'They brought their A-game to the table'

Vince Casey has seen plenty of pretty good Dr Crokes teams come and go – he came and went on a fine one himself when they won…

Vince Casey has seen plenty of pretty good Dr Crokes teams come and go – he came and went on a fine one himself when they won their only club All-Ireland back in 1991.

But he doesn’t remember seeing one click into gear as sweetly as his current charges have been doing, both within Kerry and without.

That must have been as good as they’ve played?

“It was,” he agreed. “We did the same against Dingle in the first half. We wanted a good start and we got that. Our forward movement was incredible.

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“We did about 15 minutes of football at training on Thursday night and the forwards were moving so well I said to myself that these lads were ready to explode.

“There was ferocious movement and every one of them contributed. Brian Looney was exceptional out there. The whole movement and creation of space was marvellous – they brought the A game to the table.”

Their exit at the All-Ireland semi-final stage came at Crossmaglen’s hands last time around.

The sting remains and the lack of an All-Ireland is a pebble in their shoe.

“Of course it’s driving them on,” said Casey. “It’s the one thing that’s missing off their CV. I played in the ’91 team and people say that we were the best team, but this is the best team.

“They have won three county championships in-a-row, which is phenomenal for a club team in Kerry. They have won Munster back-to-back.”

Malachy Clerkin

Malachy Clerkin

Malachy Clerkin is a sports writer with The Irish Times