Sice sizes up the Crokes challenge

Gavin Cummiskeyfinds the Corofin coach chewing on the Kilmacud challenge, even if he hasn't been watching too many of their videos!

HUNGER COULD well separate Corofin and Kilmacud Crokes or maybe one individual will dominate proceedings. The last meeting of Dublin and Galway teams ended in a jarring early season experience for new capital manager Pat Gilroy last weekend.

He may well glance over the loss of a sizeable quotient of Kilmacud Crokes players but this is offset by the five Corofin men who will rejoin Liam Sammon’s panel when this meeting of tribes reaches a natural conclusion.

That will come Saturday or March 17th.

Corofin manager Jimmy Sice initially adopted the not wholly untrue line when asked about preparing for Kilmacud Crokes in the neutral venue of Mullingar: “We haven’t studied their videos, to be quite honest with you. We’ve worked on our game. That has been our target all along.

“I’d expect our defence to be fairly tight and put pressure on them to score from play. It will come down very much to our defences.”

Or, more accurately, it will come down to curtailing the marksmen. Mark Vaughan, in particular, needs to be kept out of range in dead ball scenarios. Crokes have others capable of dominating a game, like Longford’s Brian Kavanagh, while they also beat Dublin recently.

Sice eventually conceded that certain Crokes matches have been seen so they are tuned into the nuances of the South Dublin superclub but, really, it has always been about promoting the wealthy crop of talent he inherited at under-eights, when coaching his son Gary, now an integral part of the senior side.

“That’s true. Most of them I’ve been with, Aidan Donnellan and Kieran Comer I would have won under-21s with them, but most of the lads have been there with me at under-eights.

“It was a natural development because these guys have been winners all the way up along at local and club level. They have the medals at under-14, under-16, minor and under-21.”

He also credits the work of Frank Morris, Ger Burke and PJ Langan: “They and the likes have been there with me up to under-16s and then we went back down again.”

Eventually he became a senior selector but only stepped into the main facilitator’s role in 2008. It was an opportune time to rejoin the nucleus of a group he helped nurture, as they finally reach full potential.

The revival of Corofin to their present status is an interesting tale in itself. From 1977 up to 1991 they were unable to win a senior county title but have since taken nine, four Connacht championships and the All-Ireland in 1998.

“That has to be put down to the restructuring at underage that Frank Morris did,” Sice explains. “Also, we had a lot of good footballers coming along at this stage.

“The primary schools also deserve credit. There were other patches when there wasn’t the footballers, simple as that.”

They also possesses that vital mix of youth and experience, with five All-Ireland club winners still on the panel but Michael Comer is out due to a cruciate knee injury.

Corofin find themselves on the verge of becoming one of the great football clubs but, like Crokes, they are reaching full maturity. One group will crumple to their knees as dusk approaches on Saturday evening.

“There is plenty of talk about the All-Ireland. Of course there is. We haven’t been here for 10 years (Crokes won their solitary title in 1995). But these lads haven’t won an All-Ireland. A lot of them haven’t been there before. Hunger is a great thing.”