NEWCESTOWN 0-13
DOHENYS 0-8
KIERAN McCARTHY REPORTS
ALL hail Newcestown – the double county senior A football and hurling champions. What a club. What a season.
Two weeks after the Newcestown hurlers won the county senior A hurling final, the footballers completed an incredible double by beating Dohenys in the senior A football decider at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night.
The brilliant David Buckley kicked 0-9, including six from play, to deflate a Dohenys team that had started brightly. The Dunmanway men had five points scored by the 14th minute as they led by four, but managed just three more points in the next 46, including only two in a second half that Newcestown controlled.
James Kelleher and captain Luke Meade celebrate @NewcestownGAA's Cork Senior A football final win with Dan Cahalane, one of the club's founding club members in 1958. pic.twitter.com/Psvu02jwof
— Kieran McCarthy (@KieranMcC_SS) November 11, 2023
Buckley bossed the second period. His team trailed by one at the break, 0-6 to 0-5, but the in-form Newcestown forward hit a brace to push his side in front for the first time. Colm O’Shea, from a free, levelled for Dohenys in the 37th minute – but they had to wait 26 minutes for their next score, a 63rd-minute effort from Gavin Farr.
In the interim Newcestown reeled off six points in a row to take total control – Buckley kicked five of these six points as his side surged 0-13 to 0-7 ahead. The winners had momentum after their hurling success, and that showed, as Dohenys’ last game was October 7th, and that also showed as the game progressed.
Dohenys’ lethal full-forward line was well marshalled, too, as both Fionn Herlihy and Mark Buckley were held scoreless, while Keith White did kick three points in that first half that had started promisingly for the men in green.
They lashed over three points in the first four minutes – two from White followed by a beauty from Colm O’Shea. A David Buckley close-in free in the sixth minute got Newcestown up and running, but further points from Colm O’Shea and midfielder Johnny Kelly saw Dohenys lead 0-5 to 0-1 at the midway stage of the opening half.
They'll be celebrating this one in @NewcestownGAA for quite a while. pic.twitter.com/XdilY6m7zw
— Kieran McCarthy (@KieranMcC_SS) November 11, 2023
Dohenys wouldn’t score again for 15 minutes, as Newcestown settled, and took control. Jack Meade hit a quick-fire brace, and Niall Kelly added a third in a three-minute spell to pull the double-chasers to within one, 0-5 to 0-4, by the 17th minute.
It was David Buckley who levelled the tie in the 25th minute. Dohenys, stifled so well by Newcestown in that second quarter, got moving again towards the end of the half, with Keith White’s third of the evening giving them a slender lead at half time, 0-6 to 0-5.
The second half belonged to Newcestown, who have now won promotion back to the top tier of club football in Cork one year after suffering relegation.
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Scorers
Dohenys: Keith White 0-3; Colm O’Shea 0-3 (2f); Johnny Kelly, Gavin Farr 0-1 each.
Newcestown: David Buckley 0-9 (3f); Jack Meade 0-2 (1m); Niall Kelly, Tadhg Twomey 0-1 each.
Dohenys: Stephen Daly; Jerry Farrell, Sean Daly, Donal Rice; Cullan Barry, Eoin Lavers, Barry O’Donocan; Johnny Kelly, Rhys Coakley; Adam O’Donovan, Colm O’Shea, Cathal Daly; Keith White, Fionn Herlihy, Mark Buckley.
Subs: Billy Murphy for B O’Donovan (42), Aaron Mannix for A O’Donovan (51), Gavin Farr for C O’Shea (58), Paudie Crowley for M Buckley (58), Declan Collins for J Farrell (60).
Newcestown: Christopher White; Niall Murray, Cian Twomey, Gearoid O’Donovan; James Kelleher, Micheál McSweeney, Luke Meade; Trevor Horgan, Conor Goggin; Richard O’Sullivan, Tadhg Twomey, Sean O’Donovan; Jack Meade, David Buckley, Niall Kelly.
Subs: Carthach Keane for N Murray (51), Seamus O’Sullivan for N Kelly (51), Colm Dinneen for J Kelleher (58), Joe Kenneally for C Goggin (60), Eoghan Collins for J Meade (60).
