Kilmacud Crokes are all business as they keep Portarlington at a safe distance to secure final slot

Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) 1-12 Portarlington (Laois) 0-4

The shrewdies had this down as a potential banana skin for Kilmacud. If it was, they dealt with it as they would a scrap of litter that needed a routine tidy and nothing more. They kept Portarlington at arm’s reach after taking an early lead and knocked all notion of a comeback out of them soon after the break. It was winter business – get in, get out, stay warm.

The Laois champions ended their season without landing a blow. They fell to the oldest truism in the game – if you can’t play in the other crowd’s half, you can’t do anything. Portarlington were waspy and cranky and deeply unafraid of their city opposition but the night required more. Their need was particularly acute around the middle third, where Craig Dias and Ben Shovlin acted as border guards for Kilmacud and were in no mood to approve anyone’s papers.

The worst of it for Port was that every Kilmacud score seemed to have a double effect. If it wasn’t already bad enough that it widened the gap between the teams, now the Laois champions had to find a way to get up the field. Goalkeeper Scott Osbourne kept going long but couldn’t find a claret shirt. Dias and Shovlin just kept getting a hand up and an arse in, nothing spectacular but always enough to keep the wind blowing in the one direction.

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“We did a huge amount of work on their kick-out,” said Crokes manager Robbie Brennan afterwards. “They have some brilliant variations, to be fair to them. They often get four inside the D, two either side and they work in pods and stuff like that. We had done loads of work on it and we were hoping that we’d be able to target it and we got a bit of joy off it.”

No kidding. The net effect was that once the game started to get away from Portarlington, there was never any sign of it coming back. Andrew McGowan’s goal after seven minutes was the first Crokes score of the night and the two-point lead it gave them was as tight as it got. They just kept adding scores and winning the kick-out, never blitzing Port but never in danger either. A dripping tap fills the bucket.

McGowan’s goal came when Shane Walsh put him away down the Cusack Stand side of the pitch and a direct sprint infield seemed to catch Portarlington off-guard. The wing-back shot early from just outside the corner of the large square and though it was well-directed, it was still watery enough for Osbourne to be disappointed he didn’t save it. The Port keeper got a hand to it but only enough to push it into the top corner.

After that, it was a professional job. Dias was in lordly form around the middle and with Dara Mullin and Shane Cunningham looking sharp in the forward line, the Crokes lead just grew and grew. By half-time, both of them had scored from play and from marks and it all washed out as a 1-5 to 0-2 lead.

There was a small chink of light for Portarlington in the black card picked up by Crokes wing-forward Adam Jones just before the break. But even that ended up breaking in Kilmacud’s favour – they bossed the opening 10 minutes of the second half and outscored Port by 0-2 to 0-0 in the period Jones was off the pitch. If the underdogs couldn’t inch closer with an extra man, what chance had they once the Dublin champions were restored to 15?

None, is what. Crokes emptied the bench and found a couple of brilliant scores from play by Paraic Purcell and another from Brian Sheehy. Long before the end, it was a matter of the size of the margin and little else.

“In fairness, we came here with high hopes,” said Portarlington manager Martin Murphy afterwards. “Maybe we were in the wrong headspace psychologically. For whatever reason, we just didn’t perform. We’re a far better team than we have performed today.

“But Kilmacud Crokes are a super team, full of flair and individual players that would get on most intercounty teams around the country. We’re under no illusions – we played poorly and we were beaten by a far better team on the night. We’re going home very disconsolate, very disappointed with our own performance.”

The Leinster final is up next for Crokes, then. Next weekend, their hurlers will attempt to join them. The year is winding down for everyone else; in Kilmacud, it’s starting to get very interesting indeed.

Kilmacud Crokes: Conor Ferris; Michael Mullin, Theo Clancy, Dan O’Brien; Shane Horan, Rory O’Carroll, Andrew McGowan (1-0); Craig Dias, Ben Shovlin; Aidan Jones, Shane Cunningham (0-2, 0-1 mark), Cian O’Connor (0-1); Hugh Kenny, Dara Mullin (0-3, 0-1 mark, 0-1 free), Shane Walsh (0-3, 0-1 mark, 0-1 free). Subs: Tom Fox for Walsh, 43 mins; Paraic Purcell (0-2) for Horan, 47 mins; Cillian O’Shea for Cunningham, 52 mins; Jeff Kenny for McGowan, 55 mins; Brian Sheehy (0-1) for Dias, 58 mins

Black card: Jones, 29-39 mins

Portarlington: Scott Osbourne; Cathal Bennett, Diarmuid Bennett, Alex Mohan; Stuart Mulpeter, Robbie Piggott, Jason Moore; Paddy O’Sullivan, Sean Byrne; Adam Ryan (0-2), Ronan Coffey, Rioghan Murphy; Jake Foster, David Murphy, Colm Murphy (0-2, 0-2 frees). Subs: Darragh Galvin for Coffey, 43 mins, Darragh Slevin for Mulpeter, 47 mins; Eoin McCann for Foster, 51 mins; Eoin Slevin for Galvin, 53 mins; Johnny Fulham for Ryan, 63 mins

Black card: Moore, 56-64 mins

Referee: David Hickey (Carlow)