Cork GAA: Castlehaven defeat to Newcestown shook up Premier Senior Championships 

The final round of the group stages of the Premier Senior Football Championship was not exactly a Super Sunday, given that two of the three groups were already done and dusted in terms of qualification for the knockout stages. 

There was still enough drama to ensure it made for interesting viewing for Cork football fans.

Castlehaven and Newcestown faced each other in Kilmeen to decide who would top Group 1. Newcestown had kicked big totals in their victories over Valley Rovers (1-19) and Mallow (0-19), but the Haven defence had been miserly in their two games so this was always going to be a bigger test for the proud dual code club.

They were certainly not intimidated as they took the game to the defending county champions with Tadhg Twomey brilliantly kicking an equaliser with his right foot on the hour mark before kicking a beauty off his left in injury time to give them the lead, and David Buckley’s late free made sure of the famous win.

The other game in the group was arguably of more interest given the potential relegation implications.

Valley Rovers and Mallow had drawn in last year’s group stages and you felt that this was going to be another tight affair in Blarney given the necessity for both sides to get a positive result.

Mallow really needed to avoid a relegation play-off given that their hurlers are already facing such a tie in the Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship. Facing two relegations in the two codes would have been extremely difficult for the north Cork club to manage in the coming weeks.

That need seemed to drive them on, as they ended up winning comfortably by 2-20 to 1-15 to preserve their Premier Senior status for another year.

Heading into the final weekend the Group 2 table was identical to Group 1 with St Finbarr’s and Carrigaline on four points and Carbery Rangers and Clonakilty both sitting on ducks after losing their opening round ties.

GROUND RUNNING

Last year’s Senior A champs Carrigaline have hit the ground running up in this grade, with their ability to raise green flags being a feature of their wins over Carbery Rangers and Clon, where they got two and three majors, respectively. Unfortunately, they were not able to find any in Páirc Uí Rinn as the Barrs' slicker forward line picked them off with their superior point scoring power. 

It was no surprise to see Steven Sherlock to the fore, with him giving yet another point scoring exhibition at the venue, with him even doing his best Maurice Fitzgerald impression with him kicking sidelines with the outside of his trusty right boot.

Carbery Rangers and Clonakilty were in the same boat as Mallow and Valley Rovers. Their title hopes may well have been over already but defeat could not be countenanced, as it would mean that one of the giant west Cork clubs would have to endure the dreaded relegation play-off.

It ended up being comfortable in the end for Clonakilty as they easily won by 1-17 to 0-6 to set up a relegation final of Valley Rovers versus Carbery Rangers.

The only game of the weekend that had a real championship feel to it, at least in terms of qualification for the quarter-finals, was the Group 3 clash of Ballincollig and Douglas.

It was not exactly rip-roaring stuff in Ballygarvan, as we did not get the first score of the game until minute 18, when Douglas finally got the scoreboard moving, with the stormy wind conditions proving extremely problematic for both sets of attackers. Ballincollig eventually got off the mark themselves in the 23rd minute and three minutes later they took the lead briefly through a clinical Cian Dorgan penalty, before Clon managed to tag on a few scores to take a two-point half-time lead.

A draw would have been enough to secure qualification for Douglas, and with 10 minutes to go they trailed by just two and probably would have been targeting a stalemate at that juncture.

Ballincollig had the strong wind at their backs but Sean Coakley slotted a tricky free to put the minimum between the sides with seven minutes to go, but Andrew Cotter’s long-range effort soon after hooked just wide.

Ballincollig immediately took advantage of the reprieve with another Dorgan point and when JP Murphy put three in it with two minutes to go Douglas needed a goal to save themselves, only for the bizarre sight of them kicking a late point when only a goal would do.