SAHC final: Fr O'Neills hope to make it third time lucky when facing Courceys

WHEN last year’s beaten Co-op SuperStores Cork SAHC finalists Fr O’Neill's were drawn with the 2020 and 2021 Premier IHC winners, Blarney and Courcey Rovers respectively, as well as Killeagh in this year’s competition, it immediately became the group of death.

Such tags are often shown to be premature hype but given that Sunday’s final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (4pm) features two teams to emerge from it, it was accurate in this case.

Since losing to O’Neill's, Courceys beat Blarney in a winner-take-all final match before seeing off Ballyhea and then Fermoy in the quarter- and semi-final respectively.

“I always find that, when you lose, you learn a lot,” says their manager Seán Guiheen, “and we learned a pile from that O’Neill’s game, to be quite honest.

There’s no doubt about it, they’re the team to beat – from day one, they’ve been raging-hot favourites. 

"You just look at the players they have available, Ger Millerick is a Cork senior and Deccie Dalton is back on the senior panel. You’ve Billy Dunne now setting the world alight and I’m sure Pat Ryan and the Cork selectors will be looking at him.

“We’re just looking at it as a new game, trying to focus on our own performance and get that performance right.”

Equally, O’Neills full-back Seán O’Connor is not surprised that the Ballymacoda/Ladysbridge side are renewing acquaintance with opponents from earlier in the competition.

“When the draw came out, we knew that it was three tough teams and we’d have three tough games,” he says.

We’ve played Courceys already and it was a tough battle, we don’t expect anything less this Sunday. They’re in the final, which shows that it was the toughest group.”

Since the introduction of the group stages, O’Neills have played 14 SAHC games, winning 11 and drawing one.

Unfortunately for them, the two losses have come at the last stage but, despite being beaten by Charleville in the 2020 final and then Kanturk in last year’s decider, O’Neill's don’t look to have any baggage, as shown by the way they topped the group and then saw off Bride Rovers with such conviction in the semi-final.

They finished second in their section in Division 1 of the RedFM Hurling League and have maintained that form, with Declan Dalton landing the kind of tallies that meant he was so badly missed when out with injury for semi-final and final last year.

He will take watching but they also have Billy Dunne, Kevin O’Sullivan and Cillian Broderick, while Ger Millerick, Dan Harrington and Mark O’Keeffe give them such strength in the half-back line.

O’Neills’ four games have yielded a scoring average of 2-21 and if they come somewhere near that, Courceys are likely to need goals to beat them – the comfort for them is that the semi-final showed that they have them, with Ronan Nyhan’s green flag followed by four from Seán Twomey. Richard Sweetnam is another key member of the attack in terms of output while Olan Crowley, Jerry O’Neill and Brendan Ryan can chip in too.

SUPPLY

Obviously, supply is key and Tadhg O’Sullivan is an important asset in that regard while goalkeeper Stephen Nyhan’s long-range free-taking ability is also vital for the Carrigdhoun side. In defence, Fergus Lordan is an integral figure.

If Courceys can outgoal O’Neills, then there is every chance that they can make it two titles in a row and return to the very top grade. However, given that O’Neills are taking their third shot at it and have close to a full squad – Millerick was also dogged by injuries last year – experience might seem them through.

Verdict: Fr O’Neills