John Fintan Daly hopes it will be third time lucky for Knocknagree in Senior A FC final

Knocknagree manager John Fintan Daly feels his team are ready to make it third time lucky in their attempts to reach the top-tier football championship for the first time.

The Duhallow side take on Cill na Martra on Sunday in the McCarthy Insurance Group SAFC final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with throw-in at 1.30pm.

Knocknagree have lost the 2022 and ’24 deciders at this grade against St Michael’s and Carrigaline respectively.

The experienced boss plays down that the pressure is on his team to get over the line.

“We have gone to Páirc Uí Chaoimh by bus eight times in the last four years, that’s bound to stand to you,” Daly says.

“But you're not going to win a county championship without beating a top team. Cill na Martra are certainly all of that. All you can do is be the best version of yourself on any given day. Other factors then will decide the game.

“I don’t know about the spotlight being on us. Cill na Martra have an equal profile to us. Plus, Cill na Martra would have been many people’s championship favourites at the start.

“I suppose we are being spoken about a lot given we have been in the remaining stages at this grade for the last number of years. People probably thought we would hit our limit and we would be gone by now.

“This team is a lot different to the team that won the All-Ireland Junior Championship in 2018 in Croke Park.” 

Knocknagree were a Junior A side as recently as 2017, despite that while also climbing the ladder in the leagues where they will play in Division 1 next year, they still have had doubters. 

“You wouldn’t like to have been in our dressing room after losing the final in 2022 and last year,” the Knocknagree boss said.

“We lost a semi-final too in the middle of that. That’s no consolation. If you don’t win this final, you have failed.

“People on the street have accused us in the past of being a bunch of chokers. They forgot the fact that we had won what we had won since 2017.

“We don’t like being called that. A lot of people will only give you credit for the last game you have won. They only look at it from that point of view and not at what it took to get there.

“People have also described Knocknagree as being half a parish, we are actually only a third of a parish. We are a tiny club, but we are very proud of what we have achieved, but we are determined to get over the line in this final.” 

Knocknagree and Cill na Martra played out a cracking draw in their opening group game back in July, 3-14 to 2-17.

It was a game where Knocknagree trailed by 12 points at one juncture. All the indications are that this final will be a cracker.

“From a long way out, the prediction was that these two teams would meet again in the final. That was fairly ambitious at that time. Ourselves and Cill na Martra have come a long way since the last meeting during the summer.

“It’s all about performing on the day. If you do most things right in a game and perform, the result will take care of itself.

“We know that we will have to play well and hopefully we can be on the right side. Both teams have been scoring well, so it should be a great final.” Daly concluded.