Raining champions once more, Barrs' future now looks so bright
AFTER THE CLOUDS, SILVER LININGS: St. Finbarr’s players celebrate with the trophy. Pic: INPHO/Ken Sutton
St Finbarrs’ 29-year drought is no more. For the success-parched Blues, it didn’t so much rain yesterday afternoon as it poured.
Twenty-nine years of frustration, hardship and continually coming up short were quite literally washed away by a display that married occasional craftsmanship with an unrelenting work rate.
Such was their second-half dominance, it was a famine-ending Cork hurling final win the Togher side could enjoy and savour long before Simon Stokes’ full-time whistle.
With the clock showing 57 minutes and the scoreboard reading 2-11 to 1-7, chants of 'Allez Les Blues' rang out around the ground.
It’s a chant they’ll not tire of singing anytime soon. It may even get another Páirc Uí Chaoimh airing in two weeks’ time when their footballers attempt to complete leg two of a first Barrs double since 1982.
Even in the most horrible of conditions, the Barrs produced a second-half masterclass. Within that was a defensive masterclass.
Setting the tone for such was Glenn O’Connor’s block to deny Michael O’Halloran a second Rockies green flag on 32 minutes. The goal-saving intervention was a near carbon copy of Damien Cahalane’s diving block to deny Robbie Cotter on 15 minutes.
O’Connor and Cahalane are among an older group of Barrs players who, before yesterday, had never won a single hurling title in blue - at underage or adult. Also in this club are fellow defenders Jamie Burns and Eoin Keane.
The quartet were exemplary in the execution of their duties yesterday. Their contribution made their wait all the more worthwhile.
Ahead by 0-9 to 1-5 at the break, St Finbarr’s held their opponents to two second-half points. Yes, just two points in 35 minutes of county final fare. The first was an Alan Connolly free on 44 minutes. The other was a Shane O’Keeffe white flag from play on 57 minutes.
The sight of a subdued Robbie Cotter being subbed off on 46 minutes - a man who came into this final with 2-15 beside his name - was a microcosm of Blackrock’s forward struggles.
Tadgh Deasy had hit 2-13 from play en route to the decider. Michael O’Halloran’s total was 1-14. Alan Connolly, minus his placed-ball tally, was at 1-11. Between them, the quartet managed 0-3 from play yesterday.
Suffocating and stifling them was the aforementioned medalless Barrs quartet. We also have to mention here Cian Walsh. The corner-back minded Cotter into submission. One early dispossession of the Rockies most in-form forward led to a Ben Cunningham point.
If the older Barrs players were unbending at the back, then the kids up front were untamable.
With Padraig Buggy having registered their opening two points inside four minutes, all bar one of their remaining first-half 0-7 came from the stick of Ben Cunningham. Of his three first-half points from play, fellow U20 Ethan Twomey set up two. The latter also fed 21-year-old Brian Hayes for his sole scoring contribution before the break.
Hayes made another scoring deposit early in the second period. A much more substantial lodgement than the first.
The towering full-forward rose highest on 37 minutes to bat Conor Cahalane’s pass to the net. It was Hayes’ fourth goal of the championship. He finished the campaign with 4-16 from play.
Teenager Ben O’Connor horsed Blackrock’s Mark O’Keeffe out over the North Stand sideline in the play after Hayes’ goal. The blue wave had come for the Rockies. The Barrs kids, not for the first time this season, were making their presence felt. And it was the kids who made their second goal on 45 minutes.
Jack Cahalane, O’Connor, and Twomey - three U20s - worked possession to Conor Cahalane. A classic case of provider turned finisher. At 2-10 to 1-6, it was game over. Famine over.
William Buckley is another of the teenagers in Ger Cunningham’s panel. He came off the bench in the second period, clipped two fine points and had the sliotar in his hand when the whistle sounded on their long wait for a 26th Cork hurling title.
Blackrock's final-quarter goal searches were repeatedly repelled. The space they’d found early doors ceased to exist.
Mark O’Keeffe supplied their lone green flag on 11 minutes. A Michael O’Halloran point in the subsequent action put them in front, 1-2 to 0-4, for the first and only time.
The Barrs response was clinical, Cunningham firing three-in-a-row to reassert their challenge. Points from Connolly and Shane O’Keeffe had Louis Mulqueen’s charges back level at 1-5 to 0-8 in first-half stoppages. It was to be the last time they stood level with their southside rivals.
Twomey teed up Cunningham for the lead point and the Barrs’ last of the half. They never took a backward glance thereafter. Their time for looking back is over. Their 29-year famine is over. Their future looks so bright.
B Cunningham (0-9, 0-3 frees, 0-2 65s); B Hayes (1-1); C Cahalane (1-0); P Buggy, W Buckley (0-2 each).
A Connolly (0-3, 0-1 free, 0-1 ‘65); M O’Keeffe (1-0); S O’Keeffe (0-2); T Deasy, M O’Halloran (0-1 each).
S Hurley; J Burns, C Walsh, E Keane; G O’Connor, D Cahalane, B Hennessy; B O’Connor, E Twomey; P Buggy, C Cahalane, B Cunningham; E Finn, B Hayes, J Cahalane.
W Buckley for Finn (47); S Cunningham for Buggy (60); C Keane for J Cahalane (62); C Doolan for G O’Connor (63).
G Connolly; C O’Brien, J Cashman, S Murphy; Cathal Cormack, A O’Callaghan, N Cashman; D Meaney, M O’Keeffe; M O’Halloran, S O’Keeffe, T Deasy; K O’Keeffe, R Cotter, A Connolly.
J O’Sullivan for Cotter (46); Ciarán Cormack for O’Halloran (53); D O’Farrell for M O’Keeffe (54).
S Stokes.
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