Quick turnaround is no problem for St Finbarr's says Steven Sherlock

St Finbarr’s will have home comforts of sorts this weekend as they face Éire Óg Ennis in the AIB Munster Club SFC semi-final.

A month on from winning the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC title at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the Barrs return to the venue on Sunday with throw-in at 3.30pm. 

They come into it on the back of a 1-17 to 2-11 victory over Clonmel Commercials last Saturday. While William Buckley, Ian Maguire and super-sub Cillian Myers-Murray came up with big scores, a tally of 0-9 from captain Steven Sherlock went a long way to getting the Barrs over the line.

The quick turnaround won’t be a problem according to the sharpshooter.

“Look, rest and recovery is a big thing now, a lot of lads are used to it,” he says.

“We have plenty of players that play or played inter-county so fellas are very, very aware of what they have to do.

“There’s no place you’d rather be now going into the end of November in the business end of the Munster series. We are delighted with that.

“We are under no illusions, when you enter a competition, you want to win it, but we have to stay focused. Éire Óg is going to be a big challenge. I saw them in their quarter-final last week, a quality side.

“We know exactly what to expect playing against them on Sunday. Their county champions for the last couple of years. It’s going to be an absolute dogfight.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge ahead.” 

St Finbarr’s will be buoyed going into the contest with Éire Óg Ennis after their three-point victory over Clonmel Commercials six days ago. 

The manner of the display ticked a lot of boxes. There were times where it looked like the Barrs' season was going to come to an end, but four unanswered points gave them a three-point triumph.

“It was exciting, you know from watching our games, we don’t do it the easy way,” Sherlock said.

“It’s a building experience for the whole group. To see out the game, that was probably something that we might not have done in previous years. We’ve kind of got that killer instinct, like, you know what I mean, and I thought we showed an awful lot of character towards the end.

“I suppose you could look at it in an awful lot of ways, like, you know, up there in Clonmel Commercials’ home patch, it was a real test for us and we passed it. We’re just very, very happy the way it went towards the end.

“We need to kick on now and try and build on it against Éire Óg.” 

The last time St Finbarr’s competed in the provincial championship, they lifted the trophy. They have won Munster on five occasions. Ending a four-year drought for county glory last month is put on the backburner for now.

“We celebrated for the first week then we parked it.

“We trained hard for two weeks in preparation for the Clonmel Commercials game. We’re back on the road in the sense of moving on to another target. 

"You play the league, you park that, you play the championship, you park that and so on. That’s where our minds are at, just to kind of keep it going and go as far as we can.” Sherlock concluded.

Elsewhere, the rescheduled McCarthy Insurance Group County JAFC semi-finals take place tomorrow.

Both games were postponed last Saturday due to heavy rainfall.

Nemo Rangers’ third team take on Donoughmore in Glenville while Kilmacabea meet Charleville in Páirc Uí Rinn.

Both encounters start at 3pm.