'When they go over the white line, we give them the responsibility': Nemo's know-how a player-driven thing

In Cork’s big three, it is the other pair, Castlehaven and St Finbarr's, who’ve found a way on the concluding Sunday in ‘23, ‘24, and ‘25.

Robbie O'Dwyer, manager of Nemo Rangers. Pic: Noel Sweeney

Nemo know-how.

Finding a way. Never not finding a way. An incapacity to panic. An ingrained self-belief the envy of so many. A collective self-calm alien to so many.

For those who have fallen to the rather simple-looking act of Nemo doing Nemo things, insert your own description here of the Trabeg intangible.

In response to all of the above, we know there’ll be at least one person who’ll point out that Nemo Rangers enter Sunday’s Cork football decider off the back of three consecutive county final losses. 

And we get how the one and two-point margins of defeat for two of those three finals could make the concept of Nemo know-how an unstable argument on a week such as this.

We get all that. But those October instances of coming up agonisingly short of Castlehaven and the Barrs - they were the width of a Blackrock End post from forcing a replay with their southside rivals 12 months ago - are very much in the minority.

Take their recent semi-final as the first example. 

Carrigaline led them on 51 minutes. The marauding Kevin O’Donovan is fouled for a penalty that Mark Cronin converts. 

Carrigaline close the deficit to the minimum. The black and green execute keep ball for the first three minutes of injury-time. 

They survive two Carrigaline missed chances and flood away to land the clincher through Dara O’Sullivan.

It was 2026 newcomer O’Sullivan who also landed the clinching points in the fifth and sixth minute of injury-time at the end of an enthralling quarter-final against Castlehaven.

Twenty-seven seconds into those six additional minutes, Damien Cahalane dragged Castlehaven within the minimum. 

It had been the ninth minute since last they stood so close. Momentum sat firmly in the blue and white corner. But repeated attempts to find an equaliser were snuffed out and shooed away.

Nemo even threatened to destabilise themselves by kicking their first wides of the game in injury-time. But not even such untimely misses could rock them, and, eventually, Castlehaven were rocked out.

Go back to last year’s semi-final. Seven behind Newcestown early in the second-half. Trailing into second-half injury-time. Snuck through by the minimum at the end of extra-time.

Trailed Ballincollig by five at half-time in last year’s opener. Won by two.

Go back to 2024 and the quarter-final against Clon. Hit for two goals in two minutes around the three-quarter mark to see a four-point lead become a two-point deficit, Nemo refused to be knocked off stride.

Beyond extra-time and into the penalty shootout. Clon found the net with each of their first four kicks. It meant each Nemo kicker had to respond. Each Nemo kicker - Conor Horgan, Mark Cronin, Paul Kerrigan, and full-back Briain Murphy - did respond.

The first blemish came on penalty No.9. Brian White had his penalty saved by Micheál Aodh Martin. It presented Ross Corkery with the opportunity to continue Nemo to the last four. The 19-year-old wasn’t the slightest bit put out by the pressure on his shoulders, or the towering frame of Mark White facing him.

“It's about the group, really,” replied manager Robbie O’Dwyer when asked to give his own take on Nemo know-how.

“They're experienced players. They've been there and done it as a collective. They’ve great composure. They know how to win games when it comes to tight times like that. They have a self-belief in themselves that they can get over the line, which is hugely important, and it works.

“When they go over the white line, we give them the responsibility. The players are around long enough, they're very mature, they know where they're at, they know what's required, and they seem to do it when it matters, and that's the most important thing.

“We went down to Clonakilty to play the Haven and we weren't given much of a chance, to be honest. But we had a lot of belief in ourselves. We felt we were going well and that if we performed, we would cause an upset, and it turned out that way. What I liked about the game was when the Haven came back at us, the group showed great composure to get over the line.” 

To the games where Nemo know-how wasn’t enough. To the three county finals in succession where Castlehaven and St Finbarr’s found or possessed that smallest bit extra to either go ahead or stay ahead at the death.

In Cork’s big three, it is the other pair who’ve found a way on the concluding Sunday in ‘23, ‘24, and ‘25.

“If the Haven win a county, then you're trying to beat them. If the Barrs win a county, you're trying to beat them. And I'd say they have the same respect for us as we have for them, and we do push each other on. That little bit of niggle between the Haven, the Barrs, and Nemo, it's good for the game here in Cork,” continued O’Dwyer, now in his third season at the helm.

“You can’t say you don't look back [at those county final defeats] because obviously you've lost a game and you're disappointed. But I think that should drive fellas on to try and hopefully get over the line the next day. We're back in the final and that's a testament to the players.

“It's been a rollercoaster, really, of good times, bad times. It would be nice to win a county, we haven't won one since '22, but look, sport is fickle.

“I’d just love for the players to perform on the day and if they perform and if they're good enough, they win.”