Jimmy Barry-Murphy: Dingle are favourites but we will give it our best shot

St Finbarr’s selector Jimmy Barry-Murphy believes his side are in the best shape possible to meet the strong challenge of Dingle on Sunday.

The two sides clash in the AIB Munster Club SFC final at FBD Semple Stadium with throw-in at 1.30pm. Live on TG4.

The Togher outfit are underdogs going into this one against their Kerry opposition.

The Barrs have been ticking along nicely though since winning the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC title in October defeating Clonmel Commercials and Éire Óg of Ennis in the Munster series.

“It’s always difficult after winning a county title to find out how players are going to respond,” the Cork GAA legend said to The Echo.

“But as I said to you before, they were very, very keen to do well in the Munster Club Championship and to represent Cork. They have knuckled down very well. We had a very, very hard game in Clonmel.

“Heavy pitch and no fault to anyone, that's the time of year we’re in now. We got over the line that day and that set us up for a home game against Éire Óg. I think to be fair to them, they were hurling the weekend before.

“There’s a number of dual players on both sides. We know how hard it is during the year trying to combine both.

“But our display was excellent. It was a good day and our style of football was really good in the end.

“After shaking off a slow start, some of our combination play and our scores we got were very, very satisfying.” 

The biggest positive from the win over Éire Óg of Ennis a fortnight ago was the spread of scorers, which included 3-3 for Brian Hayes. There were eight different scorers on a day when Steven Sherlock wasn’t hugely influential. It showed that the Barrs aren’t a one-man show.

“Steven has been a massive score-getter for us all year, he didn’t score as much as he might have liked the other day,” Barry-Murphy says.

“But we knew other players would step up to the mark and I think you saw that. Brian Hayes was very good.

“It’s nice to see other players chipping in with scores. I think we had something like eight different scorers on the day, which was very good for us.

“We have threats all over the pitch.” 

St Finbarr’s last tasted Munster glory in the 2021/22 campaign. Barry-Murphy doesn’t think that victory or having won the title at Sunday’s venue will have any bearing on this decider.

“A lot of our players have played in big finals, county finals, Munster Club finals, big games for Cork.

“I don’t think our Munster title success in 2022 is really a factor on Sunday. What happened against Austin Stacks, I don’t think it’s very relevant. This will be a different ball game."

Dingle lost at this stage two seasons ago to Castlehaven after a penalty shoot-out. They have improved since then. 

“Dingle have a lot of household names, the Geaney brothers, Tom O’Sullivan, Mark O’Connor to name a few. All players who have played with Kerry at the highest level.

“We respect them. Of course, we do. I’m just hoping that we’ll turn up and be able to give a fabulous account of ourselves on the day.

“Dingle are favourites. No question about that, but we’ll go up and give it our best shot.

“I think that we have a team capable of playing very well on the day. The big thing I always say about these big games, they tend to take on a life of their own. It can be an unsung hero on the day.

“Small things can decide these big games. Who knows what might happen on Sunday. It’s just a matter of getting the players in the right frame of mind.

“Going to Thurles, I think we have a very good chance. We have prepared well, and if we’re not good enough on the day, then we’ll accept that.”