Castlehaven v Dingle: West Cork side need to be at their best to secure Munster title
Castlehaven's Brian Hurley holds off Rathgormack's Conor Walsh during the AIB Munster football semi-final at Fraher Field. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
CASTLEHAVEN face the challenge of Dingle on Sunday at the Gaelic Grounds in the Munster Senior Club Football Championship final looking to sign off on what would be a perfect year for the west Cork club.
The Haven are hoping to start the Christmas celebrations early by winning the fourth Munster club championship of their illustrious history, but it is noticeable that were they to win on Sunday that it would be the first time that they would have defeated Kerry opposition in the decider.
The Cork champions' first win was in 1989 when they defeated St Senan’s of Kilkee in Clare on a scoreline of 0-13 to 1-8. The next provincial title arrived in 1994 with a comprehensive 2-14 to 1-4 win over Clonmel Commercials, before they registered their last triumph against other Tipperary opposition when defeating Fethard by 1-14 to 1-08 in 1997.
That was three wins from three finals, but they have reached one final since, in 2012, when they ran into a generational Dr. Crokes outfit, who won three Munster titles on the trot, with the Cork club losing by 0-19 to 0-12 that day.
Dingle are newbies at this level and are in the Munster final despite the fact that they did not even contest the Kerry Senior final. The divisional sides might be dominant in the Kingdom at present, but Castlehaven themselves lost the 1997 Cork county final to Beara and went on to win the Munster championship, so the precedent exists.
And despite the fact that this is the meeting of the champions of one county versus a club who failed to reach their own county final it is the non-champions who are slight favourites with the bookies.
Last year St. Finbarr’s defeated Austin Stacks by 2-9 to 1-10 in what was the ninth occasion in the history of this competition that a Cork club defeated a Kerry side in the provincial decider.
That 2012 final between Dr Crokes and Castlehaven was actually the last time a Kerry club beat a Cork one in the final, with it being the eighth time that a Kerry team won a Munster senior title at a Cork team’s expense, so Sunday can be considered Kerry football's opportunity to level matters in that particular role of honour.
Nemo Rangers have registered five of those nine Cork victories over Kerry opposition in finals, with St Finbarr’s win last year being the second time they had done so. The other two Rebel wins were way back in 1966 and 1967, when St Nicholas beat John Mitchels and Beara beat Mid Kerry, back when divisional sides were allowed compete.
The Haven have earned this shot at provincial glory by winning the Cork title in style and then seeing off the considerable challenge of Clare kingpins Cratloe, in extra time in the quarter-final, before a more comfortable day out in the semi-final against Waterford’s Rathgormack in Dungarvan.
Dingle, meanwhile, defeated Tipperary champions Clonmel Commercials in their semi-final, on a scoreline of 0-13 to 0-10, with Dylan Geaney kicking five points, and Paul and Conor Geaney getting two each.
Tom O’Sullivan and Paul Geaney would be the clear household names in the Dingle panel given their respective exploits for Kerry, but the Haven will be well familiar with the class of Dylan Geaney given his contribution to UCC’s victorious Sigerson Cup campaign earlier this year, when he bagged 1-4 in the final over UL.
The Haven may be built around the Hurleys, the Cahalanes and the Maguires, but Dingle have five Geaneys, four O’Sullivans, two O’Connors and a pair of Flannerys, in what it is another family affair.
The great Castlehaven team of the 1980s and 1990s lives on a pedestal in the parish of Castlehaven with the likes of Larry Tompkins, Niall Cahalane, Michael Burns, Michael Maguire and John Cleary being legends, but a win on Sunday would mean that the current generation would not have to look up to those likes anymore, as they would have matched their feats.
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