Kerry Senior Club Football Final
Dr Crokes 1-15
Dingle 0-11
DR CROKES COLLECTED their 11th Kerry Senior Club Championship title, and first since 2018, as they reversed an earlier round defeat to Dingle to see off the defending champions by seven points in Tralee.
A month ago in their Group 2 meeting, Dingle had six points to spare over Dr Crokes, but the absence of the injured Tom O’Sullivan for the champions, and the input from Micheal Burns for the Killarney club, helped turn this result around.
Tony Brosnan kicked nine points, four from play, while Burns – fresh from a summer sojourn in America – quarterbacked proceedings for the winners, who benefitted from Cian McMahon’s early goal and never really looked troubled thereafter.
As per, the Geaney clan did the heavy lifting for defending champions Dingle, with cousins Paul, Conor, Dylan and Mikey accounting for all their 11 points, but they came up a little short against a Dr Crokes team that were on point in most departments.
Though Conor Geaney kicked Dingle in a first minute lead, the well-oiled Crokes machine was up and purring by the fifth minute when Brosnan pointed from Brian Looney assist, and a minute later Tom Doyle placed a perfect pass over the Dingle defence for Cian McMahon to goal from at the second bite, after Gavin Curran had almost dispossessed him.
Points from Brosnan (two) and McMahon pushed Crokes into a 1-4 to 0-1 lead but Dingle never looked panicked, and points from Conor, Mikey and Dylan Geaney in the 13th, 15th and 17th minutes to make it a one score game, 1-4 to 0-4.
Brosnan and the always industrious Burns replied with scores to open up a five-point lead, and it should have been eight a minute later when Brosnan turned provider for Gavin O’Shea in front of goal but the manager’s son was denied a goal by a goal-line block from Niall Geaney.
Brosnan and Paul Geaney swapped scores as Dr Crokes led 1-7 to 0-5 at half time.
The second half continued in equally tight fashion, with both sides trading points at regular intervals but Dingle could never find the goal they needed to properly trouble Dr Crokes. Burns and Geaney exchanged points early in the second half, Shane Murphy denied Dylan Geaney with a smart save, and Brosnan converted another free.
Another Brosnan point put Crokes seven ahead before points from Paul Geaney and two from Dylan Geaney cut the gap back to three.
On the went, score for score: Brosnan, Dylan Geaney, Burns, Evan Looney, but Dingle couldn’t eat into that five-point half time margin and their challenge fizzled out with a late red card for Conor Flannery with Brosnan, fittingly, knocking over the game’s final score to deliver the title from Dingle’s hands into Dr Crokes.
Scorers for Dr Crokes: T Brosnan 0-9 (5f), M Burns 0-4, C McMahon 1-1, E Looney 0-1.
Scorers for Dingle: D Geaney 0-5, P Geaney 0-3, C Geaney 0-2 (1f), M Geaney 0-1.
DINGLE
- Gavin H Curran
- Connor Flannery,
- Conor O’Sullivan
- Seán Óg Moran
- Niall Geaney
- Tom ‘Leo’ O’Sullivan
- Darragh O’Sullivan
- Barry O’Sullivan
- Billy O’Connor
- Brian O’Connor
- Paul Geaney, Mikey Geaney
- Dylan Geaney
- Conor Geaney
- Cathal Bambury
Subs: Matthew Flaherty for B O’Connor (50), Micheal Flannery for S Óg Moran (51), Tadhg de Brún for D O’Sullivan (58), Breandan Kelliher for C Geaney (62)
DR CROKES
- Shane Murphy
- Evan Looney
- Fionn Fitzgerald
- Neil O’Shea
- Michael Potts
- Gavin White
- Brian Looney
- Mark O’Shea
- Charlie Keating
- Micheál Burns
- Gavin O’Shea
- Tom Doyle
- Tony Brosnan
- David Shaw
- Cian McMahon
Subs: John Payne for N O’Shea (inj, 36), Kieran O’Leary for T Doyle (55), David Naughten for C McMahon (62), Mark Cooper for M Potts (64)
Referee: Seamus Mulvhill (St Senans)