Cork's southside is blue and no-one can gainsay that, Buttevant at last and arise Knocknagree

Cork GAA talking points: The Barrs lost one competitive fixture all year. Any arguments? What time does the day start in Knocknagree? And now that Buttevant have cracked the glass ceiling, can they flourish in Munster?

St Finbarr's talisman Ian Maguire putting Nemo Rangers' Micheál Aodh Martin, Brian Murphy and Kevin O'Donovan under pressure in the McCarthy Insurance Group SFC final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Pic: Dan Linehan

THERE is no point in saying the Barrs held their Cork Premier SFC final nerve at the finish and, in the process, held on. It would be simply untrue.

Conor Horgan was the Nemo leveller and winner at the end of regulation and extra-time in their semi-final against Newcestown. After Mark Cronin, he was the man in black and green the Barrs should have been most heavily policing in the closing scenes.

Horgan even reminded the Barrs of such when launching over a successful two-pointer to tie matters at 1-13 apiece half a minute into injury-time.

But following Cillian Myers Murray’s lead score, the Barrs left Horgan completely unmarked. Cronin found him, the width of the post preventing a replay.

While we wouldn’t go as far as Robbie O’Dwyer that Nemo “kicked it away”, in eight second half wides, Horgan’s off-the-post effort, Alan O’Donovan’s saved goal effort, and another short, they had their chances.

Sunday wasn’t a story of Barrs dominance and Nemo subduing. Both parties tabled compelling arguments to collect the Cup. Having just highlighted where and how Nemo let themselves down, let’s have a look under the Barrs bonnet at what they got sufficiently right.

Whether intentional or not, Nemo’s first half set-up saw Barrs centre-back Jamie Burns isolated and caught in something of no man’s land.

Luke Hannigan was introduced for Burns at half-time. He didn’t sit idle in the pocket. He pushed up and offered a third blue totem, alongside Brian Hayes and Ian Maguire, in the aerial warfare.

Micheál Aodh Martin had five second-half restarts. We know that Brian Hayes won the first of those because the same play finished with the Hurler of the Year nominee palming the ball into the Nemo goal. Hannigan winning two of the remaining four represented increased disruption of a Nemo kickout following a first half where Maguire and, in particular, Hayes were successfully spoiling.

From the other side, Hannigan also fetched a Barrs restart in a second half where they failed to retain just three of Darragh Newman’s 11 kickouts.

After finding 1-3 off the Barrs kickout in the opening half, Nemo faded and failed in the air thereafter.

Steven Sherlock was wrapped up by Kevin O’Donovan in the 2022 final. Kieran Histon’s close attention, allied to the Barrs’ own poor decision-making going forward, made him a somewhat peripheral first-half figure. Well certainly by Sherlock standards anyway. He also kicked two poor wides from low-percentage positions.

The Barrs captain rewrote his own script upon the change of ends. He held off Histon to find Rickey Barrett in the build-up to Hayes’ green flag. He assisted Ethan Twomey’s white flag. He kicked the white flag to stretch their lead to four on 44 minutes.

There were misses scattered in there too, including the double goal save on 39 minutes, but this was a second half of Sherlock putting himself front and centre. This was a second half of the Barrs scoresmith constructing and converting enough so that Nemo were constantly chasing.

And finally, to the Barrs bench (if anyone is wondering why Hayes, Maguire, and William Buckley aren’t being singled out and eulogised, we’re taking it as given that their impact doesn’t require spelling out such was its sustained and incredibly obvious nature). Maybe the one point we will note and praise is the Barrs management realising Hayes’ requirement at midfield from the off, rather than returning him to his full-forward semi-final post and leaving Maguire to fend alone against Alan O’Donovan, Briain Murphy, and Barry Cripps.

Back to the bench. Leaving aside Hannigan, you had Enda Dennehy so smart on restart breaks, as he was when Brian Hayes handed one down on 62 minutes. Possession moved to fellow sub Eoin McGreevy and on again to another sub Cillian Myers Murray for the winner. Nemo rolled bigger names from the South Stand without the same joy.

The Barrs lost one competitive fixture all year. It was a league game in Clonakilty where only five of the men to see action Sunday featured. League silverware followed by championship silverware. Their fellow big three members bested in most contrasting circumstances. An 11th county well-earned.

EC
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It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.

Seventeen years ago, St Finbarr’s won the Cork Premier Intermediate Football championship. This wasn’t some fabled tale of a second team coming good; however, it was an immediate response to a relegation that shook the Barrs to the core. 

They bounced straight back, made it to successive senior county finals in 2009 and 2010 only to lose them both, to Clonakilty, and, inevitably, Nemo Rangers. Losing finals was becoming a nasty habit for the boys in royal blue.

