Clonakilty are tired of coming close. Is this the year they finally get over the line?

Conor Daly reflects on years of narrow defeats, growing maturity and Clonakilty’s latest chance to reach a Cork county final

Séamus O’Sullivan (Newcestown) gives chase to Conor Daly (Clonakilty). Pic: Chani Anderson

Waiting and waiting for Clon. Waiting and waiting for Clon to again break through.

Cork football’s big three have occasionally been threatened with expansion. The Barrs, Nemo, and Castlehaven have occasionally been threatened with having to share their market-leading status.

One or two outsiders have banged at the door in recent years. Statement results provided necessary gumption to try and force entry.

There’s no other way of attaining membership. There’ll certainly never be an invite from Togher, Trabeg, or way down west.

Carrigaline gave notice of their application to join the local elite when turning over the Barrs on the opening day of the 2026 championship. Take out the other southside establishment this weekend and their credentials will be impossible to argue against.

Newcestown bettered Castlehaven in last year’s group phase and should have bettered Nemo in the semis. They comprehensively bettered them in this year’s group clash.

Albeit without the one-off statement victories of Carrigaline and Newcestown, nobody has banged on the door of the big three with greater force and greater regularity than Clon.

County finalists in 2021, when they came up one Steven Sherlock point short of the Barrs. One and two-point defeats to Nemo and Castlehaven in a loaded 2022 group. Another one-point loss to Nemo in the ’23 quarter-final. 

A penalty shootout defeat to Nemo at the same stage in ’24. Extra-time League final defeat to the Barrs in ’25. A one-point defeat to the same opposition on the opening day of championship a few weeks later. A 1-12 apiece draw with Castlehaven in this year’s group phase.

See how close they have repeatedly been. It is quite the near-miss body of work. Where they’ve tripped and stumbled against lesser opposition, Clon repeatedly haul themselves up to the mark when confronted with a big-three member.

This evening offers the latest opportunity. A county semi-final against the reigning champions. An hour from a first final appearance in five years.

“We’ve played them all over the last couple of years. There hasn’t been a whole pile in it, but they’ve always come out on the right side,” said Clon forward Conor Daly of the results catalogue outlined above.

John Wigginton-Barrett from St. Finbarr's who play Clonakilty with Conor Daly in the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC semi- final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Pic: Eddie O'Hare

“Obviously, Nemo knocked out Castlehaven, so they and the Barrs are still there. It is not just Clon trying to catch them, we are all trying to catch them, and they are all equally trying to knock each other out.

“There isn’t a whole pile in it really, but they consistently do it every year, in fairness to them. When it comes down to those last two or three minutes, it’s chaos on the pitch. They control chaos. They all have mature heads. Castlehaven have Mark Collins; Ian Maguire with the Barrs; Nemo have been around a long time.

“Not saying we don’t have these players, but they’ve done the extra little bit maybe; they got the last shot, the last score. I wouldn’t say there was one thing we did wrong in any of those games, but it’s just the way the games fell.”

Daly’s first season in and around the Clon dressing-room was in 2021. The then 18-year-old was their sole sub introduced during the 0-14 to 0-13 decider defeat to the Barrs.

It being his debut campaign, the usual naivety ensued. There was an expectation of many more concluding Sundays. That expectation met harsh reality.

“Probably thought this will happen every year and then fairly quickly realising that’s not the case,” he continued.

“We’ve always thought we had a good enough team and you’re always hoping to get back here, but you never know when it’s going to happen.

“We’re delighted to be back in a semi-final.

“I wouldn’t say many things have changed this year. Dylan Harrington has come up, and Des Kenneally has played a lot more, but it’s still the same main crew of lads and same management, so maybe we’re just getting a bit more right.

“We were never hammered out the gate by teams, so maybe in those last five minutes, we’re showing a bit more control, a bit more maturity.”

There’s a striking difference in the Barrs and Clon scoring charts. 

As former Cork footballer John Hayes pointed out on a recent episode of the Irish Examiner’s The Replay, Clon don’t have a lead singer in the way their opponents have Sherlock, the Haven have Brian Hurley, and the way young Ross Corkery is heading in that direction for Nemo.

Clon are more a sum of their parts. Six points is all that separates their top five marksmen, with Daly and his 1-12 at the head of this list.

“We don’t have a Brian Hurley or Steven Sherlock. That could be a positive too in that there were three lads who got three points the last day, and another three or four who got two,” he said.

“We’re not forcing it down the same path the whole time. Anyone can get on the end of things. We’re confident in all of us that we can score.

“We’ve a good team. We don’t need to be too reliant on one or two players because of the way we’re playing at the moment.”

Is this the evening the waiting ends?