Jimmy Barry-Murphy: There's an intense rivalry between St Finbarr's and Nemo

Cork legend Jimmy Barry-Murphy has pretty much done it all with his beloved St Finbarr’s in both codes and as a manager with the hurlers.

One thing he hadn’t done prior to 2024 was being involved with the adult footballers on the management ticket. That changed when new boss of the Premier Senior team Brian Roche came calling.

It has been a gradual incline for the Togher outfit. A semi-final exit to the reigning and eventual champions Castlehaven in the management’s first campaign, but they have gone a step further in 2025.

On Sunday, the Barrs take on southside rivals Nemo Rangers in a tasty McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (3.30pm).

“I’m enjoying it immensely, I started last year and I have loved every minute,” Barry-Murphy said to The Echo on getting involved with the St Finbarr's footballers.

“Brian Roche asked me to get involved. I've been very friendly with Brian and his family for years and years. After some time I was delighted to commit to being a selector.

“I’ve time on my hands. I’m semi-retired so I had plenty of time to do it. It keeps me involved in the club here and I’d like to be able to give a hand out.

“Last year was difficult. We had a lot of injuries and we still got to the semi-final. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked to but it was a reasonable year without anything to shout home about.

“This year we’ve got a number of players back from injury and the panel has developed from that point of view as well. I suppose getting to the county final is a fantastic achievement for us.

“There’s a great bunch of lads there and I couldn’t be enjoying it more, obviously more enjoyable when you get to a county final.” 

St Finbarr’s did lose by four points to Castlehaven in the last four last year, which was the second successive loss to the Haven at that stage. 

The defeat 12 months ago though proved to be a turning point especially when the city team beat Castlehaven by 10 points at the quarter-final stage last month.

“I don’t think we played well enough to win the game last year, Castlehaven went ahead early on and as we know they’re an exceptionally good team,” the St Finbarr’s and Cork legend says.

“They’ve been on the road quite a while and it was never a game where I honestly felt we could win. We were always chasing it and when you’re chasing a team like Castlehaven it’s hard to peg them back.

“It showed the level we had to reach. It was a learning curve. I thought our performance against Castlehaven this year underlined our progress.

“We had learned a bit from last year and as I said it’s what you need to do to get back to a county final. Castlehaven were exceptionally good county champions and we had to beat them.

“We then got over Ballincollig the last day. There’s no point in saying otherwise, that performance certainly wouldn’t be good enough to win a county because you just couldn’t afford to give a team like Nemo Rangers that amount of space.” 

It’s well documented St Finbarr’s record against Nemo Rangers. They have never beaten them in a final. This will be their fifth attempt and their last championship win against their city rivals was back in 2012. Barry-Murphy doesn’t pay much attention to those statistics though.

“I have huge respect for Nemo as a club and their record in the county championship. We’ve the height of respect for them and we’ll need to be at our best to win.

“It’s a very intense rivalry but a fabulous sporting rivalry I think as well. Obviously, our record against Nemo isn’t good but that’s something we hope to rectify and all you can do is prepare the best you can.

“We feel we have a very good team. We just hope that we turn up on the day and if we do I think we’ve got a great chance.

“It’s all on the day. I know it might sound like a cliché but all these finals are decided by big players on the big days. I don’t honestly think previous meetings have any relevance to this now.” Barry-Murphy ended.