Three key moments as the Barrs end their famine

KEY MAN: Conor Cahalane, the Barrs, in action in the driving rain in the Co-Op Superstores Premier Senior Hurling Championship final; St Finbarrs vs Blackrock at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Ballintemple Cork. Pic: Larry Cummins

1: The second half was two minutes old when Alan Connolly set off on a stampede towards the Barrs goal. It being Connolly on the charge, four blue shirts were immediately drawn to the Cork senior.

Sensing the closing circle of blue, Connolly popped possession out to the unmarked Michael O’Halloran. The half-forward let fly for goal, his effort superbly blocked by Glenn O’Connor.

Trailing by one, who knows how this final might have worked out had O’Halloran goaled to put Blackrock two in front.

O’Connor’s intervention, a near replica of Damien Cahalane’s diving block to deny Robbie Cotter a goal midway through the first half, captured the grittiness and unbending nature of the Barrs defence from first whistle to last.

Even allowing for the less than favourable forward play weather, to hold Blackrock to one point from play in the second period - and two second-half points in total - is a sizeable feather in the cap of the Barrs defence.

2: Compounding the sense of missed opportunity Blackrock would have felt from O’Connor’s block on O’Halloran was the goal St Finbarr’s got in for five minutes later. It was a goal with a strong Cahalane imprint on it.

Eldest brother Damien began the move when collecting a Blackrock ball to nobody in front of the South Stand. He switched possession onto the North Stand side where younger brother Jack was stationed. Blackrock centre-back Alan O’Callaghan stepped in and went to lift possession into his hand, but deftly knocking the sliotar away was middle Cahalane brother Conor.

Off Conor set, his looping pass across the parallelogram batted to the net by Brian Hayes for his fourth goal of the championship. The four-point lead it opened was the biggest either side had enjoyed up to that point. And the gap was never smaller than four thereafter.

3: Another Barrs goal. More Cahalane involvement.

Forgive us for focusing in on the blindingly obvious with our number two and three moments, but these were the scores that took the Barrs away from their opponents and took them to a first county title in 29 years.

In the case of Conor Cahalane’s 45th minute major, you not only had the game-clinching score, but you also had the perfect example of the youthfulness at the heart of the Barrs’ county winning campaign.

Jack Cahalane dispossessed Cathal Cormack. He then passed to Ben O’Connor. O'Connor fed Ethan Twomey, who provided the assist for Conor Cahalane’s goal. The first three names in this sequence are U20.

The future is blue.