McConville turns tide as Cross show their mettle

GAELIC GAMES ALL-IRELAND CLUB SFC SEMI-FINALS: Crossmaglen Rangers 3-8 Dr Crokes 2-8:FOR 20 minutes Dr Crokes of Killarney threw the kitchen sink at champions Crossmaglen on Saturday. It made no difference though and when the south Armagh men were still eyeballing them through the ceramic shards, Crokes' willpower understandably wavered a little.

It may be more descriptive than prescriptive to say that the way to beat Crossmaglen in All-Ireland semi-finals is to stop them scoring goals but in the two (out of eight) that they have lost, against Portlaoise and St Vincent’s, the perennial Ulster champions have been restricted to points.

Goals were vital this time. You can question the extent to which they can be planned but Crossmaglen’s three were all the result of clinical thinking in attack as well as the refusal to go for easy points. And Stephen Kernan’s in particular was taken deliberately when a point would have been the percentage call. “They take risks,” said Crokes manager Harry O’Neill, “and they take chances and they go for the jugular when they see it and that’s why they’re in an All-Ireland final.”

Team captain Kernan will have an anxious wait, as he got a straight red in the 46th minute for allegedly striking Kieran O’Leary. His manager Tony McEntee said he hadn’t seen the incident but indicated that any proposed ban would be contested.

It hadn’t looked as if availability for the final would be an issue in the first quarter, as Crokes’ centrefield of Johnny Buckley and Ambrose O’Donovan took a grip on the middle, creating space to allow Eoin Brosnan thunder through from centre-back. The movement among their forwards, orchestrated by Colm Cooper, saw five of them on the scoreboard from play in the first half.

If the tendency to drop a few kicks short might have caused concern, reassurance came in the hapless inaccuracy of Cross who got just one point in 22 minutes.

All the while the Kerry side picked off points and in the 20th minute O’Donovan’s dropping ball was touched into the net by Daithí Casey. It was now 1-5 to 0-1, a larger margin even than Crossmaglen had to negotiate against their namesakes from Kilmacud in last year’s semi-final.

But there’s an archive vault of experience downloaded into Crossmaglen’s hard drive. Fifteen years ago this week their first semi-final ended in victory against then champions Laune Rangers. Manager McEntee played centre-forward that day and beside him on the left wing was Oisín McConville. If there was a sense on Saturday of Oisín i ndiaidh ne Féinne, the 36-year-old still managed to have a major impact.

With his team shooting blanks under the swirling pressures of the first 20 minutes and reeling from Casey’s goal, it was McConville who showed the way. With awareness and preternatural cool, he took on the entire Crokes’ defence to slot his team’s first score from play. A minute later he rose magnificently to pluck down Tony Kernan’s long kick and although falling, deftly managed to lay off the ball to Michael McNamee who slotted the ball into the net.

In a trice the margin was down to a score. Although Cooper fed O’Donovan for a point in reply, injury-time proved expensive as the Munster champions conceded two avoidable frees, which Aaron Kernan and McConville cashed in for an interval score of 1-4 to 1-6.

As the latter put it afterwards, “to go in at two points down was a result for us, considering the way we played”. McEntee hadn’t been slow to make changes and the most significant switch was the introduction of David McKenna in the 17th minute. Injured and unable to train for a week or two before the match the big centrefielder was sent into action to stem the flood surging through the middle and he did precisely that.

Much pre-match discussion concerned the two number 13s and although Cooper was much the more visible in the first half, it was Armagh’s Jamie Clarke who took over thereafter. TG4 man of the match Clarke – frequently over-flown by aimless long ball in the wind-assisted first half – popped up everywhere in the second half.

Cooper for his part was becalmed. Marked impressively by James Morgan, the Kerry captain wasn’t supplied with great possession and when he drifted out to try to source it himself he was invariably too far from goal to make things happen.

Clarke didn’t have to make so much happen as his colleagues had the upper hand but his work rate and sniping were a constant torment for Crokes. He popped up twice in the seven-man move that led to Stephen Kernan squeezing an improbable shot off the post and into the net four minutes after half-time. He kicked an exquisite point from the left to make it 2-7 to 1-6 in the 40th minute. Four up and with the weather turning from sunshine to hail, Cross looked up to the task of seeing out the match but there was a further twist.

Brosnan, who had been on the back foot in the third quarter, motored forward again to kick a point. Then he sent in a long delivery for Cooper to flash to Brian Looney whose shot came back off the post for substitute Chris Brady to hammer into the net.

Out of apparently nowhere Crokes were level but the unexpected parity lasted only a minute. McConville’s free found replacement Kyle Carragher and he moved the ball to Tony Kernan whose chip into the goalmouth broke for Aaron Kernan. He took one look at the goal and drove home the decisive score.

Asked had the ebb and flow reminded him of the previous year against Kilmacud, McEntee stripped the match back to its essentials: “Yeah, well you need to be ahead at the end.”

CROSSMAGLEN: P Hearty; P McKeown, P Kernan, J Morgan; A Kernan (1-3, three points frees), D O'Callaghan, S Finnegan; J Hanratty, S Kernan (1-0); M McNamee (1-0), T Kernan, A Cunningham (0-1); J Clarke (0-1), O McConville (0-2, one free), K Brennan. Subs: B McKeown for O'Callaghan (11 mins); D McKenna (0-1) for Finnegan (17 mins); M Ahearne for McNamee (29 mins); K Carragher for Brennan (45 mins); G Carragher for McConville (63 mins).

DR CROKES:A Kelly; J Payne, L Quinn, K McMahon; F Fitzgerald, E Brosnan (0-1), D O'Leary; A O'Donovan (0-1), J Buckley; A Kenneally (0-1), D Casey (1-0), B Looney (0-1); C Cooper (0-3, two frees), K O'Leary, J Doolan (0-1). Subs: C Brady (1-0) for Kenneally (51 mins), S O'Neill for Looney (58 mins).

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath)