Eoghain O'Connor savours landmark Kanturk win but insists performance won't do in semi-final

Football’s new rules continue to shine a positive light on the game with every passing weekend of action. Sunday’s Kilbrin showdown between Kanturk and Kilshannig saw the orange flag raised 11 times during their quarter-final.

But dissent rose to prominence too. Kanturk gifted their opponents a couple of handy two-pointers, giving oxygen to Kilshannig's comeback, and they even lost Alan Walsh after he picked up a second yellow card near the end.

They made hard work of it for themselves, and while manager Eoghain O’Connor was happy to make it through, he’s keen to rectify their disciplinary issues ahead of their semi-final with Carbery Rangers.

“To be honest with you, when I started this gig two years ago I had a few black hairs. Now, I've no black hairs!” he laughed. “We don't make things easy for ourselves.

“Every game there's a lot we have to work on,” O’Connor said. “While the lads will be all hurling this week, we have a full week of looking at mistakes that we made, myself included. There's no doubt about it, but we'll learn from it. It's great to go back to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“Our big thing this year, Kanturk is going fantastic in football and hurling. The fact of the matter is Kanturk haven't won a knockout senior football game in I think over 100 years. We've won one today, so at least we have that on the board!

Obviously the next day, that performance won't do against a good Carbery Rangers team. But we'll hopefully get there.” 

The plaudits have centred around their hurling exploits and for good reason – taking down small-ball giants Sarsfields and Blackrock is no easy feat – but 12 of the 15 starters from that win over Sars lined out from the first whistle here against Kilshannig.

“In fairness to the boys, the effort today and for the whole year, you can see where we're going, we're happy with where we are.

“As I've said probably in every interview, it's a panel game. We’d three that are senior hurlers but aren’t getting game time, and we had a few subs that came on today that aren’t making the hurling team.

“We know ourselves in nearly any grade, you're not going to win with 15 players,” O’Connor explained. “It's a panel game and we've used our subs and every time the subs have come on they've done something.

GOOD OMEN

“This year we have a full-time S&C coach, Sean Murphy, from Mayo originally, so we're hoping the Mayo connections will help us!” he joked. “Sean is ultra professional, he's involved in both football and hurling and of course working with [hurling manager] Tom [Walsh] it's difficult, there's no doubt about it.

“It’s Carbery Rangers the next night, they don't have that problem.” 

O’Connor and hurling manager Walsh are balancing it very well despite the challenges, and one of many men to flourish in the dual set-up is Brian O’Sullivan. He’s the current PSHC top scorer with 2-44 to his name, and against Kilshannig, he scored his first point of the SAFC games.

But don’t let the numbers fool you; the contribution he’s made to Kanturk’s footballers has been huge. He’s a massive presence in the middle third and the heartbeat of the team, game after game.

“Brian has been superb in every football and hurling game,” O’Connor added. “He's getting all the plaudits in the hurling, rightly so. 

"We're lucky to be honest with you in football with Brian, that my namesake Ben O'Connor didn't use him [for Cork] this year. There's no doubt that has helped us, because Brian has been fresh coming into championship.

“So you can see it today, the numbers, you know the man that ran the most and gave the most today. Brian is a superb athlete and we're lucky to have him.”