Epic turnaround takes Charleville back to top tier

Heartbreak for Fr O'Neill's after Charleville come back from nine points down

Sun, 04 Oct, 2020 - 14:31

Therese O’Callaghan

Cork Senior A HC Final: Charleville 1-23 Fr O’Neill’s 4-13

The proverbial game of two halves in Páirc Uí Chaoimh today as Charleville regained their status as a top-tier hurling club. The gale was an influential factor in this Co-Op Superstores Cork SAHC final, but massive credit to both teams for the excellent fare they produced. Whole-hearted efforts from all involved.

That Charleville survived the concession of four goals says it all really. They overcame a nine-point deficit at half-time to draw level with seven minutes remaining. It was touch and go but they came out best in a dramatic finale where renowned battlers O’Neill’s hit back. Not for the first time, the Charleville subs bench played a decisive part.

So too, man-of-the-match Daniel O’Flynn, who has been an inspirational captain for Charleville in the past. He scored six marvelous points from play, five of these when he switched to centre-forward for the second half.

“It is nice for them to go over. You do whatever you can to help. I am one of the older lads in the team so I am supposed to give some kind of example every so often. Testament to all the lads that played, even the subs that came on, they were excellent.

“We left ourselves with an awful lot of work to do. The breeze only accounts for so much, we were poor in the first half but we managed to turn it around.

“My wife and I have a new baby Odhran since June. I am a little bit tired alright,” he smiled. “It takes a little bit of getting used to. It is great, a good distraction when you go home because he doesn’t care whether you play good or bad.”

This was the Premier IHC champions of 2018 and 2019 going head-to-head for the Jim Forbes Cup.

With the wind at their backs, Fr O’Neill’s got the first score of the game after 30 seconds. They proceeded to register 1-5 unanswered with Declan Dalton nailing the penalty following a foul on himself. Liam O’Driscoll too stood out with three points.

Charleville didn’t find the target until the 13th minute, Darragh Fitzgibbon’s free steadying the nerves. They were rewarded with two more points from Mark Kavanagh and O’Flynn.

Fr O’Neill’s upped the pace again landing four points on the trot, while a shot from Kevin O’Sullivan was brilliantly pushed out for a ‘65 by Cian Collins. The Imokilly representatives remained in the ascendancy, 1-11 to 0-5 at the interval.

Given the strength of the wind, the question was, would the lead be sufficient?

It was now Charleville’s turn to see if they could go in the ascent.

Just like O’Neill’s in the first half, they rattled off a succession of scores. O’Flynn was prominent on the forty. And a goal from Fitzgibbon on 36 minutes — albeit fortuitous, deceiving Colin Sloane — helped them to within a point, 1-11 to 1-12.

A well-worked goal for Fr O’Neill’s, finished by Billy Dunne, yielded a four-point advantage.

Three from Fitzgibbon narrowed the gap. But O’Neill’s found another big score, this time Jason Hankard just before the water-break. He tapped in a goal after Dunne’s effort was stopped by Collins, 3-12 to 1-14.

With 10 minutes to play, sub James O’Brien led the charge striking a pair of outstanding points for Charleville. Another sub, Tim Hawe, followed suit. It was left to Fitzgibbon to level matters from a placed ball. Gavin Kelleher put his side into the lead for the first time with five minutes remaining.

In a hectic finale, Dalton tied matters.

Charleville, who had put their slow start behind them, maintained their advantage through impressive shooting from Fitzgibbon, O’Flynn, Andrew Cagney and Hawe.

Four up now in the third minute of stoppage.

A late goal from Dunne was not enough to deny the north Cork club another famous day in their illustrious history.

For Fitzgibbon, it was an ‘unbelievable way to win.’ “It was such a swirling wind, it wasn’t that it was strong, it was just so hard to judge the shots.

The goal was always to get up to the premier senior grade. We were unlucky we had to go back down this year.

“I just met Kieran (Kingston) there and he said he will see me on Wednesday. It is great to go back into the inter-county scene as county champions.”

Scorers for Charleville: D Fitzgibbon 1-8, (0-4 frees), D O’Flynn (0-6), A Cagney (0-3), J O’Brien and T Hawe (0-2 each), G Kelleher and M Kavanagh (0-1 each).

Scorers for Fr O’Neill’s: D Dalton (1-7, 1-0 pen, 0-2 65, 0-1 free), B Dunne (2-1), J Hankard (1-0), L O’Driscoll (0-3), K O’Sullivan and R Cullinane (0-1 each).

CHARLEVILLE: C Collins; D Butler, J Meade M O’Flynn; A Dennehy (Capt), J Buckley, F Cagney; D O’Flynn, G Kelleher; J O’Callaghan, D Fitzgibbon, J Doyle; D Casey, M Kavanagh, A Cagney.

Subs: C O’Carroll for J Doyle (20 inj), J O’Brien for D Casey (half-time), J Barry for D Butler (47), T Hawe for M Kavanagh (49), C Buckley for J O’Callaghan (60).

FR O’NEILL’S: C Sloane; M Millerick (J-Capt), S O’Connor, E Motherway; J Barry, M O’Keeffe, T Millerick; K O’Sullivan, Joe Millerick; R Cullinane, P McMahon (J-Capt), J Hankard; L O’Driscoll, D Dalton, B Dunne.

Subs: P Butler for Joe Millerick (41), E Conway for K O’Sullivan (54), John Millerick for T Millerick (56).

Referee: Colm Lyons (Nemo Rangers).