Barrs left the door ajar and Dingle stepped through
Everyone’s breath caught and final whistle emotions tempered, let’s go back to the finish. Let’s be forensic about the finish.
Three minutes of injury-time were allotted. For the opening two minutes and 38 seconds of injury-time, the Barrs were in ownership of possession for all bar 53 seconds. And of that latter count, the ball was dead for nine seconds.
The trailing team could not get their hands on ball. When Dingle did, Niall Geaney and Mark O’Connor were promptly turned over by Steven Sherlock, Conor Dennehy, and William Buckley.
The Barrs manufactured two scoring opportunities across this opening two minutes and 38 seconds. Both involved Buckley. His handpass across the large parallelogram came to nought. He then kicked wide.
Add these to the Steven Sherlock - two-point free - and Enda Dennehy wides in the last three minutes of the hour. Their scoring drought was 14 minutes and climbing.
Brian Roche’s players were time and again guilty of failing to fasten a blue bow onto the provincial silverware. And by failing to remove Dingle from the conversation, they left the door ajar to the chaos and cruelty that followed.
Before we start into one controversial refereeing decision after another, the fact remains that with 22 seconds remaining on the clock, the Barrs held the ball and a one-point lead. The possibility of defeat darkening their dressing-room door should have been a non-starter.
Munster was theirs, then it wasn't.
Mark O’Connor tackled Ian Maguire from behind and with both arms initially wrapped around the Barrs midfielder. The call was for overcarrying. It was here where the final swung 50 metres on the field and swung 148 kilometres from Togher to West Kerry.
Instinct took over Barrs sub Dylan Quinn as he picked up the loose-spilling ball following the call for overcarrying. By doing so, he invited the call from referee Chris Maguire to bring the free 50 metres forward for not handing the ball back and therefore impeding the free’s quick-taking.
Dingle defender Brian O’Connor absolutely sought to engineer the advancement by charging, arms outstretched, into Quinn. But in a microcosm of both injury-time and the final quarter as a whole, the Barrs were culpable for putting themselves in that position.
So much of their regret this morning is self-inflicted. How can it not when you manage only one point from the 40th minute onwards.
Now, to Dingle. If it seems unfair to have focused on the blue corner to this point, consider that Conor Geaney’s two-point winner was the first time they had led in exactly an hour of fare. Save for 82 stalemate seconds midway through the opening half, the Kerry champions trailed from the eighth to the 64th minute.
As we said, this is the forensic approach to a frenetic, hectic, and utterly manic Munster final.
Dingle were almost match-long chasers and yet somehow finished as champions. They watched Steven Sherlock kick 16 points and somehow survived. They watched four orange flags wave in the opening 24 minutes before belatedly deciding that Tom O’Sullivan needed to go back into the right corner where Sherlock was starting out from.
Behind by five at the break, they twice trailed by seven in the third quarter. The second of those occasions was during the six-minute period where their sole attacking menace of the opening half, goal-scorer Paul Geaney, had departed to receive facial treatment.
Dingle’s badge of honour was never allowing the decider to go from them. Even when Geaney was temporarily absent, they kept to the coalface. Where they had stood down and surrendered in the final quarter of last year’s county final defeat to Crokes, there was no surrender here.
Dylan Geaney unleashed a marvellous two-pointer during the period his cousin was temporarily sidelined. Tom O’Sullivan brought them within four on 47 minutes, 0-19 to 1-12.
The same player was fouled for a Dylan Geaney converted free after Brian Hayes had shoved the Barrs back out to a lead of five. Another Dylan free and another Dylan two-pointer cut the gap to one heading for injury-time. From a first half of little influence to a second half haul of 0-8.
Three minutes of incredible drama, waste, and a most wondrous way to win followed. It was Dingle’s 2023 Munster final defeat in reverse.
Six weeks after ending a 77-year wait for local honours, a historic first Munster success. One hour from an All-Ireland final and Croke Park.
We’ll hold the fact-led and forensic theme all the way to the finish. Dingle manager Pádraig Ó Corcorcáin is a born and reared Ballyboden man. His sister, Fiona, won two All-Ireland clubs with Boden in 2004 and ‘05.
Pádraig’s Christmas is to plot the downfall of the club where he started out. The Dingle story keeps on giving.
D Geaney (0-9, 2tp, 0-2 frees); P Geaney (1-2, 0-1 free); C Geaney (0-4, tp free, 0-1 free); T O’Sullivan (0-2); M O’Connor (0-1).
S Sherlock (0-16, 4 tp frees, 2tp, 0-1 free); B Hayes (0-2); J Wigginton Barrett, L Hannigan (0-1 each).
G Curran; C Flannery, A O’Connor, TL O’Sullivan; Brian O’Connor, T O’Sullivan, P O’Connor; M O’Connor, Billy O’Connor; N Geaney, M Flaherty, T Browne; C Geaney, P Geaney, D Geaney.
M Geaney for P Geaney (39-45); N Ryan for Billy O’Connor (40); M Geaney for Browne (48); C Bambury for Flaherty (60).
D Newman; B Hennessy, A O’Connor, S Ryan; E Dennehy, C Doolan, C Dennehy; I Maguire, B Hayes; E Twomey, J Wigginton Barrett, W Buckley; L Hannigan, R Barrett, S Sherlock.
E McGreevy for Ricky Barrett (41); D Quinn for Twomey, C Myers Murray (both 54).
C Maguire (Clare).
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