St Finbarr’s manager Paul O'Keeffe feels side are 'building nicely' ahead of Éire Óg clash

Friday sees St Finbarr’s play their sixth county quarter-finals in a row

Barrs boss Paul O’Keeffe: “We’ve been building nicely.” Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Once again, St Finbarr’s find themselves contending at the business end of the Bons Secours Cork Premier SFC.

Friday sees their sixth appearance in a row in the quarter-finals, while they’ve also made two final appearances, winning their most recent one in 2018.

This year they’ve been a model of consistency again.

They won all of their league games and then went three for three in the group section.

However, while their winning has been habitual, their performances haven’t had the champagne bottles cracking out in Togher, yet.

Their manager, Paul O’Keeffe, knows, however, that progression is the name of the game and is happier to see his side’s performances build incrementally.

“I suppose that’s been the story of the past couple of games," he said ahead of the clash which will be streamed live by Examiner Sport.

"We threw away a desperate lead against Ballincollig and we came off the field feeling really disappointed after it. Then we didn’t play particularly well against Ilen Rovers and got over the line and then the last day against Clonakilty went really well for us. We’re kind of building nicely without being outstanding which is a nice way to be I suppose because you don’t want to peak too early in the season either.”

No more so than any other team, the Barr’s have had their fair share of injuries including the one suffered by their talisman, Cork captain Ian Maguire, on the eve of the championship. It curtailed his involvement in their opening encounters, but O’Keeffe is long enough in the game no understand the slings and arrows that it throws at you.

“We’ve had a mixed bag with injuries. Ian had a hand injury earlier in the year that scuppered him for two matches – but we still needed to bring him on in both. He just drives the team and he’s a massive influence on what we do.

“We’ve had fellas coming back from injuries and there have been new injuries – it’s been that kind of a season really. There are players coming back for the Éire Óg game but we’ve one or two niggles in the background too and you have that for every championship match. So, we’ll just wait and see on what Friday shows us.”

The Barr’s squad has been strengthened too since last season. Enda Dennehy, who was at wing-forward when they won the county for the last time in 2018, has returned from his travels while the addition of Down footballer, Conor McCrickard, has enhanced O’Keeffe’s depth charts even further.

In the past, the Barr’s may have been burdened by an over reliance on their ace marksman, Steven Sherlock. His genuine threat has been supplemented from within but there’s no doubt that the impact of McCrickard’s arrival has been immediate.

He kicked 0-4 against Ilen Rovers in the opening game while his influence on the win against Clonakilty went beyond his one-point contribution.

“Having Enda back is huge for us. He gives you massive options defensively and up front and then the addition of Conor has been a real plus. He’s a fine footballer that brings something different to us in that he gives us an additional threat up front rather than the opposition looking at the usual suspects like Steven Sherlock and Cillian Myers Murray. They now have an additional problem to look at and that’s good for us.”

As for their quarter-final opposition, recent experience has taught O’Keeffe to be wary of the threat posed by last year’s SAFC winners, Éire Óg. The mid-Cork side, as much as any other team, will fancy their chances in this most open of championships.

“We played them in our first or second league game when they were just off the back of winning the county or heading towards it. We’d a ferocious game with them out in Togher and it’s probably been our toughest game all year.

“They’re in a very good position in terms that they’re just up into the premier senior ranks, they’ve gotten out of the group, they’d a great game against Castlehaven and they now have us and they’ve nothing to lose. And I think that makes them very dangerous opponents on Friday night and we certainly don’t underestimate the challenge that they bring to the table.

"Just look at the teams who are left. Any one of them can do serious damage and I think that all the teams that are left in it are definitely thinking ‘we’ve a right chance at this’ and we’re no different."