Kilmacud Crokes and their galacticos swat aside callow Éire Óg in Leinster quarter-final

Leinster Club SFC quarter-final: Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) 1-12 Eire Óg (Carlow) 0-4

The magic of the club championship stereotypically revolves around nights like Saturday in venues like Carlow’s Netwatch Cullen Park. Throw in cold and damp conditions to create an environment for big city clubs to find themselves in the middle of a nightmare disruption of general expectations.

Such a narrative didn’t entirely cover this Leinster football quarter-final. For a start, All-Ireland champions Kilmacud Crokes know that story having lost to Longford’s Mullinalaghta in the 2018 provincial final and also having the experience of a third successive campaign as Dublin champions.

Neither are Éire Óg classic rural long shots. The Carlow town team have a distinguished record in Leinster, albeit dating back to the 1990s but only four years ago they ran Ballyboden to two points in the provincial final. The problem was that they are effectively in transition, having won the county with a bunch of rookies.

That callowness was evident as they tried to break down Kilmacud at one end and keep an eye on the constantly moving parts of the champions’ sweeping attacks from the back.

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Then there were the ‘galactico’ input with the visitors boasting two of the game’s leading forwards, Paul Mannion and Shane Walsh. The latter was fitful, shooting three wides, out of a collective five.

The former contented himself with orchestrating forward movement as well as demonstrating his exceptional tackling – hand shooting out like a pickpocket’s – and was back in front of his own goal in the 12th minute to block Jordan Morrissey and thwart Éire Óg’s best goal chance.

Walsh though kicked two good frees and, at the very end, availed of Mannion’s larceny in turning over an attacking possession, to race through and although bottled up by Seán Gannon and Lee Moore, managed to get an unanswerable connection on the spilled ball.

A further grace note was applied by a point from Mannion, whose scoring threat was partly self suppressed but also wholeheartedly defended by Shane Buggy.

The winners’ big weapon was Dara Mullin, who shot 0-4 from play and got fouled for one of the converted frees.

“I thought he was fantastic,” said manager Robbie Brennan. “I thought he took it to them early on and kept going, he got a couple of nice scores. Good to see him back to that level of form, yeah.”

Three successive county titles have combined with having gone around the clock in terms of reaching both All-Ireland finals to erode the playing panel, with several members opting to go travelling. The latest losses to wanderlust were Aidan Jones and, temporarily at least, Shane Horan.

The match began cautiously in front of only a few hundred spectators – most having taken the option offered by live television coverage. Kilmacud built patiently from the back – where veteran Rory O’Carroll was again prominent and Andrew McGowan ranged everywhere including up for scores – injecting bursts of pace or clever kicked passes into the forwards.

They built a lead incrementally, which if it never looked overwhelming for a team with their advantages of possession and penetration, required Éire Óg to be sharper and more economical if they were to get back into it.

The home team resisted for a long time, pressing forward and creating platforms for attack. Their shooting wasn’t notably wayward – just four wides – although Adam McCarron will have been disappointed with two frees dropped short, but they carved out few clear cut chances.

Kilmacud’s defence was also tight, corner backs Dan O’Brien and James Murphy each making eye catching interceptions whereas at full back Theo Clancy, son of the club’s1995 All-Ireland winner Niall. maintained his form and trajectory that looks like taking his career all the way, a judgement cautiously endorsed by his manager.

“Yeah I would think so. He has pace and if he stays injury-free he’s still getting better, he’s still only 19. He’s only a baby, so plenty ahead of him, definitely one for the future.”

In a way they were too comfortable and Brennan lamented the tendency for control of the match to lapse into ponderousness in approach play.

For his counterpart, Turlough O’Brien, the main regret was not getting more out of the first half.

“We should have been a lot closer at half-time. We had two goal chances in the first half and other scoring chances we didn’t take and they were so efficient.”

He also accepted that Kilmacud had been hard to penetrate.

“Yeah, they’ve a middle third press that’s hard to get through. In the first half we got stuck on the sidelines and couldn’t get past it. I have to say they’re quite cynical too – well able to play the game, slow it down and foul you in that middle third. Break your momentum when you do have a chance of attacking. You have to learn these things. That’s football.”

Facing a 0-3 to 0-8 deficit Éire Óg were forced to chase the scoreboard in the second half and as acknowledged by Brennan, that forced them into a change of tactics, which the Dublin champions were comfortable countering.

As a result they managed just a point in the second half while conceding 1-4 – the late scores putting a harsh gloss on it from their point of view.

They finished a man short when captain Morrissey picked up a second yellow in injury-time.

KILMACUD CROKES: D Higgins; J Murphy, T Clancy, D O’Brien (0-1); R O’Carroll, A McGowan (0-2), A Quinn; M O’Leary (0-1), B Sheehy (0-1); C O’Connor, P Mannion (0-1), D Mullin (0-4); H Kenny, S Cunningham (capt), S Walsh (1-2, two frees). Subs: L Ward for O’Connor (48 mins), L Flatman for O’Carroll (55 mins), D Dempsey for Kenny (55 mins), T Fox for Cunningham (55 mins),`D Murphy for Quinn (58 mins).

ÉIRE ÓG: J Furey; C Kelly, M Furey, B Kavanagh (0-1); M Behan, S Buggy, D Ruth; J Morrissey (capt; 0-1, one free), M Ware; K Nolan, S Gannon, D Dunphy; C Hulton (0-1), R Dunphy, A McCarron (0-1, one free). Subs: L Moore for Behan (26 mins), K Nolan for Ruth (43 mins), K Chatten for D Dunphy (43 mins), J Brady for McCarron (58 mins), E Byrne for Kelly (60 mins).

Referee: Fintan Pierce (Offaly).