'Great achievement by the players' but Carrigaline chasing more history in Cork Premier SFC semis

ONTO THE SEMIS: Carrigaline Manager Michael Meaney. Pic: Chani Anderson.

Carrigaline 0-22 Douglas 1-12

History made. An hour from further history being made. Unbeaten Carrigaline have entered uncharted ground.

The sole Premier Senior outfit to extract maximum points from their three group outings, it was Carrigaline who stood out and stood alone come the final whistle in all six Round 3 matches early on Sunday evening.

The top seeding was theirs. Direct progression to the county semi-final was theirs.

Fallers at the quarter-final stage last year when losing to Newcestown in a penalty shootout, the quarters will not concern Michael Meaney's charges on this occasion. Theirs is a fully merited bypassing of a championship stage no Carrigaline team has ever before gone beyond.

“For the first time in the history of the club to be in a Premier Senior football semi-final is a great achievement by the players,” said Carrigaline manager Meaney.

“There's no point in rocking up to the semi-final and just being there for the sake of it. We're going up with all intentions to do the best that we can. We can only do that by training hard over the next four weeks, and enjoying it as well coming in.

“That's been our motto this year, to be positive in what we do, to play with freedom and enjoyment. You can see that from the last three games we’ve played.”

Having marked themselves out on the opening evening of county championship fare in late July when bettering title holders the Barrs, Carrigaline have now twice backed up that result.

They succeeded in edging past Mallow without Brian O’Driscoll and Callum Barrett, with the former returning for this final group fixture.

The Cork senior’s vision, dictating of tempo, and winning of frees - impressive though all that was - took a supporting role to the orange awesomeness of Brian Coakley.

Behind by 0-8 to 0-6 at the break after Douglas corner-forward Conor Russell swung over a thumping two-pointer with the last kick of the half, Carrigaline wasted precious little time in utilising the breeze now at their back.

In the eight minutes after the restart, the orange flag at the clubhouse end worked double-time. Four two-pointers Carrigaline sailed over.

Kevin O’Reilly went first, the full-forward’s orange flag immediately following the white flag he’d just raised to return Carrigaline in front no more than 90 seconds upon the resumption.

Half-back Dave Griffin deserves most of the credit for the next orange flag. His block on a Shane Kingston point attempt was followed by the same player then winning a free at the other end which Brian Coakley converted from outside the arc.

O’Driscoll and Coakley added two more to transform that 0-8 to 0-6 half-time deficit into a 0-15 to 0-10 Carrigaline lead.

On this snakes and ladders afternoon in Group A, the two interval scorelines of a Douglas lead and Barrs-Mallow stalemate had Douglas top of the group and county champions St Finbarr's exiting in third place.

And as Mallow continued to live with the Barrs throughout the second half of their game in Kilworth, Douglas no longer needed to be concerned with the four-point win that would have been necessary in the event of the expected but not materialising Barrs victory.

As results transpired, a draw would have been sufficient to advance them.

The 39th minute goal of half-time sub James Burke closed Douglas to within two. Shane Kingston and another half-time sub, Seán Coakley, twice more left that margin between the sides entering the final quarter.

But as the group leaders sprinted towards a first Premier Senior semi-final, Douglas disappeared from the contest and the championship. They managed only one score from the 43rd minute onward.

“Everyone was surprised by our win against the Barrs. It was no surprise to us because we were really focused coming into that game,” Meaney continued.

“The key thing for us was to back it up, and we have. It was in our hands to top the group, and it is a massive achievement for those bunch of players.”

Scorers for Carrigaline: B Coakley (0-9, tp, 3 tp frees); K O'Reilly (tp), J McCarthy (0-3 each); B O'Driscoll (tp), N Coakley (free), E Desmond (0-2 each); D Greene (0-1).

Scorers for Douglas: C Russell (0-5, tp, 0-1 free); J Burke (1-0); D Ward (tp), S Coakley (0-2 frees), A Cantwell (0-2 each); S Kingston (0-1).

Carrigaline: R Delaney; B Murphy, C O'Herlihy, Kieran Kavanagh; D Griffin, B O'Driscoll, C Barry; Kevin Kavanagh, J McCarthy; D Greene, N Coakley, K McCarthy; B Coakley, K O'Reilly, E Desmond.

Subs: F O'Connell for Griffin (45); S Andrews for Greene (53), C Kearney for O'Reilly (56); K O'Reilly for B Coakley (64, inj).

Douglas: A Cotter; J Mouret, C Kenny, D Ward; S Aherne, L Dwan-Fogarty, D Buckley; N Hartnett, D MacPhaidin; K Shanahan, B Powter, A Cantwell; J Cunningham, S Kingston, C Russell.

Subs: S Coakley for Powter, J Burke for Shanahan (both HT); C Kingston for D MacPhaidin, J O'Brien for Cunningham (both 45); C MacPhaidin for Cantwell (53).

Referee: N Hayes

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