathmore’s challenge faded as they were playing second fiddle all over the pitch to a superior Crokes side who appeared to get better as the game went on with the Gooch conducting matters on the forty, it was no more than a stroll in the final quarter as Rathmore appeared to be chasing shadows. It was yet another clinical Crokes display and they served notice that they are building quite a formidable side as trainer John Galvin appears to have taken over the baton from Pat O’Shea with the minimum of fuss. * It was a real physical game and there were seven yellow cards flashed but sporadic bouts of fisticuffs should have seen a couple of reds at the very least. Scorers: Dr Crokes; C Cooper 0-6 (0-4 frees), E Brosnan and J Doolan 1-0 each, J Fleming 0-2 ( 0-1 free), J Buckley 0-2, G Tucker, A O’Donovan and S Doolan 0-1 each Rathmore; A O’Mahony 0-1 free, D Casey, I Kelliher, M O’Riordan and J Murphy 0-1 each.

Teams:

Dr Crokes: Kieran Cremin, Keith McMahon, Luke Quinn, John Payne, Michael Moloney, Brian McMahon, Gavin Tucker, Eoin Brosnan, Johnny Buckley, Brian Looney, Colm Cooper, Shane Doolan, Kieran O’Leary, James Fleming, Jamie Doolan. Subs: Ambrose O’Donovan for J Fleming ( inj), Ian Howard for B Looney, Edmund O’Sullivan for J Buckley, James Jones for J Doolan

Rathmore; Jameson Hughes, James O’Sullivan, Tom O’Sullivan, Michael J Kelliher, Ian Kelliher, Dan O’Sullivan, Shane O’Neill, Aidan O’Mahony, Tim Cronin, Ciaran O’Sullivan, Damien Casey, George O’Keeffe, Eoin Lawlor, Michael O’Riordan, Jerry Murphy. Subs: Patrick Reen for J Murphy ( inj), Michael O’Sullivan for M J Kelliher, Daniel O’Sullivan for G O’Keeffe, John Buckley for M O’Riordan

Referee; Padraig O’Sullivan ( Firies)

After Match Comment

Galvin relieved as Crokes capture O’Donoghue Cup for 23^rd time.

By Murt Murphy

The Crokes management team of John Galvin, Mark Cooper and Colm O’Shea have sixteen O’Donoghue Cup medals between them and that’s more than the Rathmore side whose only win in recent years was in 2005 and they have introduced a couple of youngsters since then. Team manager John Galvin has six O’Donoghue Cup medals and captained Dr Crokes in 1995 to victory but the quiet spoken builder in his first year as manager does not boast about such accolades. What was his reaction to this big win “ I am delighted to be honest but to be fair to Rathmore they would probably have pushed us much closer if they had not missed those first half frees. It would have been a different situation if they had gone over as the score would have been much closer at half time. Rathmore had to chase the game in the second half and maybe they chased it too much and this enabled us to pick off a few scores and fortunately we got the goal and put too much daylight between us then.” Galvin was not surprised at the physical nature of the exchanges “ I wasn’t surprised at the physical nature of the game having played in it myself for over a decade. There is nothing spared in these games, especially as far as the Crokes is concerned. A physical element is good for the game – okay maybe there was one or two skirmishes we could have done without and no one is encouraging it but at the end of the day, its Gaelic Football- it’s a man’s game. There is a healthy rivalry there none the less and we will a few pints later on and we all move on. “ Galvin had an interesting observation about what winning an O’Donoghue Cup’s means to county players in a era when there is so much being written about the GPA and strikes and how county players are not putting it in for their clubs; “ I was watching Tom O’Sullivan after they beat Kilcummin in the semi final by a point and he was jumping up and down and punching the air with glee. The man has four All-Ireland medals yet it meant so much to him. The same with Colm and Eoin out there for us, they wanted to it for their team mates and for the club and I think that it is clear that the likes of Tom and Aidan – Colm and Eoin care about their club and want to play with the lads they were brought up with for the pride of the parish- so I think they deserve so much credit and whatever they are due or get as top class county players, they deserve- and none of their club team mates have a bother with it. Colm Cooper is a national star but what marks him out as special is that he has never forgotten where he came from. The frightening aspect of Colm is that he is only 24 and he has that hunger”Shane Doolan who played with his brother Jamie in the Crokes attack was delighted with the win “ We always knew it was going to be a tough game because Rathmore are a physical tough side . We were hoping for back to back wins ourselves and thankfully we got it. It was a very physical game as Rathmore threw everything at us, but at the end of the day we pulled through”. Doolan was confident throughout that Crokes had the measure of their opponents “ They missed a few frees early on that seemed to blow them off course but we knew we were in a strong position at half time. We held the ball into the tackle in the second half and carried the ball as well, and this helped with Colm Cooper running the show. However our backs deserve great credit for this win as they played very well as a unit and never allowed Rathmore through for a soft score.”

