Newcestown match-winner David Buckley hits new heights with county final heroics

BY KIERAN McCARTHY

DAVID Buckley is no stranger to match-winning performances, but even by the Newcestown forward’s standards his tour de force on Saturday night can be classed as a bit special.

Back in 2021 he kicked ten points to fire Cork U20s to the Munster football title, but his nine-point haul for his club against great rivals Dohenys in the all-Carbery county senior A football final will live long in the memory.

The 22-year-old was a key figure in a Newcestown triumph that clinched a remarkable double – they have won county senior A football and hurling titles within a magical two-week period.

Newcestown's David Buckley wins a high ball from Dohenys' Adam O'Donovan during the Bon Secours SAFC final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.

‘This is absolutely brilliant, and more than likely it will never happen again,’ Buckley told The Southern Star.

‘You could be waiting your whole life to win one county, and then two come along in the space of two weeks; this is dreamland stuff.

‘This is definitely up there at the top. The hurling two weeks ago as well. Unreal. It’s not every day you win a senior county with your club, and now we have two.’

It’s no surprise that Buckley emerged as Newcestown’s match-winner in the county final. Look at his 2023 football championship campaign. He finished as the Cork SAFC’s top scorer, racking up 0-37 across six games. Buckley was also the championship’s top scorer from play with 0-17. He was also the top scorer in all six of Newcestown’s football championship games. For a young man, he carried the pressure impressively – and he enjoyed himself on the big stage on Saturday night.

‘Nothing beats winning,’ Buckley said – and he is well accustomed to that feeling after Newcestown’s fairytale season, winning the county senior A hurling title two weeks earlier.

‘We had great momentum, going from football into hurling and then hurling into football because it’s the same panel of players. Bodies might be tired but that doesn’t matter when you’re winning,’ he said.

When Newcestown won the hurling final on October 28th, they celebrated, but then got back to work because the job wasn’t finished.

‘We enjoyed ourselves for one or two days, but we were back in for recovery on the Monday night after because we knew we had a job to do. We knew before the hurling final that we had the football final too so we battened down the hatches, we knew it was Dohenys, we knew what they had – and thank God we got over the line,’ said man-of-the-match Buckley, who was quick to praise the Newcestown game-plan.

‘We put a lot of work into stopping Dohenys. We felt we got our match-ups right. A lot of work went into that. Fionn Herlihy had kicked eight points in the semi-final against Knocknagree, so we knew we needed a plan, we doubled up on him as well as we could. Once we stopped that full-forward line we felt we’d have a great chance,’ Buckley explained.

‘We know what Dohenys have, we know the runners they have, we know the class they have up front, but we felt if we could start winning around the middle … they lost a few kick-outs, then we kicked a few points. We were just a point down at half time and had the wind in the second so we felt if we won around the middle in the second half we would kick on and win it.’

That’s exactly what happened, as Newcestown took control, and the hard work back the field led to the opportunities that Buckley took, as he finished the county final with more points than the entire Dohenys team.