Paul Walsh guides weary Kanturk to their twin peaks - winners and promoted to football's top tier 

MAIN MAN: Team captain Paul Walsh lifts the cup for Kanturk after their win in the McCarthy Insurance Group Cork Senior A Football championship final over Éire Óg at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Pic: Larry Cummins

Cork SAFC final: Kanturk 1-15 Éire Óg 0-14

AT times, the exhausting length of a dual championship campaign sapped them. Several of Kanturk's players went into Cork’s SAFC final on Sunday triaged and bandaged, aching but never broken. In captain Paul Walsh, they had a general and the game’s smartest operative, arguably the distilled difference between more end of campaign suffering and elation.

His sweet first half goal might have been the key score but it was his second period quarterbacking from behind the pocket ultimately broke Eire Og’s stout resistance at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

Hindsight, of course, prompts what we now identify as the Paudie Clifford conundrum. Should the Ovens men have gone to a zone-plus-one defence to limit Walsh’s time on and control of the ball? In the desperate last five minutes, they pushed up into Kanturk faces but each time, Paul Walsh eluded the trap, albeit barely.

His cousin and Cork colleague Tommy Walsh, with ten minutes remaining, offered a reprise of that memorable two pointer against Donegal in Ballybofey last June to turn a level game into a two-point lead for Kanturk. In a final of cigarette paper margins, it was a game-breaker – and there was no shortage of those momentum-shifting plays as evenly matched finalists wrestled for control.

Kanturk know heartbreak at this level too well over the past three years so they will, in time, sympathise with Eire Og who played a lot of, and in truth, the more free-flowing football. In wing back Brian Thompson, they had energy and thrust and when sub Ronan O’Toole fisted the lead point, 0-12 to 1-8 with 12 minutes remaining, they had destiny and momentum in their hands.

Kanturk’s modus operandi is well advertised. Slow, deliberate offence, baiting the opposition out while flooding the sweet spots in front of the small square. Grantas Bucinskas is a constant option off the right side loop, and Alan Walsh spent much of the afternoon desperate for more stuff to be throw into the mixer inside. Two poorly executed attempts over the endline in the first half may have convinced Kanturk management that this wasn’t the day for it.

When he wasn’t orchestrating tempo and possession around the perimeter, Paul Walsh cut through the cover to pop over a left-footed point on 56 minutes to edge Kanturk two in front again (1-12 to 0-13) but the coup de grace came from another of the clan, Ian Walsh lofting a 60th minute two pointer to put them four in front and almost home.

CLINCHER: Kanturk's Ian Walsh kicks a crucial two-point score after patient build-up play near the end. Pic: Larry Cummins

In ascending to Premier SFC for 2027, Kanturk join St Finbarr’s and Newcestown as an elite trio of clubs competing at the top level in both grades. It is a remarkable achievement for a group of footballers, who are systematically very sound, monstrous in size, and have a couple of elite level operators in the Walshs, Tommy and Paul. Brian O’Sullivan should be finishing with more than a point to his name, but he continually drifts into troublesome pockets for the opposition and rarely wastes a pass. Daniel O’Connell has been a revelation in this championship and the wing forward’s ability to claim primary ball and, on occasions, to rescue possession is hugely valuable – in fact, essential.

Éire Óg led by a point at the break, 0-9 to 1-5, and after some early setbacks – not least Paul Walsh’s stunning ninth minute goal to the roof of their net – they were the better balanced, and more threatening side in the opening period. Colm and Darragh Clifford flashed impressively into the game and once Daniel Goulding found his range, he was good with a 20th minute free and a 26th minute score on the loop to reduce their early deficit to a point, 1-5 to 0-7.

There were a couple of calls from referee James Regan that indicated some referees may be getting over-zealous with the idea of handing back the ball immediately, as Alan Walsh found to his cost near the sideline. Zero tolerance can make anyone look overly pedantic.

With their poorly executed attempts to exploit Alan and Colin Walsh’s height, Kanturk ended the half looking a tad bereft of attacking precision and ideas. However Liam O’Keeffe levelled for them shortly after the break and they would only trail thereafter for a minute or so after O’Toole’s fisted point – as a by the by, the rangy midfielder again made a telling difference in terms of penetration and pace when introduced.

Tommy Walsh’s 50th minute two pointer, arrowed over the bar, was a gut punch in itself, but Colm O’Callaghan’s second point kept the Ovens men within a point. Hence, the four-point salvo from Kanturk in the last five minutes was a surge off the final bend that few saw coming. Sub Cian Clernon won a dirty ball in the corner to ice the final in injury time. 

Nothing like a trophy to accelerate the winter’s restorative process for Kanturk’s weary wonders.

Scorers for Kanturk: P Walsh (1-2), G Bucinskas (0-4, 0-1 2pt free), T Walsh (2pt) and I Walsh (2pt) (0-2 each), B O’Sullivan, C Walsh, A Walsh, L O’Keeffe and C Clernon (0-1 each).

Scorers for Éire Óg: D Goulding (0-3, 0-2 frees), C Clifford and C O’Callaghan (0-2 each), D McCarthy, B Thompson, D Clifford, J Kelleher, C McGoldrick, R O’Toole and J Galvin (0-1 each).

KANTURK: R Cashman; J McLoughlin, D Browne, L Cashman; M Healy, T Walsh, L McLoughlin; A Walsh, P Walsh (Capt); L O’Keeffe, B O’Sullivan, J Fitzpatrick; G Bucinskas, C Walsh, D O’Connell.

Subs: R Walsh for J Fitzpatrick (35), L O’Neill for M Healy (52), I Walsh for L O’Keeffe (57), C Clernon for C Walsh (61).

ÉIRE ÓG: C Kelly; C Murphy, M Corkery, J Mullins; D McCarthy, C McGoldrick, B Thompson; M Griffin (capt), C O’Callaghan; C Clifford, D Clifford, J Kelleher; D Goulding, J Murphy, O O’Shea.

Subs: J Galvin for O O’Shea (half-time), R O’Toole for J Kelleher (37).

Referee: James Regan (Lough Rovers).