Brian Hayes: 'It is hard enough to play one, but playing dual is really hard after a long year'

The Barrs face Nemo Rangers in the Cork SFC final bidding to avoid a fifth consecutive county final defeat to their rivals. 

St Finbarr's Brian Hayes with Shane Murphy, Ballincollig, after their McCarthy Insurance Group Cork Premier SFC semi-final match at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture Dan Linehan

Every club team in Cork to stand opposite the Barrs knows it is Ian Maguire and Steven Sherlock they must nullify and quench. Awareness of that twin threat, though, rarely gives way to successful extinguishing of said threat. Sunday’s Cork football semi-final was the latest such example.

Sherlock’s 35th minute two-point kick from some 50 metres out represented the Barrs’ opening score from play and the first time they led Ballincollig.

Their 0-6 total five minutes into the second period was a mile off the 4-5 they had posted by the same juncture of their quarter-final win over champions Castlehaven. The Barrs were blunt, sluggish, and uninventive.

It was Sherlock and Maguire who lifted them and lit a creative fire under the collective. The former would send over a second orange flag and also raise green in a 1-6 second-half contribution.

The assist for the goal came from Maguire. The midfielder assisted a second-half 1-2. He won five second-half kickouts and became, more often than not, the extra Barrs body in creating overlaps on the counter.

When Brian Hayes was a teenager, it was these two he couldn’t wait to share a dressing-room and field with.

“When I was growing up, I was watching Ian and Sherlock in the county finals of 2017 and '18. All you wanted to do was be out there with them on county final Sunday,” said Hayes, whose versatility completes the Barrs podium of leading figures. Their bid to avoid a fifth consecutive county final defeat to southside rivals Nemo will hinge significantly on this triumvirate.

“The new stream of Ethan Twomey, Ciarán Doolan, and William Buckley, they are coming through after watching us winning in 2021,” Hayes continued.

“It is great to have so many leaders on the team. It is great to be able to look around and count on them. When times were hard, we didn't panic. With 15 minutes to go, we had a five-point lead, and they came back and got level. But we went back up and got 1-3 without them scoring. It was great to stay composed.” 

Hayes, who missed four rounds of group action across the two codes because of injury, admitted to carrying a knock into Sunday’s game. Mind you, it was hard to distinguish during a second half where the hurler of the year nominee kicked 1-1 and assisted a point.

“It is very hard coming back in off a long Cork season to a dual scenario. It is hard enough to play one, but playing dual is really hard after a long year, so the bodies are showing it on Monday and Tuesday.” 

Where the Barrs have never beaten Nemo in a Cork football final, no Nemo team has ever lost three county finals on the spin. That is their motivation for October 26. That has been their motivation all year, according to goalkeeper Micheál Aodh Martin.

“The last two years have hurt massively, probably two years ago in particular because we were a point up going into the 58th minute. It was a case of what could have been. Last year, the winter wasn’t as long, I felt Castlehaven earned their win. When we came back this year, there was only one mission: winning a county. It is brilliant to be back [in the final].”