St Finbarr's ruthless against Mallow in Premier SFC opener
Steven Sherlock of St. Finbarr's being chased by Mallow's Paul Lyons. He scored 1-10. Picture Denis Minihane.
ST FINBARR’S cruised to victory in their opening Premier Senior Football Championship group game with a dominant win over Mallow in front of a huge crowd in Blarney on Sarturday evening.
Both teams made late changes to their starting line-ups, as Reese McInerney and Eoin McGreevy missed out for St Finbarr’s through injury, and replaced by William Buckley and John Barrett respectively, while Mallow’s Kevin Taylor was replaced by UCC’s Sigerson Cup winner Shane Merritt.
After an intense opening five minutes from both sides, it was St Finbarr’s who opened the scoring with a Steven Sherlock free.
Mallow went up the other end in response, as Mattie Taylor played a great ball over the top to Darragh Moynihan, but the midfielder was brought down fairly by Colm Scully, despite protests from the Mallow bench.
St Finbarr’s began to settle and control the tempo of the game, and it took merely eight minutes for the Togher side to raise their first green flag, as William Buckley squared it to an unmarked Sherlock, who smashed it home.
Mallow replied with their opening score of the game, as Kieran O’Sullivan split the posts from a free, but the Barrs cancelled it out moments later, as Colm Lyons picked out Sherlock, who fired over his third score after just eight minutes.
Brian Hayes converted his mark to put the Division 1 champions five in front, while Mallow could only muster their fourth wide, with a quarter of an hour elapsed.
The teams traded frees, before Wiliam Buckley brilliantly split the posts to put the score 1-5 to 0-2, in favour of the southsiders.
A free from Kevin Sheehan gave Mallow their third score, but the north Cork side were struggling to get out of their own half.
Another beautiful Sherlock score was cancelled out by Mallow’s first from play, as Shane Merritt struck their fourth point after 26 minutes.
The Barrs significantly increased their intensity in the closing stages of the half, with Ian Maguire netting their second, as he punched the ball goalward, before Ethan Twomey followed in to ensure it reached the back of the net.
Within two minutes the Cork Senior football captain had netted his brace, as he made a threatening run at the Mallow defence, before smashing it in from close range, giving St Finbarr’s an astounding 11-point lead.
Steven Sherlock started the second half well with another Barrs free, while Mallow replied through Sheehan.
The Barrs nearly managed their fourth goal as John Barrett found himself through on goal with the ball at his feet, but his subsequent shot was too high and went over the bar to score his second point of the game.
Cork star Sherlock sent a free between the posts from the 40-metre line, before the Barrs’ Cork senior hurlers combined to score their fourth goal. Hayes played an outstanding handpass to Twomey, who finished coolly beyond Doyle to put the game to bed.
Sherlock scored another point from play to extend his side’s lead to 18 after 40 minutes of play.
O’Sullivan pointed from a 45 for Mallow, but it was quickly cancelled out by Sherlock’s fifth free, and with only a quarter remaining, the result was set in stone.
Mallow pressed on despite the scoreline, with Kieran O’Sullivan and captain Ryan Harkin both pointing from play, their first in play scores in over 25 minutes.
However, their scoring run came to a swift end as Sherlock continued to dominate the Mallow backline, getting two more excellent scores from play to take his tally to 1-10 on the day in a man of the match performance.
S Sherlock 1-10 (0-5 f) I Maguire 2-1 (0-1 m), E Twomey 1-0, J Barrett 0-2, B Hayes (m), W Buckley 0-1 each.
K O’Sullivan 0-4 (0-2 f 0-1 45), K Sheehan 0-2 f, R Harkin, S O’Callaghan, S Merritt 0-1 each.
J Kerins; S Ryan, J Burns, C Scully; C Lyons, B Hennessy, A O’Connor; I Maguire (c), B Hayes; M Donovan, S Sherlock, W Buckley; J Barrett, E Twomey, E Dennehy.
C McCarthy for Lyons (20, inj), C Barrett for Twomey (45),
K Doyle; P Lyons, B Myers, E Crone; S Copps, J Glynn, M Fitzpatrick; E Stanton, D Moynihan; R Harkin (c), M Taylor, S Merritt; K Sheehan, K O’Sullivan,K Sheehan.
S O’Callaghan for Merritt (h-t), J Browne for Sheehan (40), E Kelleher for Fitpatrick, M Kelleher for Glynn, M Tobin for Hayes (all 50).
John Ryan (Macroom).
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