Douglas finish 2025 as Cork PSFC’s best defence for second year running

Having broken down the points per game statistics of the Cork PSFC clubs across 2025, attention now swings to the opposite end of the field – points conceded per game (PCPG) – and the picture is far less predictable than you might expect.

Given how the new rules have inflated scoring returns across the board in football all over the country, it would have been reasonable to assume every team’s concession rate climbed. Yet one outfit managed to tighten up defensively compared with last year in the top flight.

County champions St Finbarr’s, who finally shook free of Castlehaven and powered on to reclaim the Andy Scannell Cup, managed to shave 0.6 off their PCPG from 2024. Even that, though, is only half the story. Because their 14.0 PCPG – impressive by any measure – isn’t even the best in the grade.

For the second year running, Douglas stand alone at the top of the defensive table. That they failed to escape the group again is the baffling, but glaring contradiction. They conceded just 11.7 PCPG, miles better than the chasing pack, yet finished tenth on the offensive side of the house.

Two seasons in succession, the southsiders have been the stingiest defence in the championship. Two seasons in succession, it’s their scoring shortfall that has held them from group stage progression.

Completing the top three are Newcestown, who climb two spots from fifth to third. Their concession rate naturally rose when compared to last season, but by a small margin, only 0.1 behind St Finbarr’s in the PCPG stakes.

County runners-up Nemo Rangers come next on 14.3 PCPG. That’s a slip of one place from last year’s ranking and a jump of 3.4 points conceded per game – another marker of how the new rules have reshaped the landscape. Clonakilty in fifth mirror that trend with an improved ranking, yet a higher concession rate than in 2024. They finished the year with 14.7 PCPG, compared to 13.0 last season.

Ballincollig sit sixth, despite posting the third-largest increase in PCPG across the championship. Their overall season deserves credit having been beaten in the semi-final, but the leap in concession is an area they’ll need to address in 2026.

Relegated Carbery Rangers finished just 0.2 behind them at 16.2 PCPG – proof that their downfall wasn’t defensive fragility so much as an acute shortage of scores. All the way down in eighth are Castlehaven, who suffered the biggest spike in concession of any team in the PSFC. The 2024 champions went from a PCPG rate of 10.8 last year to 17 PCPG this season, significantly distorted by the six goals St Finbarr’s put past them in the quarter-final.

Mallow occupy ninth place with a 17.7 PCPG rate, which is of course marginally worse than what they posted last year, but an overall improvement in ranking, as they climb from 11th.

Behind them are Carrigaline, who reached the quarter-final stage on their first year back up from Senior A, and finished the season with 18.3 PCPG.

The bottom two are comprised of St Michael’s and Valley Rovers, the city side only 1 PCPG worse than where they were at last year, but climbing from the foot of the table to take 11th.

That leaves Valley Rovers at the bottom rung, with a concession rate of 4.9 PCPG higher than what they had last year. Only Castlehaven had a bigger increase in concession across the championship. The Innishannon side ended the season with a concerning 20.2 PCPG.

Rankings in full:

1st – Douglas 11.7 PCPG 

(Last year: 1st – 10.0 PCPG) 

2nd – St Finbarr’s 14.0 PCPG 

(Last year: 9th – 14.6 PCPG) 

3rd – Newcestown 14.1 PCPG 

(Last year: 5th – 12.0 PCPG) 

4th – Nemo Rangers 14.3 PCPG 

(Last year: 3rd – 10.9 PCPG) 

5th – Clonakilty 14.7 PCPG 

(Last year: 7th – 13.0 PCPG) 

6th – Ballincollig 16.0 PCPG 

(Last year: 4th – 11.8 PCPG) 

7th – Carbery Rangers 16.2 PCPG 

(Last year: 6th – 12.3 PCPG) 

8th – Castlehaven 17.0 PCPG 

(Last year: 2nd – 10.8 PCPG) 

9th – Mallow 17.7 PCPG 

(Last year: 11th – 15.8 PCPG) 

10th – Carrigaline 18.3 PCPG 

11th – St Michael’s 19.7 PCPG 

(Last year: 12th – 18.7 PCPG) 

12th – Valley Rovers 20.2 PCPG 

(Last year: 10th – 15.3 PCPG)