When Dingle and the Barrs face off, the sound of big battles will rattle in every line
Dingle midfielder Mark O'Connor and Brian Hayes of St Finbarr's. Pics: Sportsfile
Whoever picks up the Barrs’ scorer-in-chief for Dingle, short odds that his name is Tom O’Sullivan. The better known Tom ‘Sean’ – he of the left peg that could open a tin of peas – is often deputed by Kerry to pick up an inter-county hot-shot, but behind closed doors in Fitzgerald Stadium it is regularly his namesake, Tom ‘Leo’ O’Sullivan who gets the call from Jack O’Connor to keep tabs on David Clifford. Sherlock will return to Cork colours in 2026 but he is not ready for his club campaign to end just yet. His 2025 numbers are impressive – across eight championship games, six in Cork and two en route to Sunday’s provincial decider, he has knocked out 6-56 in total, 6-41 of it in Cork. That’s 0-16 in frees, seven two-point frees, 2-0 pen, four two-pointers, 0-5 from 45s, and one two-point sideline. He’s also added work-rate to his game, so Dingle’s plan to drag him back the pitch after Tom O’Sullivan is obvious but not necessarily productive.
The Barrs tend to hand Sam Ryan or indeed Alan O’Connor the task of shadowing the inside danger man from the opposition. In that respect, Dingle are not short of options. It may be that the footballing smarts of Paul Geaney are not employed in the inside line – he could start on the 40 and if so, do the Barrs leave him in the capable hands of Dylan Quinn? A gamble. They might even turn to the aggressive strength of Billy Hennessy. Geaney (35) has been battling niggling injuries since the summer but fit and firing he is a razor-sharp operator. Off one and a half legs he pilfered 2-2 in the Kerry SFC final against Austin Stacks. “Paul is like Kobe Bryant with his mindset,” coach James Weldon tells the Irish Examiner this week. If the Barrs quieten him, they don’t only shut down a scoring threat but a supply line inside to Conor and Dylan Geaney.
When you are not headlining the fundamental importance of Ian Maguire to the boys in blue, it speaks to the appetising clash of cross-code heavyweights alongside. Geelong have kindly turned a blind eye to Mark O’Connor’s continuing involvement in Dingle’s 2025 while in Cork, Hayes has rediscovered the joie de vivre of running free across the footballing plains without being accosted with a hurley. He has already knocked up 5-9 off six club starts this autumn, and that from the starting point of midfield – albeit a loose enough role there that often sees him closer to goal. Here’s something Dingle may already know – Hayes is a handful and O’Connor will have to tread a fine line between aggressive curtailing of the Barrs man and AFL style interventions which saw him benched for a black card in the Kerry county final. Either way, it will be a decisive mano a mano (and by the by, Billy O'Connor v Ian Maguire won't be bad eithr...)
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