AIB All-Ireland Club Senior Football Championship final: Dr Croke’s (Kerry) 1-9 Robert Emmet’s, Slaughtneil (Derry) 1-7
DR Croke’s selector Harry O’Neill admitted the new All-Ireland champions were determined to limit Chrissy McKaigue’s influence after his starring role in Slaughtneil’s semi-final win over St Vincent’s.
McKaigue was inspirational in downing the Dublin champions that day in Newry but found himself bottled up or fouled almost every time he got the ball as the Kerry kingpins ended a 25-year wait to get their hands on the Andy Merrigan Cup.
O’Neill, who worked on the Croke’s gameplan alongside manager Pat O’Shea, said it was only natural that they would attempt to curb McKaigue’s forays up the field at source.
“Obviously if you let Chrissy McKaigue get up and running, he’s very hard to stop,” said O’Neill.
“We saw what he did against St Vincent’s, he was a powerhouse there. Most managers, when they go into any big game like that, you try and target the biggest players – I’m saying target in a positive way in that you go to try and make sure those guys aren’t having an influence on the game and he was one of the guys we would’ve earmarked.
“But believe me, there was a lot more guys in that Slaughtneil team that we were worried about.”
One of those may have been midfielder Padraig Cassidy, who was enjoying a storming game and scored a goal before being sent off for striking Kieran O’Leary just before half-time.
That was a hugely significant moment as it allowed the Kerrymen to use their man advantage well by playing keep-ball as the clock wound down.
“Obviously we were going to have a spare man in the second half and we just wanted to make sure that we were utilising that but also that we were protecting ourselves as well,” continued O’Neill.
“It was about how we were going to manage the game in the second half – we had our noses in front, keep them in front.”
And while there was huge disappointment for Slaughtneil, who suffered a second All-Ireland final defeat in three years, there was an overwhelming sense of goodwill from across the country towards Colm ‘The Gooch’ Cooper.
It looked as though time was running out on his chances of adding an All-Ireland club medal to an already impressive haul accumulated during a glorious career to date.
But yesterday he scored the crucial goal in Dr Crokes’ victory, and O’Neill believes it was no less than the Kingdom legend deserved.
He said: “I was in charge of the Croke’s 17 years ago back in 2000 and that was the first year Colm came on, he played in the county championship that year and all five Coopers played on the same team.
“Danny and Mark would have medals from 25 years ago and Colm has been such a servant to the club, the county and the whole GAA in general.
“People all over the country admire what he has done. We weren’t talking about it before the game but obviously ye guys [the media] were, that it would be fantastic for Colm to finish off with an All-Ireland club medal here today and absolutely, it’s brilliant that he’s got it.”
Such an attritional contest is rarely a treat for the neutral watching in the stands or on TV, but Dr Croke’s captain Johnny Buckley insisted it was all about getting the job done to make sure the cup came back to Killarney.
“It was a very demanding game, there was a lot of tracking back, a lot of hard work out there,” said the 27-year-old.
“It took us a while to settle in to the game, we were a bit open at the back and they snuck in for a goal, but in fairness to the boys back there they put the head down after that and closed up shop and just limited the scores after they got that goal.”
