St Finbarr's legend Fionán Murray: Our footballers are part of history now

St Finbarr’s bid for Munster glory fell short in probably the worst possible way right at the end last Sunday week, but they will reflect on a season that was a campaign of progress.

The Togher outfit won the McCarthy Insurance Group Division 1 Football League title and then the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC crown.

After a number of disappointing years since winning the Andy Scannell trophy in 2021, it all came right for the city club this year. They would have liked to have added the provincial crown, but it wasn’t to be after a controversial late two-point free from Dingle’s Conor Geaney decided the game.

Former St Finbarr’s and Cork star Fionán Murray says the Barrs' group of players should be very proud of what they have achieved in 2025.

“At the start of every year, you’re not dismissing teams, but you’re saying if you can beat Clonakilty, Castlehaven and Nemo, you’re going a long way to winning the championship, the Barrs did that this year,” he says.

“To be fair, in years gone by, we’ve got a direct passage to the semi-finals from the group stage. But I think especially with the amount of Cork players we have in both hurling and football, getting an extra game to get the team moving as a cohesive unit was very valuable. It just added an extra pep to them this year and I think they did very well.

“I hadn't been to a lot of the training sessions this year compared to previous years, but the lads bought into what Brian Roche and Jimmy Barry-Murphy were saying. This team in particular, they’ve been on the road now seven or eight years and the nucleus of the team is there. This year they added a number of young fellas and they made big impacts.

“The Barrs had a squad this year and that’s very important. It’s all about a squad now and there’s guys that may want to be starting, may think they need more game time, but they’re just part of the panel now. I think someone like Jimmy Barry-Murphy has instilled into them that you need 20 players to win a county.” 

While the Munster final ended in heartbreak right at the death for the Barrs, it was the opposite in the county final. It looked like another day was required between old rivals St Finbarr’s and Nemo Rangers until super-sub Cillian Myers-Murray, Fionán’s son, popped up with the winning point.

It was the first time that the Barrs had beaten their neighbours in a final. Taking county final meetings alone, they lost four (1993, 2010, the 2017 replay, and 2022).

“Cillian got the winner and that’s fine, but Eoin McGreevy came on, Luke Hannigan came on and I thought Luke's presence around the middle of the field helped us enormously. It helped Ian Maguire because we always know that Nemo are strong in that department.

“Look, as a club, we had never beaten Nemo in a final, so to get it done was exceptional. It gave great confidence to the lads.

"Going back to the late finish, at the end of the day, Cillian is a scorer, Eoin McGreevy is a creator and he created the winning point for Cillian after a pass by Enda Dennehy after Luke Hannigan won a kick-out. Four players that came on.

“The Barrs have a panel now. We had players coming off the bench that contributed and that helped us achieve what we achieved this year.” 

Murray wants to look back on the positives from the year and not reflect on anything else.

“If you’re a young person in the club now and you have witnessed what St Finbarr’s have done this season, you're saying to yourself that there’s huge history in this club. Our footballers are part of that history now thanks to what they did this year and that's credit to everybody involved.”