Paudie Murray on how St Finbarr's 'showed massive composure' to get over line

Longer ago that we would care to admit, advertisements for Bulmers Cider had the slogan, “Nothing added but time.”

It’s a tagline that could be applied to the St Finbarr’s campaign in the Co-op SuperStores Premier SHC, as an opening defeat to Midleton was quickly parked and form began to improve.

Sunday’s win over Kanturk put the Barrs in the county final for the first time since their victory of 2022. The unanswered run of seven points in the closing stages gave the Togher outfit a 1-27 to 1-22 victory, playing some of their best hurling of the year to date.

For manager Paudie Murray, they key factor is more time on the training field.

“The reason we haven't seen it, really, is that we’ve come together the Wednesday night before Midleton and that was our first session together,” he said.

“So you're just working away and you're just trying to get better each game and you're just hoping that it won't catch up with you.

“I think today was a better performance than the last day and again, two weeks’ time it needs to be better again, so that's where we have to aim for now.

We had Wednesday night together, it was the first time we had everyone inside the dressing-room together.

“We're a new management team, there's new words being used inside the dressing-room, all those things have to be understood and I suppose the way we want to play and so that's obviously going to take time.

“None of the management team panicked after the Midleton game. None of us panicked – we knew it was a journey and we just needed to get better in every game.”

On Sunday, Murray was delighted with his team produced when the need was greatest, especially as they had trailed by four points following Alan Walsh’s goal soon after half-time.

“I suppose, looking at it now, I thought we showed massive composure,” he said.

“We got hit with a sucker-punch but we spoke all week that they were going to get goals and we just had to deal with it.

“We worked our way back into the game, I thought that the guys we brought in had a massive impact on the game as well. All year, we're trying to build a panel, guys that can come in and make a difference, so I think they made a difference as well.

“Obviously delighted; you feel for Kanturk but happy to be going to a final.”

Walsh might have another goal with just over ten minutes left, when the Barrs trailed by three but a superb Shane Hurley goal denied him. While Brian O’Sullivan put over the free that accrued, the Barrs had an immediate response with a great goal from the excellent Ethan Twomey, underlining the importance of the save.

Reliable

“Yeah, look, I suppose there’s moments in the game that could have swung either way. Shane is a good keeper, we expect that from Shane,” Murray said.

“The key thing, we knew it, if we didn't give away goals today, we'd always have a chance.

“One goal, you’d have to take it – I think they were averaging over three a game.”

That they finished so well was down to depth, Murray felt.

I think that the five guys that came in made a difference, which was the key for us.

“It’s something that we have probably worked on all year, just getting that impact off the bench.”

Prior to that, character had been shown in the first half,

when an early five-point lead for Kanturk was wiped out with good second quarter.

“Yeah, I think that was a big difference in that we got the grips with their puckout,” Murray said. “To be fair, we had a lot of research done on them for the last two weeks, so we knew what to expect.”

Now they can look ahead to the decider against Glen Rovers.

“I think it's important for this group of players,” Murray said.

“They're good guys, they train very hard. Yes, we have our issues with being a dual club but, just as I said at the very start of the year, it takes a special player to play both codes and they're all special players.”