Ian Maguire had faith that St Finbarr's would come good against Ballincollig

It certainly wasn't straightforward, but St Finbarr’s came good to defeat Ballincollig on Sunday evening at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The city men won on a scoreline of 2-13 to 1-10 in what was a slow burner of a McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC semi-final. Brian Roche’s team trailed by a point at half-time, but upped the gears to prevail. 

Cork footballer and St Finbarr’s midfielder Ian Maguire once more played his part in the Barrs securing a ticket into the final where they will play southside rivals Nemo Rangers on Sunday week.

After such a sublime quarter-final display to knock the holders Castlehaven out a fortnight ago, it certainly did take St Finbarr’s a long time to get motoring against Ballincollig.

"We are delighted to come out on the right side," Maguire said to The Echo post-match.

“I suppose we probably were just a bit frustrated with our handling there in the first half. A couple of sloppy turnovers and to be fair, as expected, Ballincollig were going to bring a massive amount of athleticism to the battle. It was just a cagey first half and we were just happy to get in at half-time a point behind.

“But even regardless of the score, we were like, right, we just need to start playing our football. Eventually it came together. We probably were a bit more direct with Brian Hayes inside. I thought our handling was just a good bit better overall. Slowly but surely then we kind of started expressing ourselves, getting a bit more space.

“We probably left a couple of scores behind, but ultimately we are very happy. We finished strong.” 

St Finbarr’s have set high standards this year. Their display in the opening 30 minutes was well short of what is expected of them. While Ballincollig deserve credit, why were the Barrs off colour?

“Tricky wind and we were coming off, I suppose, a big win psychologically in the quarter-final,” Maguire says.

“To be fair, our hurlers had an unbelievable battle last weekend against Sarsfields and they lost out by a point. There’s a psychological element to that. Today, there was just a certain element of just hanging in there and then move through the gears.

“I thought we just weathered the storm. I think we were just a bit static for about 40 minutes. I think that’s probably the best word to describe our display.” 

St Finbarr’s last lifted the Andy Scannell trophy in 2021. The following year they were denied back-to-back titles by Nemo Rangers.

That final loss did hurt the Barrs in a game where they were favourites to deliver. They have a chance to atone for that on Sunday week.

“We’re looking forward to the final first and foremost. There’s plenty of history with Nemo down through the years anyway. Even in the last 10 years we’ve played each other plenty of times.

“So we’re really going to embrace the challenge. There’s the new rules element also for this final. They have made the game more entertaining. We’ll put the heads down now and just see what the final brings.” Maguire concluded.