'This win means an awful lot' - joy as Kilmurry end 36-year title wait
AT LAST: Kilmurry joint captain's William Ronan and Fionn Warren holding the trophy aloft after their victory over Cobh in the Bon Secours Cork County Junior A football championship final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Dan Linehan
A first adult county championship in 36 years for Kilmurry. Is it any wonder then that two stadium announcements asking the victorious supporters to begin making their way off the field fell on deaf ears.
Kilmurry had waited long enough. They’d not be hurried anywhere.
These were moments to be savoured and slowly digested. Songs were sung, an album of photos was snapped. The odd tear was discreetly wiped away.
Owing to the introduction of a fifth county championship tier in Cork next year - the Premier Junior Football Championship - both Kilmurry and Cobh were already guaranteed of promotion coming into yesterday’s junior decider. The anomaly did not take from proceedings. If anything, it contributed to them. The pressure of securing elevation to a higher rank was happily absent.
After 22 minutes, matters were deadlocked at 0-4 apiece. There followed a Kilmurry burst. Three on the trot. Liam Wall, Rory Duggan, and James O Mullane on target. A chink of daylight.
Three minutes into the second period, the gap doubled. Wall, redeployed to the inside line because of a first half injury, put possession on a plate for Padraig Brehanu. Contact wasn’t the greatest, but enough to carry the ball across the paint.
Cobh, who went scoreless between the 22nd and 39th minute and scoreless from play between the 22nd and 44th minute, twice pared the margin back to four. Kilmurry had an answer each time, more often than not supplied by star pupil Wall. Despite not moving freely in the second 30, Wall still managed to kick three points, one of them after a mighty fine fetch, and lay on the assist for the game’s only goal.
“Liam could play football at any level,” said Kilmurry manager Cormac Linehan. “Even injured, he showed his heart, his capabilities, and his prowess. He delivered.” The same as they had done at the end of the first half, Kilmurry finished the second with a blaze of white flags. Four on the bounce, including a well-struck free from sweeper Tomás Collins, comfortably ended their 36-year wait for county junior honours.
Scores simply came easier to the Muskerry outfit. Cobh, by contrast, drew too many blanks. They were too reliant on Nathan O’Connell and to a lesser extent Fionn Duggan to keep them in touch.
“This win means an awful lot to everybody involved in the club, everybody in the parish,” Linehan continued.
“You could see by the crowd out there that everybody that could come in to support us did come in, which is very important.
“It’s great for the younger people, it’s great for the older people. People come to watch our training sessions that are around a long, long time. It’s great for them. You could see by the scenes out there how much it means to an awful lot of people. To win a county, especially a junior county, is special.
“There is a lot of tradition in Kilmurry. This group of players, there seems to be way more of a buy in this year, way more of a bite, way more of a want to win right from the very off this year.” Cork silverware in the bag, Kilmurry’s focus now turns to the province. A trip to Tipp to play Thurles Sarsfields in the Munster semi-final on November 26 is next on the agenda - once the county celebrations have subsided. They’ll be in no hurry with those either.
L Wall (0-5, 0-1 free); P Brehanu (1-1); R Duggan (0-2); T Collins (0-1 free), James O Mullane, L Aisling, R Leahy (0-1 each).
N O’Connell (0-3); F Duggan (0-2, 0-1 ‘45), C Spriggs (0-1 free), S Hilliard, A Lynch (0-1 each).
: J McDonnell; K Barrett, F Warren, G O’Mahony; B Hinchion, W Ronan, P Hinchion; K Kelleher, James O Mullane; L Wall, L Aisling, R Duggan; P Brehanu, D McCarthy, T Collins.
Subs: John O Mullane for P Hinchion (27 mins); R Leahy for McCarthy (50); D Cahalane for Kelleher (58); W Buckley for Duggan (62).
: E Walsh; J McCarthy, J Gardiner, P Carey; G Keating, C McLoughlin, M O’Rourke; S Cummins, F Duggan; D Heelan, N O’Connell, A McCarthy; S Hilliard, C Spriggs, D Kearney.
Subs: A Hastings for McCarthy (30); E Kidney for Cummins (44); A Lynch for Spriggs (46); E Hastings for Heelan (49); C Farrell for Hilliard (54).
: A Whelton (Clonakilty)
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