Now Steven Sherlock will work hard on Cork breakthrough

St. Finbarrs' Steven Sherlock and Tom Clancy of Clonakilty. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie

St Finbarr's county final hero Steven Sherlock is determined to prove himself in red next season after being recalled to the Cork senior football set-up.

Sherlock’s Cork county championship form, which included an unmatched 3-41 total, has seen him drafted into new manager Keith Ricken’s provisional Cork panel ahead of the 2022 season.

The 24-year-old played League and Championship for Cork across 2018 and 2019, but was among a small cohort of players cut from then manager Ronan McCarthy’s squad before the shutdown in inter-county activity in spring of last year.

Transferring his club form onto the inter-county stage will be Sherlock’s number one priority in the early months of next year and should he succeed in doing so, it is difficult not to see him being part of Cork’s inside line for the 2022 championship.

“I got a phone call [from the Cork management] midway through the county championship,” said Sherlock of his recall.

“There is an exciting management team in there and there is an exciting bunch of players. I don't think people realise the amount of talent that is in Cork. Hopefully I will get a good run next year and am very much looking forward to it.” 

Speaking to this newspaper last week, Barrs manager Paul O’Keeffe said Sherlock’s workrate when not in possession has improved significantly since last he was in with Cork, highlighting how no Barrs forward made more tackles than their top scorer during the county semi-final win over Castlehaven.

“He has matured in terms of his defensive capabilities. That is a part of his game that he probably would have been criticised for at inter-county level,” O’Keeffe noted.

But during Sunday’s Cork county final, it was not his improved work ethic that stood out, rather his perseverance. Well marshalled by Clonakilty’s Tom Clancy for long stretches of proceedings, Sherlock, undeterred by his more subdued involvement, stepped forward to land the winning point three minutes into second-half injury-time.

“The stuff of dreams,” was how the match-winner described his injury-time contribution.

“Growing up in the Barrs, all you hear about are medals. You hear about Jimmy Barry-Murphy, the late Christy Ryan, Gerald McCarthy, Charlie Mccarthy, and all these guys. These lads all have All-Ireland medals, they have county championship medals too, so to be put in a bracket with them and to kick the winner in the county final is the stuff of dreams,” said Sherlock.

“Referee David Murnane said to me after I kicked the free to go one in front (0-13 to 0-12) that there was still three or four minutes left so I knew full well with the team Clon have that they were going to get another chance.

“Obviously, we didn't want extra-time or a replay, you want to go and win it and the lads were fantastic at the back, you saw the way they were out in front all the time. I thought if I could make myself a bit free and get on the ball that it would go over and thankfully, it did.” 

Sherlock’s late heroics followed on from a county semi-final where he kicked three unanswered points at the end of the second period of extra-time to rescue a seemingly lost cause for the Barrs and force penalties, while in the quarter-final he kicked three important points following Brian Hayes’ 43rd-minute red card.

Not surprisingly, though, the in-form forward was keen to deflect from his role in the Barrs’ 10th Cork senior football crown.

“The saying that it is a 15-man game has truly gone out the window with us, it is a 20, 25-man game with us. You can see all the lads coming off the bench there, the competition for places is fantastic. There are probably lads there that feel hard done by at not starting.” 

As mentioned by O’Keeffe and team captain Ian Maguire on these pages yesterday, Sherlock said the one-point win over Clon was imperative in backing up their 2018 triumph and showing to all who doubted them that the famine-ending win of four years ago was not a one-off success for this group.

“We know full well we are a good team. Winning the county in 2018 was a monkey off the back, but we really wanted to win the second one and prove to people around Cork that we are a fantastic team.”