Dr Crokes will need to curtail the Canavans, says O’Sullivan

By Shaun Casey

FORMER Kerry forward Sean O’Sullivan believes that if Dr Crokes can halt the impact of Darragh and Ruairi Canavan in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final showdown then they have a great chance of reaching the decider.

The four-time All-Ireland winner believes that the all-conquering Kerry champions, who have won the Division One league, the Club Championship and the County Championship along with the Munster title, will take some stopping.

Now, Errigal Ciaran stand in their way of a first All-Ireland final appearance since 2019, when they lost to Corofin. The Crokes have captured the Andy Merrigan Cup twice in their history, in 1992 and 2017, and O’Sullivan believes that they have the knowhow to advance.

“The Canavans were kept fairly quiet in the Ulster final but they got their scores from elsewhere. Still, if the Crokes are to win they’re going to have to do a similar job to Kilcoo and try to curtail the Canavans,” explained the Cromane clubman.

“If they can do that then they’ll have a great chance of getting over the line because they have great forwards themselves. They have Tony Brosnan, Micheál Burns and Gavin O’Shea at 11 pulls the strings.

“Cian McMahon is a good scorer, and they have good forwards to bring in off the bench like Kieran O’Leary so I think if Crokes can replicate what Kilcoo did with the two Canavans, which isn’t easy, then they have a great chance.”

O’Sullivan also paid tribute to Crokes manager Pat O’Shea, who returned to the hotseat this season. The former Kerry boss guided Dr Croke’s to their most recent All-Ireland triumph in 2017 and led the Kingdom to the 2008 All-Ireland final, where they lost to Tyrone.

“Pat had stepped away for a while, he had worked quite a lot with their underage and a lot of the guys that are on the Crokes team at the moment probably would have passed through Pat’s hands,” explained O’Sullivan.

“Now he’s back with the seniors, you just got the feeling when he came back that he had the raw material to work with and Pat is just a fantastic coach, and he was going to get the best out of them.

“I just have a feeling that the Crokes are on a bit of a roll at the moment and are difficult to beat. I can see them coming out the right side of a very, very tight game.”