Both Nemo and St Finbarr's need to win this PSFC final for very different reasons

In the final minute of additional time of last Sunday’s Premier Cork senior hurling final, as St Finbarr’s desperately needed a goal to save the match, a half-chance suddenly materialised.

A long delivery that broke inside the D was flicked on by Ben Cunningham into the path of William Buckley. 

The Barrs forward looked to have a clear route to goal inside the 20-metre line but Rob Downey was closing down space and Eoin Varian was hot on Buckley’s heels.

He couldn’t get control of the ball and goalkeeper Cathal Hickey suddenly appeared to smother whatever chance Buckley had of getting off a shot or a flick before picking up the sliotar and offloading it to Varian.

After the final whistle blew shortly afterwards, the Glen were champions. 

The Blackpool side were the better team on the day, but Buckley and the Barrs know all too well by now about heartbreaking late moments in big finals.

The Barrs looked set to win last year’s Munster club football final until they lost control late on and Dingle won the match with the last play when Conor Geaney nailed a controversial 2-point free.

Buckley played well that afternoon but he and the Barrs had huge regrets with the closing moments. 

Buckley floated a handpass across the square that was turned over in a profitable position while he kicked a wide from a scoreable position that would have put the Barrs two ahead before Geaney won it for Dingle.

As Buckley and a host of his dual team-mates head into Sunday’s Premier county senior final, they will be driven to ensure that they don’t lose a third big final in the space of just 11 months.

And yet, their opponents go into the match with an even bigger and darker cloud of trepidation hanging over them. 

Whatever happens, either Nemo Rangers or the Barrs are going to get drenched from a cloudburst of devastation that will seep into their bones over another long winter.

Nemo are already in completely unfamiliar territory that is, for them, becoming worryingly familiar. 

Prior to 2023, Nemo had a staggering 85 per cent success rate in county finals, having only lost four finals from 27 appearances. 

Now, they’re staring down the barrel of potentially losing four finals in-a-row.

That has only happened once before. Clonakilty lost five finals in succession between 1932-’36, and six in seven years between 1932-’38 before finally winning a first title in 1939.

Along with Clonakilty and Nemo, only three other clubs lost three finals in-a-row; Fermoy, St Michael’s and St Finbarr’s. 

Fermoy suffered that heartbreak between 1942-’44, while St Michael’s lost their only three final appearances between 1976-’78.

The Barrs suffered the misery of three successive final defeats between 1989-’91, and four in five years, after losing the 1993 decider to Nemo. But at least a handful of those players could console themselves with having All-Ireland club medals in their pockets from 1987.

Some of these Nemo players do have county and Munster club medals but the biggest fear for this group is being remembered for documenting an unwanted chapter in the annals of Nemo’s glorious history.

In the moment though, especially during a championship season, the Nemo players don’t carry that baggage with them. They can’t afford to.

“You kinda have no choice but to get over it,” said Alan O’Donovan last year. 

“It just drives you on for next year. It is not something we talk about as a group. Every year is a new year.” 

Last year was one of the most difficult of all, not just because it was the third final defeat in-a-row. 

Nemo blew up in the second half when they were two points ahead at half-time with the breeze at their backs. 

Their conversion rate in that half was a miserable 21 per cent.

Nemo hit the post with three of their 11 missed attempts in that second half but fine margins didn’t add any balm to a wound that cut deeper in Nemo than ever before. Because it was the first time they had ever lost a county final to the Barrs.

Winning a game of that magnitude in that fashion against Nemo was also a tip of the hat to this current Barrs generation. 

After Nemo beat the Barrs in the 2017 final replay, it was the ‘Barrs’ eighth successive final defeat since their previous county title in 1985.

St Finbarr’s had won an All-Ireland club in the intervening period but the Barrs had garnered a reputation for not being able to win county titles.

The club’s footballers have totally changed that mindset in the last decade. 

A win on Sunday would be a fourth title from their last five appearances on this stage.

The pain of last year’s Munster final though, is still raw. It’s even more acute again for the raft of dual players that experienced more of that agony last Sunday.

Similar to Nemo, the ‘Barrs are also grappling with the prospect of unwanted history. 

The 1990 double-winning season will always be cherished in Cork, but that is not a year fondly remembered in the St Finbarr’s club as they lost the senior hurling and football finals.

That was the only time that happened in the club’s storied history. 

And this generation – especially the dual players – don’t want that stain attached to their legacy. Especially when St Finbarr’s are celebrating their 150 anniversary this year.

The players are ignoring that pressure for now. 

So are a Nemo squad facing the greatest challenge their senior team have ever been presented with on this stage in the county.

Still, neither club can deny the black cloud that is hanging over them. 

And both Nemo and the Barrs will do whatever it takes to prevent another drenching that will seep into their bones over the longest winter imaginable.