Kevin O’Brien reports from Parnell Park
FOR THE FIRST time since 2012, Kilmacud Crokes will contest both the Dublin senior football and hurling finals after their thrilling semi-final wins in both codes over the past two weekends.
The footballers defeated 2016 All-Ireland champions Ballyboden St Enda’s by 2-9 to 0-9 on Saturday night, while six days earlier Crokes beat 2017 and 2018 All-Ireland champions Cuala in the hurling semi-final.
They’ll take on St Jude’s in the football final after their stunning nine-point triumph over St Vincent’s yesterday, while the hurlers face Ballyboden.
Kilmacud’s last trip to the football decider six years ago saw them fall to Ballymun Kickhams, a game that was also Johnny Magee’s last appearance for the club.
The former Dublin defender is joint-manager with Robbie Brennan and was pleased to see his side progress.
“I think it’s six years, 2012 was the last time we got to the final,” Magee said after Saturday’s victory.
“It was actually the last time I togged out, Ballymun beat us in the final that time. It’s nice to be back but now we’re back there the objective obviously is to go and win it. We put ourselves in a position to go win it. It’s nice with all the hard work that’s gone in.
“It’s been six years since we were last in a final, it’s been too long to be honest with you. We’ve had a lot of good lads over the last few years and it just hasn’t happened. The atmosphere in the club will be key.
“It’s nice to have both ourselves and the hurlers in the final. It’s a big occasion for ourselves. It would be great if the club can go on and do the double. We’re not getting carried away.
“It’s good to be back in a final but we’ve still got a big challenge ahead of us.
“Our objective this year was to get to a final and we’ve done that now. The next thing is to try and go win it now.”
First-half goals from Craig Dias and Shane Horan were vital for Kilmacud, while Dublin forward Paul Mannion sent over three frees. Six-time All-Ireland winner Cian O’Sullivan returned from injury to play a key role at centre-back.
“Cian obviously came off in the All-Ireland final against Tyrone after 20 minutes so our objective when we got him back to ourselves was to try and get him back on the field,” said Magee. “In fairness to our physios they’ve done a great job getting him back.
“It’s been over six weeks since he played the All-Ireland final so we’ve been lucky to be able to manage it to get ourselves to a semi-final and hope that he would be fit for a semi-final. Luckily it worked that way.
“We made hard work of it in the second-half, we missed some easy shots particularly in the first 10 minutes when we could have made life a little bit easier. That’s things we need to be working on for the next day.
“We worked the goals well. There was another couple of opportunities that we left behind us as well. I think we were trying to force it, probably a little too hesitant on the ball where we allowed them to dispossess us. I think when we did move the ball quickly we caused them problems. We’ve stuff to work on. We’ll have a look at the video and see.
“Ballyboden are a good side. We knew the way the game is now, the way lads are conditioned we look to make space and keep the width to create the space for lads to play the ball into and run into.
“That was one of our objectives. The way the game has gone, you’ve got big physical men in there and if they’ve got numbers behind the ball at times you need to keep width.”
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