Kanturk 1-15

Éire Óg 0-14

NOEL HORGAN REPORTS

HAVING transformed a two-point deficit into a one-point lead approaching the last ten minutes, Éire Óg were entitled to feel they were in with a decent chance of coming out on top in the county senior A football championship final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday.

They were unable to keep the momentum going, however, and were forced to relinquish the initiative to a Kanturk side that produced the more sustained performance overall in the second half.

Éire Óg manager Eoin Fehily was most gracious in defeat, accepting Kanturk were worthy winners.

‘They definitely deserved their victory, they got some big scores in the second half, and I’d give them massive congratulations for their display.

‘Having said that, we had gifted them a few scores in the first half due to rule breaches, so we were happy enough going in at half-time leading by a point,’ Fehily revealed.

‘For whatever reason, we just didn’t pick it up in the second half, we never really clicked into top gear, and we definitely didn’t see out the game as strongly as Kanturk did.

‘It’s obviously very disappointing to lose a county final, but I’m very proud of the lads for the effort they’ve put in all year. Once the dust settles, I think we’ll be able to take a lot of positives from the season.

‘We got to a semi-final last year, we made it to the final this year. We’ll regroup and hopefully we can go one better again next year.’

Éire Óg got off to a promising start, with Colm Clifford and Darragh Clifford sharing a brace of points before Brian O’Sullivan opened Kanturk’s account in the seventh minute.

The Duhallow side hit the front for the first time three minutes later when O’Sullivan fed Walsh, who billowed the net with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the square. That made it 1-2 to 0-2, but it didn’t inspire Kanturk to stamp their authority on the proceedings.

They did go four up after Grantas Bucinskas punished a rule breach by Éire Óg with a two-pointer from a free in the 16th minute, but they were limited to just a point in the second quarter.

Éire Óg, for their part, enjoyed their most productive spell, with Jerome Kelleher, Brian Thompson and Daniel Goulding (who posted three points, two from frees) getting on the scoresheet before Colm Clifford put them ahead, 0-9 to 1-5, nearing the interval.

Thompson and Daire McCarthy in the wing-back berths, Mark Griffin and Colm O’Callaghan at midfield, and Darragh Clifford and Colm Clifford up front were to the fore as Éire Óg’s prospects took a significant turn for the better in the second quarter.

But Kanturk were a different team in the second half, looking more and more like winners as the game aged.

Playing a possession game to great effect, they practically owned the ball at times, and it was following a typically patient build-up that Grantas Bucinskas slotted over a score to push them 1-8 to 0-9 ahead in the 42nd minute.

After Éire Óg eventually got possession of the ball, Mark Griffin completed a storming run from deep with a smart lay-off to Colm O’Callaghan, who pointed with style in the 46th minute.

Griffin, who played his heart out at midfield, then initiated another fruitful raid that saw Conor McGoldrick take a return pass from Jack Murphy to score before substitute Ronan O’Toole fisted over the lead point in the 47th minute.

Kanturk moved up the gears again when the crunch came, however, with a booming two-pointer from Tommy Walsh in the 57th minute putting them back in front, 1-10 to 0-12, where they remained until the finish.

OUR STAR: All Kanturk’s big-name players performed up to scratch, none more so than Cork senior Paul Walsh, whose cracking goal was one of the game’s highlights.

Scorers

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

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

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

Subs: R Walsh for Fitzpatrick (35), L O’Neill for Healy (52), I Walsh for 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, C O’Callaghan; C Clifford, D Clifford, J Kelleher; D Goulding, C O’Shea, J Murphy.

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

Referee: J O’Regan (Lough Rovers).