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It’s the match-up that all the football purists wanted.

Dr Crokes and Corofin, two of the modern era’s finest proponents of attacking football, will go head-to-head in the All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final on March 17. Forget about defence, this promises to be a straight shoot-out for the biggest prize in club football.

Crokes were comfortable enough against Mullinalaghta, save for a shaky period in the first half when they conceded a second goal and had a man sent off in a matter of minutes.

No one in the entire world - apart from one umpire behind the Crokes goal - seems to have seen the incident that resulted in Johnny Buckley receiving his marching orders in the 18th minute of play. None of TG4’s cameras picked up on the apparent flashpoint, but the referee’s match report later confirmed that Buckley was dismissed for striking his opponent.

My understanding is that Dr Crokes have their own footage and they are adamant that there is no clear evidence of a striking motion. Club officials have described it as a “coming together” and indications are that they will be appealing the decision.

The experienced midfielder will be a massive loss to Crokes if he is unavailable for the decider. As strong Pat O’Shea’s squad is, you simply can’t replace a player of Buckley’s calibre. If the officials really did get it wrong then you would naturally hope that the red gets rescinded and he’s free to participate.

David Shaw relocated to midfield in Buckley’s stead and he had a fine game, as did the typically accurate Tony Brosnan who kicked six points (four from play). Forwards Kieran O’Leary, Brian Looney and Gavin O’Shea also did well and in defence, athletic Kerry star Gavin White put in a Man of the Match performance from centre back.

The obvious worry for the Kerry champions is the dreaded high ball, a weakness that was exposed once again in Semple Stadium the last day. Corofin have very clever forwards, most notably Ian Burke and Gary Sice, so the Crokes rearguard will need to be on high alert from start to finish. Fionn Fitzgerald was brilliant in the second half against Mullinalaghta but apart from him and Gavin White (who did most of his good work going forward) you couldn’t say that any Crokes defender had a particularly great game.

Corofin are slight favourites to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup on St Patrick’s Day and they are undoubtedly a quality side, but I still think Crokes are that small bit slicker in attack. The key will be cutting off the supply line to Corofin’s dangerous forwards and when you look at it like that, getting Johnny Buckley off the hook could well be the difference between winning and losing.

Pic: Sportsfile.