Cork GAA: What we learned from the club football quarter-finals

In their Premier Senior Football quarter-finals, St Finbarr’s and Clonakilty looked to be in tight battles at half time. 

Yet they upped the gears after, with both teams effectively winning their games by dominating the opening 10 minutes of the second halves of their knockout ties.

Clon were two down at half time and a man down too after the dismissal of Dan Darragh, but if anything the numerical disadvantage inspired them as they kicked the first four points in the first six minutes to wrestle back the control they had lost with Eoghan Collins’s goal late in the opening half.

Clon looked extremely well-drilled, happy to keep possession with slick, patient build-up play. They ended the game with nine different scorers and the fact that no individual player scored more than three points displays how they spread the scoring throughout the side. 

The half-back line impressed with Chris Kenneally kicking three points from the wing and Thomas Clancy getting two, which illustrates how effective they are in their support play.

Newcestown did play the opening 10 minutes of the second half without the services of their main marksman David Buckley after he was black-carded at the break. They really struggled, kicking a number of wides. They did not register their first score of the half until the 49th minute through a fisted effort from Seamus O’Sullivan, by which time they were chasing the game. 

Clon goaled almost straight away through Dylan Harrington, after a brilliant run by David Lowney and there was to be no way back for Newcestown despite some frantic efforts late on to bridge the deficit.

Carbery looked to be competitive in the first half of their quarter-final against the Barrs at Clonakilty, only down 0-12 to 0-8 at half-time. A devastating burst of goal-scoring straight after the restart saw the city side race clear to win comfortably by 21 in the end.

John Wigginton Barrett led the onslaught as Carbery simply had no answers when he ran directly at them. The flyer scored 1-1 and assisted Ian Maguire for a goal within three minutes of the restart.

Enda Dennehy punched to the back of the net in the 38th minute, after Brian Hayes had put it on a plate for him, for the fourth goal. Hayes had set up Ciaran Doolin just before only for the defender to strike the posts with his goal attempt. 

The Togher side were running though the divisional side at will and they were ruthless.

When Hayes slotted an excellent two-pointer soon after it was now 4-16 to 0-8 with the Barrs winning the opening 10 minutes of the half by 4-4 to no score. It was very much game over at this juncture. 

Carbery may have some serious talent in their forward line but they were completely dominated all over the pitch which resulted in Dara Sheedy, Ruairí Deane, Rory O’Donovan and Damien Gore being starved of ball.

Quality

In the final quarter-final on Sunday, Bryan Hayes was on fire for Nemo Rangers early on, firing over four points in the opening 10 minutes in a quality-packed knockout tie down in Clonakilty against Castlehaven.

Nemo deservedly led by four at the quarter mark but they bumped that to seven in the 19th minute when that man Hayes was on the end of a flowing move to roll it into the back of the Haven net.

Nemo had lost to Castlehaven in the 2023 and 2024 county finals and were eager to bury the memories here. They put themselves in a great position when taking a six-point lead into the dressing room.

The second half didn’t start superbly for the Haven but three points in three minutes seemed to suggest the Haven comeback was in full swing only for a third point from Colin Molloy to stem their tide. The impressive Ross Corkery popped up with another momentum-killer of a score soon after as Nemo had the knack of responding to scores.

Jack Cahalane came off the bench in an attempt to rescue Castlehaven’s campaign and his goal with 10 minutes remaining got them within three points of Nemo. The last few minutes were frantic stuff when Damien Cahalane put a single point between the sides. 

You sensed Nemo needed another score as Castlehaven were always likely to engineer an equaliser and up popped substitute Dara O’Sullivan to double the lead to two. He repeated the trick soon after to consign Castlehaven to defeat.