Knocknagree coach John Fintan Daly: I knew the new rules would benefit our team

If Knocknagree and Clonakilty’s upcoming McCarthy Insurance Premier SFC clash is half as good as last Saturday night’s Division 1 county league clash then we are in for another sizzling contest.

Knocknagree travelled to Ahamilla and came away with a 1-13 to 1-12 victory thanks to Denis R O’Connor’s injury-time winner.

Surviving the concession of a last-minute Ross Mannix goal, John Fintan Daly’s side registered their first Division 1 victory at the third attempt. Naturally, Knocknagree’s manager was delighted with the outcome.

“I’m absolutely delighted because, I’ll tell you, in our first two games, we could have won either,” Fintan Daly commented.

“We went to the Barrs and the draw was a great result. We could have lost it. There’s great belief in the team, in the group, they are never beat until the end.

Castlehaven came up and did a number on us but Castlehaven are not a Haven for nothing.

“Coming here to Clonakilty tonight, of all the games in the first four rounds, before any ball was kicked this year, I actually thought this was probably going to be the hardest one.

“That is because they are in our county championship group and we had to go all the way down to West Cork on a Saturday night rather than a Sunday.” 

GRIPPING

Level five times throughout a gripping contest, Knocknagree gained whatever slight psychological advantage was going ahead of the Premier SFC meeting in Carrigadrohid next July.

“It’s a huge boost, but look, we were fortunate enough to win it,” he acknowledged.

“I think people will come to watch. The way it’s played now, it’s a very tactical game. It’s like a game of chess with teams setting and defending around the arc. You have to keep the faith.

“When the new rules came in, I knew it was going to benefit our team. While everyone felt it was good for football, we were down the line a bit further. We had always been playing high risk, maybe less reward. 

Now I think the new rules are more reward and less risk.

“There wasn’t a kick of a ball in it. It didn’t look good when they got the goal. That might have been curtains for us but they showed great resilience to come back.” 

As for Clonakilty, losing in Division 1 for the first time this season was hard to take. Suffering their first competitive home loss of season, after Ross Mannix’s 59th minute punched goal appeared to have sealed victory, was equally frustrating.

“Look, it was a great game of football and there was no quarter given,” Clon coach Eoin Ryan said.

“It was physical but we are disappointed to lose it. You learn more from losing than you do from winning. I think, last year, we kind of flew through the league and didn’t learn a whole lot. It took us until the county championship before we learned anything.

“I think we learned more from tonight than we would have from winning. Definitely, the toughest opposition we’ve played so far. So, I think we actually played better than we did in the previous two games.

“Look, we are happy with the way we played and, as I said, it was a good game. Obviously, we didn’t win but that’s the way it goes. I’d be happy enough with the performance and it is just a case of us going again now.”