North v South. Ulster v Munster. Who’s going to come out on top?
They weren’t supposed to be here.
Rewind the clock back six weeks or so and you wouldn’t find many people predicting a Slaughtneil v Dr. Crokes club final on St. Patrick’s Day.
According to the experts – let’s not forget SportsJOE’s own Colm Parkinson was among them – it was all set up for a meeting of the 2015 champions, Corofin and the 2014 champions, St. Vincent’s, but two clubs who are powerhouses of club football in their own right didn’t read the script.
Slaughtneil’s defeat to Cuala in the All-Ireland club hurling semi-final brought an end to dreams of a miraculous treble for the Derry club, but it would still be a monumental achievement if they could go one step further than defeat to Corofin at the same stage two years ago.
Not for the first time this season, the odds are quite heavily stacked against them (Dr. Crokes are 1/2 to bring home the Andy Merrigan Cup) but if you think that will intimidate them, then you don’t know Slaughtneil very well.
Though only a small club at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains, the Ulster Champions are a side stacked with talent and in Mickey Moran, they have one of wiliest managers in the game.
Chrissy McKaigue’s dominance of Diarmuid Connolly in the semi-final is the most recent and obvious reference point for Moran’s men – McKaigue scored four points from centre back while keeping Connolly to a point – but Slaughtneil have much more to them than their fearless leader at number six.
This is something special we're seeing from Chrissy McKaigue #TheToughest pic.twitter.com/1aHBhueZIh
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) February 11, 2017
Goalkeeper Antoin McMullan, for example, hasn’t conceded a Championship goal since November 2015. November 2015!
Francis McEldowney has buckets of inter-county experience and by the time he’s finished his career, Brendan Rogers will have the same.
Then there’s the Bradleys. Patsy, still one of the most complete midfielders around and Christopher (Sammy) leading from the front in attack.
They’ll take beating, but their opponents on Friday are one of the few clubs capable of topping them.
With five Munster club titles since 2006, Dr. Crokes have been a familiar presence in the latter stages of the club championships in the last decade or so, but this will be only their second final appearance following defeat to the mighty Crossmaglen after a replay ten years ago.
This final, then, gives them the chance to shake off their tag as ‘nearly men’ and if they show as much bottle as they did in victory over Corofin in the semi-final then you’d be a brave man to back against them.
In the likes of Kieran O’Leary, Fionn Fitzgerald, Johnny Buckley and, of course, the Gooch, Crokes have plenty of star names and all of them were influential in defeating the Connacht Champions.
It was the contributions of some of the lesser-heralded supporting cast that really stood out, however, with the clever probing of Brian Looney, the trojan work of Ambrose O’Donovan and the lung bursting run of Daithi Casey to set up a vital goal for Jordan Kiely providing plenty for the Crokes faithful to shout about on a dank day in Limerick.
The Killarney outfit are so talented that they have the ability to blow Slaughtneil away early if the mood takes them; witness Kieran O’Leary knocking over five points before half-time against Corofin.
Something tells us that if they’re going to have to do it the hard way if they’re going to mark the 25th anniversary of their first All-Ireland by winning their second.
It’s going to be epic. Who’s your money on?
