Points, and bragging rights, for Knocknagree on senior debut
Denis O'Connor seeks out a Knocknagree colleague against Kiskeam in the Bons Secours Co. Senior AFC at Boherbue.
Local bragging rights and a winning start to life at senior level, there’s not much more Knocknagree could have asked for from this Cork Senior A championship Group B Duhallow derby.
Five weeks after earning promotion from the premier intermediate ranks and minus three starters - Danny Cooper, Padraig Collins, and Matthew Dilworth - from the team that began the delayed county final win over Kanturk because of injury, an efficient and well-drilled Knocknagree side had more than enough for neighbours Kiskeam in what was the club's first senior championship outing.
With the wind in the opening half, the Senior A newcomers led 1-2 to 0-0 at the first water break and 1-5 to 0-1 at half-time.
An unanswered 1-1 from Kiskeam’s Thomas and Gene Casey early in the second-half narrowed the gap to four and suggested a comeback was on the cards in Boherbue, but that was as close as Kiskeam came, Knocknagree quickly reasserting their dominance with four points without reply to move back out to eight in front.
Eight was the margin at the finish, a victory and performance that delighted Knocknagree manager John Fintan Daly.
“We've looked up to Kiskeam for a long time. I remember doing radio commentary for their 2016 county premier intermediate final win over Fermoy. That was the year before Knocknagree started their breakthrough. Since then we’ve won Cork and Munster junior championships in 2017, All-Ireland champions in 2018, county intermediate champions in 2019, and 2020 premier intermediate champions.
“We have lost only two of our last 25 games. There is momentum, belief, and ambition, an awful lot of ambition in a very small parish. Momentum does mean a lot. You get into a winning habit and you believe you can achieve anything.”
Crucial, added Daly, was that they began their senior journey on a winning note: “The first thing we wanted to do today was to make a statement that we could stay in senior. We didn't want to be a boomerang team that won the premier intermediate and then became a quiz question of who went senior for two months and got relegated again.”
There’s no fear of that now with Knocknagree likely to progress to the knockout stages if they can win either of their remaining two group games against Bishopstown and St Michael’s.
Goalkeeper Pa Doyle opened their account with a converted ‘45 on 10 minutes, the early exchanges pockmarked by a litany of misses on either side. Kiskeam were certainly the more wasteful, finishing the half with fives wides, while also dropping a number of shots short.
Equally frustrating from a Kiskeam perspective was the manner in which they gifted Knocknagree a 15th-minute goal, Michael Herlihy kicking a sideline straight to Fintan O’Connor who beat ‘keeper Anthony Casey.
Eoghan McSweeney kicked the first of his five points from play to push Knocknagree five in front and although Gene Casey eventually got Kiskeam off the mark after 23 minutes, a further three unanswered scores from Mikey Mahoney and McSweeney (0-2) left Daly’s charges seven clear at the break.
With the gap having stretched to eight early in the second-half, Gene and Thomas Casey struck for 1-1 to halve the deficit. But a sign of Kiskeam’s struggles was the fact that the two Caseys were the only two Kiskeam players to find the target over the hour. Not helping their cause either was heavily strapped Cork senior Sean Meehan retiring injured on 36 minutes.
Points subsequently from James Dennehy, Fintan O’Connor (free), and McSweeney (0-2) wiped out Kiskeam’s most productive spell of the game and restored the eight-point difference, 1-10 to 1-2.
Not even a black card to Gearóid Looney could disrupt Knocknagree’s charge, the hard-working David O’Connor, Fintan O’Connor (free), and excellent half-back Mikey Mahoney throwing over final quarter points to seal a memorable senior debut for Knocknagree.
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