ALL-IRELAND CLUB FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL: Kilmacud Crokes 1-9 Crossmaglen Rangers 0-7: A LONG season full of unlikely happy endings concluded with the least probable and happiest of all as Kilmacud Crokes won the club's second AIB All-Ireland football title at Croke Park yesterday.
A performance that successfully exploited their advantage of pace in the fine conditions left the Armagh and Ulster champions in their least favourite position of chasing the match and there was simply no catching Kilmacud.
It says much about the status of Crossmaglen that the powerhouse south Dublin club were outsiders. Cross, perennial champions of their county and unbeaten in any final since 1982 – a span of 24 matches – were a team on a mission this season, intent on redeeming last year’s shock All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Kilmacud’s Dublin predecessors, St Vincent’s.
It wasn’t that the winners were no-hopers going into the match, just that their opponents’ combination of experience and promise and expertise in closing down matches with silverware at stake made them worthy favourites.
For Kilmacud to win they needed to establish a lively tempo from an early stage and not allow the crushing relentlessness of Crossmaglen’s A game begin to take hold. They succeeded in achieving that and so knocked the opposition out of their stride that it was the famous black and amber shirts that looked distracted and uncertain, their customary assassin’s calm flustered into 10 wides, twice as many as the winners, including uncharacteristic placed-ball misses by Oisín McConville and Tony Kernan.
Even in the final 10 minutes, traditionally undisputed Crossmaglen territory, it was Crokes who, having seen their lead cut to two, steadied and rattled off another three points to seal their second Andy Merrigan trophy and a first in 14 years. But it was in the first 10 minutes that the major damage was done.
With Crossmaglen at sixes and sevens in the early stages Kilmacud were fast and confident. Darren Magee set down an early marker as the most forceful centrefielder on show and was well supported by Niall Corkery. Up front Pat Burke thrived in the dodgem -rink physicality of Crossmaglen’s defensive attentions and Mark Davoren, the author of vital late goals throughout the campaign, this time scripted some earlier flourishes and was central to 1-2 of the opening 1-3.
In the second minute he helped set up Brian Kavanagh, confounding those who believed his switch from the corner to centre forward would take him unwisely away from the danger zone, to kick the first point of the match. Then Davoren was fouled by Francie Bellew for Mark Vaughan’s opening free and in the 10th minute he struck the most significant blow of the afternoon.
A persistent run down the left wing and perfectly delayed pass from Corkery sent Davoren in on goal and his left-footed shot beat Paul Hearty to give the Dublin side a 1-3 to 0-1 lead. Bellew was quickly switched back to mark Davoren and succeeded in limiting the damage from then on.
Kilmacud continued to move the ball at pace and looked composed at the back where Paul Griffin expertly anchored an impressive young defence from centre back and made life difficult for John McEntee, a man who has orchestrated so many All-Ireland successes from the 40.
For instance, in the space of 10 minutes Griffin blocked John Murtagh for a 45, kicked by Tony Kernan, a snapping swarm defence forced David McKenna to foul the ball and Ross O’Carroll managed to dispossess Jamie Clarke who was through on goal for another 45 that Kernan this time unusually missed.
O’Carroll’s display and especially that of his brother Rory will have left county hurling manager Anthony Daly feeling like a Redemptorist watching his nieces in a wet T-shirt competition.
Yet Crossmaglen made up some ground in the second quarter with McConville adding two frees to Kernan’s point and Crokes managing just one point in 18 minutes to lead at half-time, 1-4 to 0-4.
Within a few minutes McConville drew a sharp save from David Nestor, who had a reassuringly comfortable game for Crokes, and Kernan kicked his second 45. Vaughan, whose place-kicking was more erratic than earlier in the campaign but from admittedly difficult angles and also in the context of a busy, cajoling performance, missed a free before Darren Magee restored order by finishing a scrappy sequence of play with a point.
After replacement Stephen Kernan and McConville had cut the margin to two, 0-7 to 1-6, the crowd of 32,952 sensed the expected Crossmaglen onslaught. But Crokes introduced their experienced captain Jonny Magee and former All Star Ray Cosgrove.
Vaughan, still probing away, played a one-two with wing back Cian O’Sullivan (delivering on his promising reputation with a performance of pace and focus) to kick a fine point in response just a minute after McConville’s effort. Then Rory O’Carroll gave away the ball to McKenna only to make a brilliant recovery and dispossess his opponent.
The curtain call came with Cosgrove setting up Niall Corkery for a point and Vaughan doing the same for Cosgrove.
Fourteen years ago Kilmacud received municipal recognition for their feat in bringing All-Ireland success to the untypical GAA borough of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Presumably another evening in the Town Hall down by the sea beckons.
KILMACUD: D Nestor; Ross O'Carroll, Rory O'Carroll, K Nolan; B McGrath, P Griffin, C O'Sullivan; D Magee (0-1), N Corkery (0-1); L Óg Ó hEinneacháin, B Kavanagh (0-2), A Morrissey; M Vaughan (0-4, three frees), M Davoren (1-0), P Burke. Subs: J Magee (capt.) for Ó hEinneacháin (54 mins), R Cosgrove (0-1) for Kavanagh (59 mins).
CROSSMAGLEN: P Hearty; B McKeown, P Kernan, P McKeown; A Kernan, F Bellew, J Donaldson; T McEntee, D McKenna; M McEntee, J McEntee, T Kernan (0-2, both 45s); J Clarke, J Murtagh, O McConville (0-4, three frees). Subs: S Kernan (0-1) for M McEntee (28 mins), K Carragher for Murtagh (41 mins), S Finnegan for B McKeown (47 mins), R O'Kelly for Donaldson (49 mins), C Short for J McEntee (59 mins).
Referee: G Ó Conámha (Galway).
