{"id":118558,"date":"2025-10-13T04:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/118558\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T04:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:14:09","slug":"steven-sherlock-inspires-st-finbarrs-to-six-point-victory-over-ballincollig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/118558\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Sherlock inspires St Finbarr’s to six-point victory over Ballincollig"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Finbarr\u2019s: 2-13 (2-2-9)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballincollig: 1-10 (1-0-10)\u00a0<\/p>\n

St Finbarr\u2019s are back in the Cork Premier SFC final for the first time since 2022 after finishing strong to defeat Ballincollig at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It will be an all-city clash in the decider, a repeat of three years ago, after Nemo Rangers got the better of Newcestown.<\/p>\n

The Barrs graph has been trending in the right direction as this campaign has moved along and while this semi-final wasn\u2019t pretty, they had enough quality to get over the line.<\/p>\n

Brian Roche\u2019s team failed to score from play in an opening 30 minutes that lacked everything you would associate with a championship outing.<\/p>\n

While Ballincollig\u2019s game plan worked well, the Barrs didn\u2019t play to their strengths in a half where they were waiting for things to happen. They were glad to be trailing by just a point at the interval.<\/p>\n

\" Conor Dennehy of St Finbarr’s dives to stop this shot by Peter O’Neill of Ballincollig. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

The Togher outfit came out a different animal for the new half inspired by Steven Sherlock, who scored 1-9 over the hour. His goal with 20 minutes to go gave the city team a lift.<\/p>\n

They did lead by five points midway through the second half, but Ballincollig brought it back to parity, but just didn\u2019t have enough to eke ahead again.<\/p>\n

The Barrs upped the gears in the final quarter to prevail by six points.<\/p>\n

Ballincollig, without their talisman Cian Dorgan due to injury, kicked the first two points through Ben O\u2019Connell and Se\u00e1n Kiely. The former\u2019s effort could have very easily been a goal after Frank Down did well in the build-up.<\/p>\n

St Finbarr\u2019s struggled to get into their rhythm with a number of wides a frustration for them. It must be said that Ballincollig were defending excellently in what was a collective effort with Liam Jennings tasked with picking up Sherlock.<\/p>\n

The Village were patient, composed and clinical with Luke Fahy bursting up the pitch to extend the Collig\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n

After 15 minutes, St Finbarr\u2019s finally registered a score when Sherlock tapped over a relatively easy free.<\/p>\n

\" Ethan Twomey of St Finbarr’s looks to stop the breaking Luke Fahy of Ballincollig. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

Fahy did extend his side\u2019s lead out to three points, but a pair of Sherlock frees left St Finbarr\u2019s a point adrift after 24 minutes, 0-4 to 0-3.<\/p>\n

In an opening half that won\u2019t live long in the memory bank, there would be no further scores. Both teams were guilty of some poor play and shooting, but Ballincollig led by the bare minimum at half-time, 0-4 to 0-3.<\/p>\n

Ballincollig continued to frustrate their opposition in the early minutes of the new half and a Peter O\u2019Neill white flag pushed the Muskerry men two points clear.<\/p>\n

A Brian Hayes mark reduced the deficit down to one point after seconds earlier the heavily strapped Cork hurler saw his goal effort stopped by Ballincollig goalkeeper Jack Gibbons.<\/p>\n

A majestic Sherlock two-pointer from play gave his team the lead for the first time after 35 minutes, quickly followed by a Conor Dennehy effort, 0-7 to 0-5.<\/p>\n

A Ben O\u2019Connell point did keep Ballincollig in touch, but the momentum was after swinging. A green flag was coming. An inspirational run from Sherlock saw the Cork footballer unleash a powerful shot low into the corner of the net as the Barrs pushed 1-7 to 0-6 clear after 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

A Sherlock free extended his team\u2019s lead, but Ballincollig got a lifeline with 14 minutes to go. Kiely\u2019s 45 dropped short as David O\u2019Leary tucked away his effort into the net, 1-8 to 1-6.<\/p>\n

\" Ethan Twomey of St Finbarr’s in action against Ballincollig. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

Podsie O\u2019Mahony\u2019s substitutions helped the Village get their second wind. Kiely and sub Dara Dorgan (free) drew the team in green and white level.<\/p>\n

The game was in the melting pot with 10 minutes remaining, but the Barrs showed their class. A William Buckley point was followed by another Sherlock two-pointer from play.<\/p>\n

After 55 minutes, St Finbarr\u2019s got their second goal and the most crucial one when Hayes finished from close range as he used his height and stature to flick the ball into the net, 2-11 to 1-8.<\/p>\n

Ballincollig did throw the kitchen sink at their opponents, but a green flag that they craved didn\u2019t come.<\/p>\n

The teams swapped the last four points as the Barrs progress to the final against Nemo.<\/p>\n

Scorers for St Finbarr\u2019s: S Sherlock 1-9 (2 2pt, 0-4 f), B Hayes 1-1 (0-1 m), W Buckley, L Hannigan, C Dennehy 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

Ballincollig: D O\u2019Leary 1-0, B O\u2019Connell, S Kiely, L Fahy 0-2 each, D Dorgan (f), T O\u2019Connell, S O\u2019Neill, P O\u2019Neill 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

ST FINBARR\u2019S: D Newman; A O\u2019Connor, S Ryan, D Quinn; B Hennessy, J Burns, C Dennehy; I Maguire, C Doolan; E Twomey, J Wigginton-Barrett, W Buckley; R Barrett, B Hayes, S Sherlock (c).<\/p>\n

Subs: E McGreevy for J Wigginton-Barrett (39), C Myers-Murray for R Barrett (42), L Hannigan for E Twomey, E Dennehy for J Burns (both 52).<\/p>\n

BALLINCOLLIG: J Gibbons; L Jennings, JP Murphy, S Murphy; L Fahy (c), F Down, D Desmond; P O\u2019Neill, S Dore; H Ahearne, L O\u2019Connell, S Kiely; B O\u2019Connell, D O\u2019Mahony, D O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n

Subs: S O\u2019Neill for H Ahearne (35), T O\u2019Connell for S Murphy (44), D Dorgan for D Desmond (46).<\/p>\n

Referee: James Regan (Lough Rovers).<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Before the game, a minute\u2019s silence was observed in memory of former Ballincollig and Cork underage star Killian Lee, who died suddenly last Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Finbarr\u2019s: 2-13 (2-2-9)\u00a0 Ballincollig: 1-10 (1-0-10)\u00a0 St Finbarr\u2019s are back in the Cork Premier SFC final for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,24,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-118558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}