Kilmacud Crokes looking to keep the treble dream alive beyond Dublin

These are busy days around Stillorgan. The large suburban club with the small parish feel, Kilmacud Crokes, will this weekend look to keep the treble dream alive beyond Dublin. For now at least their women’s football team is still paving the way.

The men may have been garnering more attention, winning a first double-double (as in back-to-back Dublin titles in football and hurling), only for the women’s team to make it a first club treble after their breakthrough victory in the county.

After losing two finals in the previous three years, Crokes got the better of Thomas Davis this year, winning 2-9 to 0-12 at Parnell Park, and have since followed that up with a first Leinster title, scoring a convincing 4-15 to 0-9 win over Tinahely earlier this month.

Next up in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final are Monaghan champions Donaghmoyne: founded in 1991, they’ve won the last 20 county titles in succession, plus five All-Irelands and 14 Ulster titles. Crokes know exactly what to expect.

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Crokes manager Paddy O’Donoghue doesn’t deny the challenge that awaits, especially as Donaghmoyne are also at home. Still, his team’s confidence is rising, and the mood around Stillorgan couldn’t be better (the hurlers will also look to make a Leinster club final on Sunday, the footballers booking their place last weekend).

O’Donoghue is in his fourth season in charge, and puts the breakthrough this year in part down to lessons of the past.

“A few things came right,” O’Donoghue says. “Definitely the bit of experience. Foxrock won six or seven in a row, were a formidable team before. We’re also that bit older now too, most of our team mid-20s, and learned a little from the hard knocks.

“We’d a bit of luck too, the Dublin women’s team were beaten a little earlier, so the club players there had more time to integrate back with us. We avoided injuries too, and that always helps.

“In the Dublin final, against Thomas Davis, we played very well in the first half, maybe put a bit of pressure on ourselves in the second half, thinking about defending a lead rather than go out and do what we should. But we have five or six of our team have won All-Ireland medals on the pitch with Dublin, most of the team have played underage with Dublin, so that’s counting now as well.”

That parish feel within the club and team is real: new club chair Joan Kehoe has three daughters on the panel, including standout player Aoife Kane; Molly Lamb’s mother Daphne for years chaired the women’s football section, and there are many links to the breakthrough 1995 All-Ireland-winning men’s team.

O’Donoghue was also on that team, as was club groundsman John Sweeney, his daughter Emer current women’s captain, and so was Frank Rutledge, his daughter Éabha player of the match in the Leinster final, scoring a hat-trick.

Crokes do have the numbers: 1,372 female playing members, and that’s just in football, from under-6 to three adult teams, with about 30 players on each (plus around 1,000 playing camogie).

After the breakthrough win this year, win or lose on Sunday, O’Donoghue believes the women’s game will continue to prosper.

“We’d never won Dublin before, so you’d be a strange type of animal to be looking any further ahead. I did feel if we got through Dublin, the pressure would be off us in Leinster, we’d be in bonus territory, and we’d play that but more relaxed.

“And same for Sunday, we know we’re up against it. Donaghmoyne have won five club All-Irelands, so they know what they’re at, maybe at the opposite end to us.

“I was on the Crokes team that won the first county title, in 1992, and in the previous six years, I won two championship matches. Once we won the first, then Crokes have been close to the top of the rankings in Dublin. It’s similar with the hurling, once they had their first success, more and more titles follow.

“The team has always been very focused, committed, it just takes time to make that breakthrough. I’ve said that sometimes you need to be five or six points better than the teams who have won before, because they’re used to winning matches.

“Maybe we didn’t have that skillset in our locker room in previous years, but maybe now that we’ve got through the final we do. But it takes time, it’s hard, all the other teams are trying to get better as well.

“Still it’s that parish feel, within a big suburb, because there is a great community feel. From my team, back in 1995, there are three or four daughters of players, others might have brothers playing here too, like Conor Lamb and Molly, and Mark Davoren and Michelle, I think that all helps to bind the team together.”