As for Colm Cooper what’s he like to play with? “ He is the most naturally talented player you could ever play with. If you make the runs, he will put the ball almost into your mouth, he is that good. He is also the most unselfish player and the most gifted. He is the best player in the country without a shadow of a doubt.”

Tom O’Sullivan bitterly disappointed at losing out on O’Donoghue Cup medal

Tom O’Sullivan has won every honour in the game and when he looks at his collection, one would wonder why he would be so distraught at losing an O’Donoghue Cup medal but the Ballybunnion based Garda is a Rathmore man to his very core. He made his senior club debut in 1995 and he has won a County Minor Championship medal with East Kerry, then three senior championship medals in a row with the great East Kerry side, and also won a County U-21 medal with East Kerry. Then after joining the Kerry senior side in 1999, he made his championship debut against Cork in 2000 and now seven years later, he has four All-Ireland Senior medals, six Munster medals, two NFL medals, an All-Star and a GPA award to his credit. Tom has one coveted O’Donoghue Cup medal won in 2005 and along with his All-Ireland final win this year- he rates it as his most memorable sporting moment. So O’Sullivan as captain of the Rathmore side wanted to win this O’Donoghue Cup final real bad and his disappointment was visible; “We trained hard for this final and its heart breaking to lose again. We were beaten all over the field today, it just did not work out for us. Crokes seemed to be more up for it- they seemed to be hungrier. You would not think that they would be hungry after they had won 22 titles and now that’s the fifth time in seven finals that they have beaten us. I thought we had more than a fair chance coming in, I thought we would win by one or two points but it was totally the opposite as Dr Crokes gave us an awful hammering out there. They played ducks and drakes with us in the second half and it was a tad embarrassing out there. We cant believe it and we are shocked to be truthful. I thought we would put up a better performance but there was no fight at all in us. They say the fight is in the underdogs but if that’s the case I am afraid that Crokes were the underdogs today. There was more fight in them than there was in us.” Tom smiled when asked about what marking the genius that is Colm Cooper is like and what about their difference of opinion early on that saw both getting yellow cards? “ We are good friends really and that’s the way it has to be. I said to Colm afterwards when we shook hands, that I thought he might have given me one medal as he has a pocket full of O’Donoghue Cup medals but he just laughed. He is an excellent player and takes some watching – I did the best I could but you have to mark all six as they have very good forwards. Even the subs that came on were hard to mark so we were up against it. We were confident coming into the game, trained hard, it was a good dry day for a game , hardly any wind and yet we got stuffed. To be honest I think we seemed to miss too much up in the forwards while they scored almost every chance they got- that was the difference. We missed three or four frees ( 5 actually) and another day they would have gone over. It could have been 0-5 apiece going in at half time but we would have been more confident then for the second half. The thing about Crokes is that they have six good forwards while most other teams in East Kerry have two or three. They produced a 15 man performance as we were helpless to stop them. Tom could not be consoled even when reminded of the All-Ireland win, Rathmore’s county league Div 1 survival without any difficulty and the fact that he would soon be going on holiday with Kerry; “ To be honest the County League doesn’t interest me, I was hell bent on the winning the O’Donoghue Cup this year that’s the one I wanted most of all- All-Ireland medals or no All-Ireland medals, this loss is hurting bad. This loss puts a dent in the year but we will be back and no complaints about the result- Dr Crokes were the better side by far”.

Rathmore trainer John Fintan Daly was in charge for his first O’Donoghue Cup final and was reticent to say a lot; “ I was hoping and confident that we would do a lot better . We did not want to be chasing the game – we would certainly have preferred to have played with the wind in the opening half. We got chances and while I am blaming nobody, we just did not take them. After twenty minutes we were still well in the game and even at half time we were not out of it. They were always going to funnel back and crowd out the defence – but we did not take our chances and that’s it. However it is a young team, and we will be back”

Sponsors

Once again, the O’Donoghue Cup competition is to be sponsored by The Aquila Club.

At the draw for this year’s competition, managing director of The Gleneagle Hotel, Mr. Patrick O’Donoghue said that his company were proud to be associated with the competition and with the East Kerry GAA Board with whom he said he had a very happy relationship. He announced that a man of the match would be announced for each of the quarter finals and semi finals in addition to the final and the winner on each occasion would receive a years free membership of The Aquila Club in the Gleneagle hotel. Chairman of the East Kerry Board, Ger Galvin, thanked the O’Donoghue family for their continued sponsorship of the East Kerry Senior Championship.