Making the right connections

All-Ireland Club Football Final Focus on Dr Crokes: Ian O'Riordanexamines the many ties between the 1992 All-Ireland champions and the current crop of hopefuls

You'd expect some ties between the Dr Crokes team that hopes to win the All-Ireland club football title on Saturday and that which won it 15 years ago but in fact the ties are uncanny. Between the management and players there are so many parallels coupled with so many coincidences that in ways they seem like a second coming of the 1992 team, which collected a first All-Ireland title for the famous Killarney club.

Whatever about six degrees of separation, in this case only one degree is required. Pat O'Shea, for a start, is manager this time and in the 1992 final, playing at corner forward, scored the decisive goal that produced the 1-11 to 0-13 win over then Dublin champions Thomas Davis. His brother, Seán, was also captain that day.

It was Seán who in 1992 insisted Dr Crokes be allowed to bring their mascot on to the field before the final, the now legendary "either he comes out or the team doesn't" incident. That mascot, then a skinny, ginger-haired eight-year-old known as "The Gooch", starts at corner forward in Saturday's final as more or less the same skinny, ginger-haired Colm Cooper.

It's probably not entirely appreciated how influential Pat O'Shea has been on Cooper's football career. It's said Cooper's two-handed style is inspired by O'Shea, whose days as an international basketball player helped develop that style in the first place. It's also said Cooper is O'Shea reincarnated, or a sort of revenge for all the years O'Shea never got to play with Kerry.

"The Gooch really is a mould of Pat O'Shea," says Eddie "Tatler" O'Sullivan. "He was around Pat all the time growing up, and they're very much the same type of player.

"And Pat has got The Gooch going very well again, thank God. He's enjoying his football again, that's the big thing, because he did go through a rough period there last year. But he's back to his best now all right."

O'Sullivan is talking from experience here, given he was manager of the 1992 All-Ireland winning team, and is selector with O'Shea this time around. There are family ties as well: O'Sullivan's daughter Deborah Ann is also the wife of O'Shea, and mother of their four children.

Such family ties are nothing exceptional in the club scenario, though in Crokes and O'Sullivan's case they possibly are (his son, Pat, is also currently club chairman). He's also one of the best known and most experienced figures in Kerry football, having served several years as a county football selector.

He's therefore approaching Saturday's final against Armagh champions and three-time All-Ireland winners Crossmaglen with a mixture of caution and confidence: "Preparations gave gone quite well, actually, but we know we're coming up against a very strong team in Crossmaglen. But sure that's all part of the game.

"But we're excited and looking forward to it, 1992 was a great occasion for the club and it's great to be back there again. But I wouldn't make too many comparisons with this team and the 1992 team. This team is very young, with an average age of about 21. The age is the big thing really. The average age back then would have been 27 or 28. In saying that, we're ready to give it our best shot and we'll see what happens after that."

One thing O'Sullivan didn't have to worry about in 1992 was the task of also managing Kerry, the situation O'Shea has found himself in since taking over the county job from Jack O'Connor last November. O'Shea has been out practically every night of the week so far this year performing that dual role - and win or lose on Saturday, at least life will become a little simpler.

"I've been very impressed at the way he's handled both jobs," says O'Sullivan. "But then Pat has been involved in football or management nearly his whole life. Football is his life really. He's happy in both jobs at the moment, but sure he has only Saturday to get through now and he'll be free to concentrate on the Kerry job after that. Although he's definitely enjoying it.

"But then Pat has also put in an awful lot of work over the last few years, given it everything, and he's getting his reward now. Hopefully it will work out for him now on Saturday."

One further parallel between the 1992 and 2007 teams is that nothing has come easy. In 1987 Crokes reached their first county final since 1914, only to lose to Kenmare after a last-minute goal. A year later they lost an equally close county final to St Kieran's, before their persistence finally paid off when winning the 1991 county final over Desmonds - sending them on their way to the All-Ireland triumph.

The current team have endured two narrow defeats to divisional side South Kerry in the county final, though still progressed to represent Kerry in the Munster championship. The draw with Kildare champions Moorefield in last month's semi-final was another reminder that tradition counts for little in the heat of the club championship. The 1992 team are testament to that, and the 2007 team are surrounded by enough ties to know as much.