'Everyone thinks it's a lovely day out. It's not when you lose'

By Ger McCarthy

Duhallow manager Padraig Kearns didn’t mask his disappointment at losing a cracking Cork SFC county final to St Finbarr’s despite a mammoth effort from his players.

“There was no one moment in the game when things slipped away, to be honest,” Kearns stated.

“You cannot point the blame at any one individual to be honest. You make an error in defence you are punished whereas if you slip up the other side of the pitch you probably get away with it.

“At the end of the day, the Barr’s won by three points and were three points better than us. They were simply the better team and that’s it.”

“We have put in a lot of work this year and fair enough, we got to the final. We didn’t win the county though and you might as we be out in the first round as the final when you don’t win the trophy.”

Losing a memorable encounter by three points was of little solace to the Duhallow manager who opens the division’s raised profile will benefit more of their players when it comes to inter-county selection.

“Everyone thinks it's a lovely day out. It's not when you lose. It is a sad place to be,” Kearns said.

“I’m gutted, gutted for the Duhallow players and everyone in the division. I’d love to say we will be back next year but I can’t because you never know the way things go with clubs within the division.

“Fair play to Dromtarriffe, they won a county final yesterday and that is brilliant for Duhallow football. Millstreet are in a U21 final as well and that’s equally positive. For the last 10 years plenty of clubs have gone up from our junior ranks.

“It is about time the Cork selectors took a closer look at our players and the talent that is in the division.”