If you were in Rossmore back on July 29th for Round 1 in Group C of the Senior A football championship, you would not have come away saying Dohenys and Newcestown would be meeting again in the county final on November 5th. That game could only have been categorised as a dour arm wrestle between neighbours and archrivals with both sides displaying the caginess associated with opening round group games.
In contrast to that, both sides relished and prospered in the wide-open expanses of Pairc Ui Chaoimh in their respective semi-finals two weeks ago. First up in what turned out to be a highly entertaining afternoon’s football was Newcestown’s clash with north Cork side Newmarket. Having been relegated from the top-grade last year, pride had obviously been dented and their collective reaction has been excellent. They have belied all the dual status whackers by reaching Senior A county finals in both codes. They, along with Aghabullogue, have shown that it can be done if the will and the levels of cooperation are there from both managers.
Newmarket who had qualified straight into the semi-final hadn’t played a game in four weeks and looked the fresher and slicker outfit in that opening half. Newcestown’s attack was breaking down around the 45 and their inside line looked very static, yet they hung in there to go in just two down at the break.
However, Tadhg Twomey’s influence was growing, and David Buckley was starting to make his presence felt up front. At half-time the introduction of the youthful Seamus O’Sullivan and the experienced Cathrach Keane by manager Tim Buckley added a new impetus to their attacking play. Keane had the ball in the net in the 37th minute but it was disallowed for charging. Buckley missed a free soon after with the gap having been widened to three by Barry O’Connor.
Newcestowns David Buckley wins posession and heads goalwards as Newmarkets Paudie Allen looks on in the Bon Secours Senior A Football Championship Semi Final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh (Photo: George Hatchell)
Newcestown looked in trouble but Gearoid O’Donovan’s influence was growing around the middle and the evergreen Tadhg Twomey continued to find space. By the 49th minute the sides were level through Seamus O’Sullivan with Newcestown now dominating the Newmarket restarts.
They kicked five of the last seven scores. When they got a grip, they didn’t take their boot off the jugular in what was an outstanding second-half display to run out deserving winners by two on a scoreline of 0-12 to 0-10.Dohenys’ performance against the fancied Knocknagree in the main event could only be described as scintillating. They also qualified straight into a semi-final and that break was obviously used very well by manager Declan O’Dwyer and his backroom team as they looked superbly drilled.
Fionn Herlihy looked a real deal, stand-out inter-county footballer with a haul of eight points but it beggars belief why Cork senior colleague Daniel O’Mahony wasn’t sacrificed by the North Cork men to go back and man-mark him. A weakness in Fionn’s game in the past might have been that he didn’t link up with teammates in better positions often enough.
In this five-star display he mixed his game brilliantly between outside and inside, giving and going and taking on his man directly. His low center of gravity and his ball control make him a very difficult player to handle.
The best goalkeeping display across the semi-finals came from Stephen Daly, the Dohenys net minder. The Dunmanway side is not a team big in stature, but they have pace all over the field. Even when Knocknagree was pressing hard late on, Daly’s kickouts were inch perfect, drilled into space on the outside to a willing runner. Out of 22 kickouts, the boys in green lost one. He’s a big man, his ball handling looked good, and late on when John Fintan Daly’s men went in search of a goal and dropped a bomb into the square, he came off his line and took man and ball. John Cleary might be having a look here if he can reproduce that performance in the final.
Fionn Herlihy was the hero on the winner’s side, but Eoghan McSweeney did some exceptional things in the first half particularly for Knocknagree. Cullen Barry, the Dohenys center back, sat back to mind the house, giving him far too much time and space on the ball. His crossfield footpass to Anthony O’Connor at the back post after two minutes was sublime as an example. Barry O’Donovan tracked him in the second half and stifled his influence. Dohenys had a poor start but settled to go in a point down after a cracking opening half.
Dohenys never looked back after Patrick Doyle, the opposition netminder, put a kickout astray allowing Adam O’Donovan through on goal to shoot, only for Mark Buckley to pick up the rebound and billow the net. A late goal put a shine on this one for Knocknagree after Dohenys had stretched their lead to six in the last quarter. Keith White might have only got two from play, but he did wreck with his direct running, and the appearance from the bench of captain Eoin Lavers, who had been out for the last three months through injury, is a huge boost in the run-up to the final.
Newcestown will not afford either Herlihy or White the same access to huge green spaces and one-on-one situations. Dohenys will man-mark Tadgh Twomey and the powerful David Buckley. Tim Buckley and his team will study the video hard in an effort to upset Daly’s restarts.
Both teams could sell resilience and tradition by the bucket full. It will be a very different game to that one in Rossmore as both teams are entirely different animals three months later. I fancy the Dohenys but if Newcestown gets a grip on Herlihy, expect skin and hair to fly for the hour.
