Christy O'Connor: Barrs should have been out of sight before free that saw Dingle snatch title
Conor Geaney, Dingle fighting for this ball with ian Maguire of St Finbarr's in the AIB Munster Club Senior Football Championship final at Semple Stadium, Thurles. . Picture Dan Linehan
At the end of Sunday’s Munster final, as the TG4 cameras scanned players from both camps at various stages of their coverage, the snapshots captured the extreme range of emotions stretching from elation to absolute devastation between the victors and the vanquished.
As the Dingle players were bobbing and weaving on an ocean of ecstasy, the St Finbarr’s players were marooned on an island of heartbreak, disconsolate, traumatised and in a state of disbelief that they’d hit the rocks and been sunk when the Barrs appeared to be sailing towards another Munster title.
It was more concussive again when the Barrs had controlled possession for most of additional time. Their last two attacks came to nothing, a ball turned over and a wide.
The Barrs had forced the turnover in the dying seconds before coughing up possession again and then getting punishing in the most devastating way imaginable by getting pinged for a free advanced 50 metres that Conor Geaney nailed from outside the two-point arc.
The Barrs have a right to feel aggrieved at that final call from Chris Maguire when they were adjudged to have impeded a Dingle player taking a quick-free, but what will really haunt the Barrs is how they were reeled in when they should have been out of sight.
Dingle did need to kick two incredible two-pointers for their last two scores but the shot count in that last quarter was 8-3 in Dingle’s favour.
The last quarter was completely frantic but the Barrs will still feel that they should have been able to manage that chaos better. For the first three quarters, St Finbarr’s had given a clinic in how to protect possession, having only turned over the ball just three times in over 45 minutes. Yet they turned over possession seven times in that fourth quarter, which led to 0-3 for Dingle.
Overall, the Barrs had an impressive 70% conversion rate compared to Dingle’s 64%.
It's even more agonising for the Barrs when Steven Sherlock gave a display for the ages when kicking 0-16 and yet he still finished on the losing side.
From 14 attempts, from play and placed balls, Sherlock nailed 10, six of which were two-pointers. Of Sherlock's eight two-point attempts, he nailed six, but one of those missed chances dropped short and resulted in a point for Brian Hayes after Dingle goalkeeper Gavin Curran punched the ball away as it neared the crossbar.
The pick of the bunch was the two-point free Sherlock nailed in the second half close to the sideline on the 20-metre line just outside the arc. The new rules do inflate scoring totals but Sherlock’s overall performance was even more outrageous when he was able to post such a massive total on a soft pitch in a 60-minute match in December. Incredible.
It was staggering shooting but it was that kind of an afternoon defined by a masterclass of long-range point scoring; nine of 12 two-point attempts were converted. Dylan Geaney bagged 0-6 from his last four shots but his two two-pointers were outlandish scores in the circumstances. Conor Geaney’s winning kick was the ultimate clutch kick but Dingle needed to produce something out of the ordinary to snatch a game that appeared to have gone beyond their reach.
Although Dingle only punished St Finbarr’s off turnovers in the last quarter, they really hurt the Barrs off the possession they secured from Darragh Newman’s kickouts. Dingle only won seven of those restarts but they turned that possession into a profit of 0-4.
Hayes, as he has been throughout this season, was outstanding once more; as well as winning those five restarts, one of which led to St Finbarr’s opening score, Hayes scored 0-2, assisted another point while he also engineered two more scoring chances – one of which was a half goal chance – that the Barrs failed to convert.
Sherlock though, was untouchable.
For the first 25 minutes, Tom O’Sullivan had been hugely effective for Dingle in an attacking capacity. From 22 possessions in that period, O’Sullivan scored 0-1 and assisted another 0-2. He only had nine possessions for the remaining 35 minutes after trying to keep tabs on Sherlock but he still got forward to huge effect when Dingle needed to him in the second half; as well as scoring another point and having another assist, O’Sullivan also kicked a two-pointer which was scrubbed out because the referee had already blown for a free.
The Barrs did so much right but they just came up short.
Nobody reflected that heartbreak more than William Buckley. He had an excellent match, especially in how he was able to come deep and use his searing pace to penetrate into the Dingle attack at every opportunity.
From 27 plays, Buckley was fouled for a free and had an assist. He didn’t convert any of his three shots, while he also floated a handpass across the square late on that was turned over in a profitable position.
Overall, the Barrs will come back stronger when they process this loss and absorb the lessons from such a devastating loss.
It just won’t feel that way this week. This scar will take a long time to heal.
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