O’Flynn: Qualifier route stood to us

Geraldine O’Flynn defines herself by the scores missed, rather than those tallied.

The industrious wing-back has contributed an average of two points in each of Cork’s outings this summer, but is still haunted by her unsuccessful effort in the dying embers of the Munster final.

Trailing 1-17 to 1-16, Cork’s bid for a 10th provincial title on the hop hung by a thread and when a 40-metre free was garnered in the 59th minute, it fell to the 25-year old to try and rescue the cause.

O’Flynn’s effort bounced off the crossbar and back into play, with the hooter sounding thereafter.

“I was wishing it every last inch and hoping it might carry, but it wasn’t good enough,” said the PE and Maths teacher. “We were just lucky that it wasn’t knockout.”

The defeat condemned Eamonn Ryan’s charges to the qualifier route, but Flynn maintains the unfamiliar road travelled to Sunday’s final has better equipped the champions for the challenge of Monaghan.

“The backdoor helped us, we had matches every two weeks. It was kind of rolling on and we were picking up momentum as we were going on. It was new territory, but we can definitely say it benefited us.

“Every player put their shoulder to the wheel to get us over the line against Armagh and a similar approach was needed for the quarter-final against Dublin.

“We were 12 points down with 16 minutes to go, but we knew there was time left.

“I remember Briege Corkery turning to me and telling me to get the message across there was still time and not to be going for goals. We knocked over four points and then Rhona Ní Bhuachalla goaled. We didn’t force it, we kept calm and the scores came.

“After the Dublin game, people said it had been a shock that we came back and while it might have been a shock, training had been going well. When we did click in the last quarter, it felt like training and how well things were going on the training pitch and that rolled over into the Kerry game.

“The challenge is now to see can we keep that going for one last 60 minutes on Sunday.”