Santry: Identity of opponents inspired us

Castlehaven manager Finbarr Santry has revealed taking the scalp of Nemo Rangers was the inspiration behind their second successive Cork title.

Beating the club with the record number of county titles in a final was a huge source of inspiration for the defending champions.

“This was our fifth county final and we had beaten The Barrs, O’Donovan Rossa, Clonakilty, Duhallow and the one thing we always wanted to try and do was to go out there and play Nemo,” said Santry.

“And I mean that with the highest of respect to Nemo because they’re a super football team and we wanted to see how we would fare and have a cut off them.

“Fair play to Nemo, it was a fantastic game of football and I don’t think anybody can complain about the standard.”

Santry admitted he was a little surprised Nemo didn’t place an extra defender in front of Brian Hurley to curb the inter-county starlet’s scoring threat.

“It was one fear we had, that they would double mark Brian but if they did we had a plan B and fellas had bought into it so we would have had another option.”

Santry was impressed with the cool manner in which his players made their decisions under pressure.

“I think the bit of experience (counted) and I thought our composure was good. We told them at half-time that chances would come and to take the right options. That’s what the lads did. Fellas just carried the ball or gave it to Brian (Hurley) or the fella in the better position. We kicked on from there.”

Castlehaven’s convincing reaction to Alan Cronin Snr’s first-half goal for Nemo illustrated their growing maturity, according to Santry.

“It was a killer blow and we read in the papers during the week every team that wins the county final scores a goal. We didn’t but we came back well, we were in good position at half-time and it could have been (better) if Mark (Collins) hadn’t hit the woodwork but look these things happen.”