St Finbarr's v Nemo Rangers: Barrs must shut down Nemo goal threat

IN the replay of the Cork Premier Senior Football Championship final of 2017 the St Finbarr’s defence restricted Nemo Ranger’s sharpshooter Luke Connolly to 1-1 but still came out on the wrong side of a high-scoring thriller.

You would have to feel that if they could repeat that feat five years on then they will have one hand on the Andy Scannell Cup.

That final ended 4-12 to 3-13, but limiting Connolly was only a tiny piece of the puzzle that the Barrs had to solve that day, as the Nemo machine had ten different scorers, with them having four different goal scorers. 

With scores coming from all over the pitch there were ultimately too many fires to fight for the Barrs rearguard on that particular afternoon, and they came up two points short, despite Steven Sherlock firing 2-7 at the other end.

A lot of water has flowed beneath Patrick’s Bridge since that encounter. 

They have split the proceeding four county titles between them, with the Barrs winning in 2018 and 2021, and Nemo doing a two-in-a-row in 2019 and 2020, but they have somehow managed to miss each other on final day ever since.

While winning titles has merely been seen at Capwell as normal service resuming, those two titles for the Barr’s were hugely significant, given they were the first titles won by the Togher outfit since 1985. Therefore, the Barrs side that Nemo will face this Sunday are a very different animal to the one they faced down five years ago.

Last year’s Munster crown was added to those two Cork titles too, which would have meant any self-doubt half a decade ago is now long gone. Throw in the hurling title garnered from last Sunday, and that’s yet another boost to the confidence levels for any of the Barrs' dual contingent.

Going back to the importance of restricting the influence of Luke Connolly on the scoreboard, while Nemo are still clearly one of the big guns of Cork club football, the evidence, this year at least would suggest that Connolly now is integral to them.

In the five games, they have played this year the most amount of scorers they have had in a single game was seven, which actually occurred twice, in the semi-final against Ballincollig, and in the pool stage victory over Castlehaven in Clonakilty.

BIG SCORES

Nemo have put up big scores three times this year, the 2-10 they scored against Newcestown on the opening day of the championship, the 3-13 they registered against Castlehaven, and the 1-16 they got in the semi-final win over Ballincollig. It is no surprise that Connolly was the scorer-in-chief on those days, with him slotting 1-4, 2-4 and 1-6 in those games, respectively.

On two days this year, Connolly got shut down though, and the Nemo attack struggled. In early September Clonakilty made their pool game a cagey affair, where they got men behind the ball and did not give away frees close to their goal. As a result, Connolly only managed one point from play as Nemo squeezed home by 0-8 to 0-7.

In the quarter-final tie against Carbery Rangers, the Rosscarbery side approached the game in a similar manner, not conceding one single scored free in the entire match. Connolly, again, was limited to just one point from play, but a goal each from Barry O’Driscoll and Jack Horgan got Nemo over the line, by 2-4 to 0-9.

It is obviously unfair to call Nemo a one-man attack given the calibre of the likes of Conor Horgan, Barry O’Driscoll and Mark Cronin alongside him, but the rest of their forwards certainly have not been scoring with great regularity.

Nemo will have the solace of knowing that the Barr’s will not set up defensively, so they should have considerably more time and space to exploit if they can get their hands on the football.

Point-scoring totals in county finals generally tend to be low. The maximum anyone has managed in the last six finals (including the draw and replay in 2017) has been 14, with the Barrs managing it three times, and Nemo and Duhallow once.

This leads us right to the obvious conclusion, that goals will be crucial. Given that Connolly is on the cusp of overtaking club compatriot Dinny Allen as Cork club football’s greatest-ever goal scorer, it goes without saying that the Barrs need to stop the green flags. 

Do this, and they should be a step towards a famous double.