Ian Maguire has been colossal in St Finbarr’s restoration to the top table of football in Cork over the past decade. In 2010 he gave a glimpse of his phenomenal talent and leadership as a 16-year-old when the Barrs beat Douglas in the Cork minor county final. Since then, he has driven them to new heights. Nemo may have clipped their wings in 2017 and 2022, but he is now the proud holder of three county medals. Is there anyone more deserving? More than anything, he understands what it all means, and on the pitch in SuperValu Pairc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday he put everything into context.

“I think for the team and for everyone, there's been a lot about Barrs football over the years and there's been a lot of ghosts, even going back to Duhallow in 2018, Clon, you know, stories you'd hear from the early 90s and obviously with Nemo and the Haven, and I couldn't be prouder of the group. I think we've put a lot of ghosts to bed, and I think today it captures that.” 

JC

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Grand slam for Knocknagree.

A clean sweep for fantastic Knocknagree in 2025. Not alone are they Cork senior A football champions, they are also the Division 2 league titleholders. Before securing top-flight football for next year, they claimed silverware back in early July when they defeated Carbery Rangers by six points, a Carbery Rangers team that had won all nine of their group games.

This means Knocknagree are now a number one club in both competitions. From junior to Premier senior championship, and from Division 7 to Division 1 league.

All credit to manager John Fintan Daly and his dedicated panel. Especially, when you consider the turnover of players from the squad that won the All-Ireland junior club title in 2018.

There is no doubt winning the league this year was a stepping stone to an extraordinary championship journey.

TOC

John Fintan Daly with his Knocknagree management team. Pic: Dan Linehan

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Going the extra miles to reach the summit

One of the barriers to Cork football becoming what it should be that is most under-appreciated is its geography. John Fintan Daly has often mentioned how Knocknagree’s experience of travelling the 80 kms from Cork’s border with Kerry to HQ has stood to them. It certainly helped on Sunday as they started at a pitch that Cill na Martra could never quite get to. Their elegant centre-forward, Eoghan McSweeney, gave an insight into that experience.

“I suppose we just took the learnings from last year. We thought that we might have a few things over them with the day. And we knew that today was a 1.30 game. The morning is over like that. You're coming up the road, we're an hour up the road.

“We left Knocknagree this morning at 10am. We were all up around 7am getting what we can into us and all that. And we look at them small things. They mightn't seem big to people, but they're massive. Because I felt even last year, we obviously, the first year, 2022, we didn't really believe personally, I thought myself. And last year we were just beaten by a better team.

“Could have won the game, but we were beaten by Carrigaline. But this year it just felt different. And we're off the Premier Senior now. It's unbelievable. We could never have dreamed we'd get the Premier Senior.” 

Lack of belief should not be a factor when McSweeney and co lock horns with the biggest and best in 2026.

JC

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Castlelyons and Rathcormac: when familiarity breeds a stalemate

Were they too familiar with each other? Was local knowledge too heavily prioritised in their respective approaches? Did said knowledge end up stifling both teams?

From the outside looking in, Saturday’s Senior A hurling final between two clubs separated by no more than five minutes of road gave the impression of teams overly concerned with containment and not being caught out. The hyper-awareness of what the neighbour was capable of doing ended up giving off this constraining and, at times, suffocating effect.

Both defences, supplemented by the smart sweeping of Colm Spillane and Cillian Tobin respectively, were largely dominant throughout, save for the opening 10 minutes in the case of Castlelyons and last 10 minutes in the case of Bride Rovers.

Both forward units, meanwhile, were left to fight a losing battle in how they were staffed and serviced when playing into the breeze at the City End. Castlelyons’ forward operators, in particular, were routinely outnumbered three and four to one in the opening half. David Morrison was their first and only forward to find the target from play in that opening half - his successful strike arriving after all of 27 minutes. They finished the opening half with just 0-3 managed from play.

Onto the change of ends and Conleith Ryan’s 38th minute white flag represented the sole second-half occasion where a Bride Rovers forward found the mark from play. The other four were either Paddy O’Flynn frees or half-back Shane O’Connor swelling his tally.

Yes, there was some dreadful shooting from either side that would have taken the harsh look off some of the stats outlined above, and indeed the 0-14 apiece scoreline, but in the determination of both sidelines to quench the opposition attack, they ended up hamstringing their own attack in the planning process.

Let’s not hope for more of the same in this Saturday’s 3.30pm replay.

EC

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Buttevant move upwards and onwards.

For many years Buttevant lived in the shadow of their more illustrious neighbours. Situated between Mallow and Ballyhea, both are senior clubs in football and hurling respectively. Further down the N20 is Charleville, another top tier hurling club.

Buttevant were being starved of success. They came to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday hoping to bridge a gap of almost a century since an adult team won a county title. And the decades of struggle and disappointment would end and Premier JFC success was finally achieved.

Next up is a development project to provide adequate facilities to further boost the growth of their club.

Fund-raising has already begun for a new Astro Turf and a gym. What a perfect time to be seeking public support. They will surely capitalise on all the excitement and the feeling of exhilaration that victory can bring. Winning a county title couldn’t have happened at a more perfect time.

TOC.

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