Crokes Finally Land Elusive AFL5 Title!!

Last Sunday morning in UCD the Kilmacud Crokes Junior One team bridged a 27 year gap when they brought the 2008 Junior One League Title (or AFL5 as it is now known) back to Stillorgan for the first time since 1981.

.... see photos from post-match celebration at this link ...... 

In near perfect conditions considering the recent weather both teams played some great football, but it was Crokes who pulled away in the second half to avenge their Championship Semi-Final loss. Early on though, it was a different story as both teams struggled to find any rhythm and proceeded to kick a number of bad wides and it wasn’t until the 8th minute that a score was registered coming off the trusty left boot of Crokes midfielder, Michael Moore. However, this score triggered an immediate reaction from St Pat’s and they rattled off 2 quick points.

While Crokes enjoyed their fair share of possession, they continued to labour in front of the posts and shot a number of bad wides. Indeed Crokes were guilty of numerous missed chances in the first half as they proceeded to kick a total of 6 wides and kick a further 2 balls into the St. Pat’s goalkeepers hands. However this profligacy in front of the posts was ended in the 22nd minute when Donal Hogan finally added a second point and this was soon followed by a match turning point by wing forward Stephen Williams. With the crowd getting anxious at all the wasted possession and the Crokes forwards getting even more so, Williams won a good ball in the Crokes half of the pitch, he took off on a straight run up the right wing. He rode three tackles and a late hit before kicking a great point off his right foot from the 21”. This brought a huge reaction from the crowd and just seemed to lift the rest of the Crokes lads.

Soon after St Pat’s had the opportunity to give the perfect response of a goal – but a combination of Brian Mahon in goals and Derek Corcoran at full back managed to block a certain score. The St. Pat's calls for a penalty were waved away and the resulting 45" was kicked over the bar by the St. Pat's full back. Darragh McGale then popped over a late score to top off the perfect end to the first half – to send Crokes in 0-4 to 0-3 ahead. The second half was again a cagey affair to begin with - St Pat’s winning plenty of ball in midfield and using their “third man” to good effect but Robert Behan who was playing a sweeper role for Crokes was mopping up plenty. While at the other end the St Pat’s defence were coping well and were getting to grips with their men. But then it all seemed to click for the Crokes lads – the defence were reading everything that was thrown their way and started to get huge blocks and tackles in, Brian Hanratty was growing in his role at midfield, while Brian Davoren started to sweep around and gather up all the breaking ball at midfield.

And for their part the inside forwards started to get the better of their men, with Richie Power in particular showing well. First Darragh McGale in the 40th minute popped over his second point of the day, shortly followed by John Mahon picking a great time to kick his first point of the year. Then Richie Power turned his man inside out before slotting home a lovely score. St Pat’s brought on a number of “big men” into their full forward line mid way through the second half and resorted to putting in high balls, but again with John O’Callaghan leading by example and James Farrell and Chris Carolan mopping up and blocking, they couldn’t find a way through. Instead Ciaran O’Grady, who was just introduced as a substitute, exploited the space and the time that was now available to the Crokes forwards by picking off two well taken points. Indeed it could have been more as he elected to take a point in the 51st minute when one on one with the St. Pat's keeper.

St. Pat’s finally got on the score board with 3 minutes to go in the second half but it was appropriate that it was Player of the Year, Stephen Williams that finished off the scoring after some well worked inter play with John Mahon, to leave the score at 0-10 to 0-4 in Crokes’ favour. As the families and friends thronged onto the pitch to salute the players, in a nice little piece of symmetry, Pat Lamb (current Kilmacud supremo and midfielder on the 1981 team) was there to congratulate his son Ruairí who played a great game at corner back.

Crokes’ manager Marcus Ó Buachalla was keen afterwards to praise everyone involved in getting his players to this point in the year in what was effectively a 13 month season, from families to friends, wives and girlfriends and in particular to club members who supported the lads in such numbers throughout the year. While he did not wish to pick out individuals from such an amount of people that put in so much behind the scenes, he did want to mention Pat Lamb, Daphne Lamb and Martin Glynn in particular. He was also keen to heap particular praise on Gerry Collins and on the rest of his backroom team of Joe Caffrey, Declan Collins and Pádraig Mawe. Finally he kept his final tribute to the players themselves – “to a man, my core panel of 1-29 can be very proud of how they represented their club and themselves over the last 13 months. They did everything that I asked of them and more. They deserve every success and I couldn’t be more proud of the way they played today. They executed everything we put in place over the last 2 months in particular to beat St. Pat’s today - ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann”.

With that they headed back to Glenalbyn to celebrate the win and with John Mahon and Ciaran McCormack leading the sing-songs, a great night was had by all concerned. So, an adventure that began with much hope on a cold wet night on the 29th January 2008 in a boxing ring in Bray - finishes in glory under blue skies on a football pitch in UCD.

Kilmacud Crokes:- B. Mahon, R. Lamb, D. Corcoran, R. Behan, C. Carolan, J. O’Callaghan, J. Farrell, B. Hanratty, M. Moore, B. Davoren, J. Mahon, S. Williams, D. Hogan, R. Power, D. McGale. Subs:- C. O’Grady for D. Hogan (44mins); J. Fitzgerald for B. Hanratty (52mins); S. Harte for R. Behan (55mins). Scorers:- D. McGale, S. Williams, C. O’Grady (2 points each), M. Moore, J. Mahon, D. Hogan, R. Power (1 point each). The Crokes Players without whom it would not have been possible:- Mark Kielty, Brian Mahon, James Farrell, Derek Corcoran, Ruairi Lamb, Barraí Brennan, Shane Harte, Des McCormack, Chris Carolan, John O’ Callaghan, Stephen Collins, Robert Behan, Robbie Kavanagh, Stephen Russell, Naoise Ó Conchubhair, Fergal McGrath, Richie Power, Barry Kelly, Ciaran Leavey, Jim Fitzgerald, Brian Hanratty, Michael Moore, Mícheál Mulvey, Nealie Murphy, Diarmuid Howley, Alan O’Donovan, Kevin Brett, Liam Dockery, Sean Gallagher, Donal Hogan, Brian Davoren, Stephen Williams, Ciaran O’Grady, Ciaran McCormack, Dave Kehoe, John Mahon, Cillian Caffrey, Darragh McGale, Cuán Ó Flatharta, Conor Mulvihill, Darragh Byrne, David Higgins, Peter Ward, Andrew Hopkins, Eoin Fitzgerald, Declan Sheeran, Adam Shanley, David Greene & John Hanley.