Legion 0-17
Dr Crokes 0-15
THE great five-in-a-row dream died for Dr Crokes on home soil this Sunday night when they were out-pointed and out-smarted in the most dramatic fashion by deadly rivals Legion in an enthralling county senior football championship third round tie.
In a passionate and entertaining local derby encounter, before a bumper shirt-sleeved crowd at Lewis Road, Legion produced a gritty performance to register a shock 0-17 to 0-15 win in a game that had every ingredient required to be considered a classic.
There was precious little between the sides all through and although Legion looked to have more of an edge in the opening half, the sides divided 16 points evenly at the break, the outstanding Conor Keane and man-of-the-moment James O’Donoghue accounting for Legion’s scores.
It was the Peter Keane trained Legion, in fact, that controlled the opening quarter of an hour with the aforementioned duo lethally accurate but a succession of points courtesy of Chris Brady, Daithi Casey and Kieran O’Leary kept Crokes right in there with them.
Although Johnny Buckley was winning more than his share of ball around the middle of the park, the towering Padraig Lucey was also fielding well and the main difference between the sides was Legion’s incredible workrate when not in possession as they hustled to win back the ball, giving the Crokes half forward line, in particular, very little time or space to play the running game they favour.
Early second half points from Johnny Buckley, Cian Brady and Jamie Doolan were quickly cancelled out by Legion with Conor Keane, David O’Sullivan and the tigerish Kieran Slattery – a late call-up – covering enormous ground in the build-up.
Crokes’ game plan was clearly to curb the threat of James O’Donoghue and captain Fionn Fitzgerald was handed the considerable responsibility of doing so. He stuck to him like Bostik but it backfired somewhat as the speedy Fitzgerald was prevented from concentrating on his more familiar running game and his trademark surges out of defence were badly missed by the reigning champions.
Points from Conor Keane and James O’Donoghue drew Legion level and when Daithi Casey and centre back Damien O’Sullivan swapped scores late on, the game was set for a grandstand finish with both sets of supporters becoming very animated.
James O’Donoghue and Crokes’ sub Micheál Burns both registered points as the game drew to a thrilling close but, appropriately enough, it was Conor Keane who sealed the tie in Legion’s favour and earned them a quarter-final berth few neutrals would have predicted.
Tempers boiled over a little in the dramatic closing stages but, overall, the game was played in a very fair if fiercely competitive manner, even if a number of off-the-ball flashpoints went unnoticed by the officials.
Legion’s star men on the night were Conor Keane, James O’Donoghue, Damien O’Sullivan, Chris Davis, David O’Sullivan and, at the back, the outstanding Podge O’Connor.
On a night Crokes will prefer to forget, their best players were Johnny Buckley, Eoin Brosnan, Shane Doolan, Daithi Casey and Cian Brady.
Legion scorers: Conor Keane 0-6 (0-1 free); James O’Donoghue 0-5 (0-2 frees); David O’Sullivan 0-4 (0-2 frees); Damien O’Sullivan 0-1, Thomas Moriarty 0-1.
Legion: Brian Kelly, Chris Davis, Tom Slattery, Podge O’Connor, Jonathan Lyne, Damien O’Sullivan, Danny Sheahan, Kevin Breen, Padraig Lucey, Kieran Slattery, James O’Donoghue, Billy McGuire, David O’Sullivan, Michael O’Sullivan, Conor Keane. Sub: Jack O’Neill for Kieran Slattery; Thomas Moriarty.
Crokes: Conor O’Loughlin, John Payne, Eoin Brosnan, David O’Leary, Fionn Fitzgerald, Alan O’Sullivan, Shane Doolan, Mike Milner, Johnny Buckley, Daithi Casey, Kieran O’Leary, Brian Looney, Tony Brosnan, Chris Brady, Jamie Doolan. Subs: Ambrose O’Donovan for David O’Leary, Shane Myres for Mike Milner, Micheál Burns for Tony Brosnan, Gavin O’Shea for Jamie Doolan.
Referee: Cathal Dubhda (An Gaeltacht)
- In today’s other SFC games, Laune Rangers just pipped East Kerry in a 3-13 to 2-15 thriller, Mid Kerry beat Feale Rangers 2-12 to 2-5 and Shannon Rangers overcame St Michael’s Foilmore 2-12 to 0-12.
