Crokes beat Skerries to reach Junior D Championshp Final

The Junior D’s overcame a strong Skerries Harps team in the Junior D championship semi final on a beautiful morning away in Skerries on Sunday 2 September 2012. Conditions were perfect on the morning, for what was a rematch of last year’s Junior E championship final. Although the match this year was much tighter than last year’s final, the result was the same and Crokes came through in the end by two points, on a score line of 2-12 to 1-13.

The contest was fierce from the off, with both sides giving it everything they had and the standard of play was immense and exhilarating to watch. Skerries, backed by a large home crowd, started into the game well, although a few early wide were costly and Crokes soon started to exert control. Daragh, playing at centre forward, was the main creator in the first twenty minutes and knocked over a fine early point. Shane soon added two frees and a nicely taken point from play. Skerries got themselves back into the game with a close in goal, however, as is quickly becoming the case with this side, we responded very well and went back down to get an excellent team goal from full forward Neale. Barry came close to hammering in a second soon after but the Skerries keeper pulled off a fine save to knock the sliotar over for the point. This led us into half time leading by two points, on a score of 1-5 to 1-3.

After the break Skerries began to come into the game more, and through their Fingal league stars they started to tap over some nice points and slowly they turned a two point deficit into a two point advantage. At that point some positional and personnel changes were made by Crokes and, with Dara switched into the corner he took his opportunity well, to rattle the back of the Skerries net. We quickly followed this up by an individual score from corner forward Andy and this was added to by a superb long range point off his weaker side from midfielder Donal, who was excellent throughout and one of many excellent additions to the team this year.

With 10 minutes to play that put us one point up. The effort and concentration for the last ten minutes and the desire from our boys to get to the county final was a sight to see as we took complete control and knocked over two fine points through Neale and substitute Ryan and hold out for a narrow two point victory. Special mention on the day should also go to Ed and Donnacha, operating in the wing back positions, who both showed signs of becoming top class senior stars within the club in future years.

The delight after the game was obvious for all to see. The result now means we will play in the Junior C championship next season. We still however face a tough test against Raheny in the final in a few weeks time. Hopefully we will have strong support from all within the club on that day. Please keep an eye out for the fixture and come out to cheer us on in the final.

Congrats to all

Report by Ian O'Keeffe