Great things come to those who work hardest

[team1]St Finbarr’s[/team1][score1]3-14[/score1][team2]Duhallow[/team2][score2]2-14[/score2][/score]

When Tony Leahy was dispatched as an emissary by St Finbarr’s to recruit a new manager, he knew the first question his target, Ray Keane, would ask.

What kind of lads are they?

“With a bit of organisation, we would be there or thereabouts,” Leahy told the South Kerry man. “They are fierce honest.”

Quite the mouthful. St Finbarr’s may not be the most naturally gifted side to lift the Andy Scannell Cup, but they are undoubtedly one of the more rounded. A template for incremental growth, they’re a group of well-coached players who’ve grown in maturity and as footballers to the point of fusing into this formidable force.

And do they roll up those blue sleeves and graft.

In securing a ninth Cork SFC title for the famed club from Togher, it wasn’t the haunting baggage of eight

successive final losses in a row, nor the consequent 33-year wait for this title, that elevated them. This Barrs

outfit under Keane is waist-deep in work ethic and whether that’s innate, from management or from the leaders in the changing room, is less important than the fact that the blue-collar approach is the reason they are Cork’s finest again today.

Duhallow pushed them every metre of the journey.

Indeed, they led for 35 minutes of yesterday’s captivating final and might admit that, but for a couple of identifiably decisive moments, the north-west division would have been celebrating a first title since 1991.

However, in the second period at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, most of the little surges in the game were sparked by Barrs bringing the heat: Turnovers, pushing up on kickouts, Ian Maguire upping the ante to man-of-the-match levels, driving runs from the flanks from Colin Lyons, smart interventions on both sides of midfield from Michael Shields, and telling contributions off the bench from Eoghan Finn, Colm Barrett and Glen O’Connor.

Just 99 seconds into the second half, wing-back Lyons surged from deep and through the brittle Duhallow cover to smash the game’s fourth goal. It was now 2-7 apiece in a final characterised by the willingness of both sets of coaches/management to employ the open spaces of Páirc Uí Chaoimh for creative purposes. Consequently, this was not a decider for the defensive purist. The division were the guiltier of the sides, defensively, but had enough about them going forward to build a 1-4 to 0-2 lead inside 16 minutes. They drafted Seamus Hickey out to the 40 and allowed Donncha O’Connor and Jerry O’Connor to get to work inside on the over-matched Barrs duo of Dylan Quinn and Jamie Burns.

It meant that even when the Barrs Eoin Comyns availed of that considerable space to tee up Stephen Sherlock for their first goal on 18 minutes, Duhallow were quickly five points up again (2-5 to 1-3), via a penalty from Donncha O’Connor — harshly awarded in the view of this observer, for a leg block by Dylan Quinn.

At half-time it was 2-7 to 1-7. Barrs manager Ray Keane reflected: “I thought we had enough chances to go in ahead, but took wrong options. We had to increase the intensity in the middle eight, because in the first half they were getting ball into Donncha and Jerry O’Connor a bit easy. In the second half, there was more pressure out the field, so our defenders were able to get that hand in, the ball pops out and away we go.”

If the making of a county champion was only that basic, but within Keane’s analysis is the genesis of this Barrs renaissance.

Working that bit harder.

“People have heard me going on about the heart and character of this team, and their work-rate, but that’s what is in them. They just were not going to be beaten. They are honest. Those lads will die for you. If I asked them to train seven times a week they would do it,” explained Keane, who has been patient and dogged in this pursuit.

“They need to demand it off each other, too: If any of the lads are slacking, there’ll be a quiet word, because as far as management is concerned, it’s the minimum you expect. It might sound simplistic, but it’s all about work-rate. It’s not rocket science. It’s the extra inches then that make the difference.”

The Barrs outscored Duhallow 1-4 to 0-1 in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but points from Aidan Walsh, Jerry O’Connor and a Donncha O’Connor free had the sides all square at 2-11 each by the 50th minute.

Then, a seismic shift in momentum occurred. Duhallow’s agile young keeper Patrick Doyle is only 21 and a subsequent flying stop from Stephen Sherlock offered a glimpse of his promise.

However, two unwise kickouts from the Knocknagree man, within a minute of each other, would be ravaged upon by the Barrs high press and deliver a goal (from sub Eoghan Finn) and a point, which were undeniably decisive.

“Not fair,” said Duhallow manager Padraig Kearns when it was put to him those were the game’s margin moments. “You have a dodgy kick out on one side, we miss a pass in the forward line at the other, but we were just punished more. I wouldn’t be pointing a finger at anyone. Only for Patrick we wouldn’t be in a final. In the semi-finals (against Castlehaven), he pulled off loads of good saves, so am I going to put down Doyle? No I’m not.”

As you’d expect. Now, though, Duhallow were again chasing, 3-12 to 2-11 down with nine minutes remaining. They didn’t die wondering.

Anthony O’Connor pointed, as did defender Kevin Crowley, but the experience of last year’s final, and replay loss to Nemo, was experience the Barrs had in their holster.

Michael Shields spotted Colm Barrett in space with a quick free and he pointed. Finn — who’s been a boon off the bench — scorched forward to fist another point... keeping Duhallow, and the ghosts of disappointments past, at arm’s length.

Good things come to those who work.

Scorers for St Finbarr’s:

S Sherlock (1-8, 8 frees), E Finn (1-1), C Lyons (1-0), C Dennehy, E Dennehy, D O’Brien, C Keane, C Barrett (0-1 each).

Scorers for Duhallow:

D O’Connor (1-5, 1-0 pen, 3 frees), J O’Connor (0-3, 2 frees), S Hickey (1-0), E. McSweeney (0-2), P. Walsh, A. Walsh, A. O’Connor, K Crowley (0-1 each)

ST FINBARR’S:

J Kerins; C Dennehy, J Burns, D Quinn; C Lyons, A O’Connor, C Scully; I Maguire, E Comyns; D O’Brien, M Shields, E Dennehy; C Keane, E McGreevey, S Sherlock.

Subs:

G O’Connor for Burns (half time), E Finn for Keane (41), C Barrett for McGreevey (47), R O’Dwyer for Quinn (49), R O’Mahony for E Dennehy (60+1).

DUHALLOW:

P Doyle (Knocknagree); B Daly (Newmarket), J McLoughlin (Kanturk), K Crowley (Millstreet); L O’Neill (Kanturk), K. Buckley (Knocknagree), L McLoughlin (Kanturk); P Walsh (Kanturk), A. Walsh (Kanturk); F O’Connor (Knocknagree), D O’Connor (Ballydesmond), E McSweeney (Knocknagree); J O’Connor (Boherbue), S Hickey (Rockchapel), M Vaughan (Millstreet).

Subs:

A O’Connor (Knocknagree) for Vaughan (29), K Cremin (Boherbue) for F O’Connor (41), D Moynihan (Ballydesmond) for McSweeney (57).

Referee:

D Murnane (Macroom)