\n East Cork Junior A Football Championship final: Carraig na bhFear 3-12 (3-1-10) Erin\u2019s Own 1-8 (1-2-4)\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Half a century since they last lifted the East Cork Junior A Football Championship, Carraig na bhFear are champions again.<\/p>\n
They tore through the final 18 minutes of this football decider in Ballinacurra against Erin\u2019s Own like men possessed, reeling off 2-5 without reply to turn a one-point deficit into a ten-point win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely unbelievable,\u201d said manager Liam Ryan. \u201cWe were training from January for this. I pointed it out at the start of the year, it was 50 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just came through. I didn\u2019t think it would, but it was written on the cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tremendous, our man of the match Billy Connolly made a huge difference coming on, but it was absolutely brilliant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Connolly\u2019s entrance came in the 39th minute, just as Carraig na bhFear hit the game\u2019s first goal. Aherns, Jack and Mike, combined to set up Sean O\u2019Donoghue for a thunderbolt so powerful it tore through the net.<\/p>\n
Erin\u2019s Own struck back instantly, Conor Lenihan\u2019s neat finish giving them back the lead at 1-8 to 1-7. But they would not score again.<\/p>\n
The next 18 minutes the ball only moved one way. Timmy Geaney rampaged up and down the line, O\u2019Donoghue was lethal inside, and Connolly\u2019s fingerprints were all over the ball. Every turnover drew a roar.<\/p>\n
Evan Flynn\u2019s rasping finish on 50 minutes nudged them ahead for good, and when O\u2019Donoghue and Colm Murphy chipped in, the gap had stretched to six with the clock running down.<\/p>\n
Murphy swung over another before Geaney, tireless to the end, dropped a looping ball in for Rob Sheehan, and he set up O\u2019Donoghue for the palmed finish to seal it and complete the smash and grab.<\/p>\n
For 40 minutes, the game had been tight, tense, claustrophobic. Cathal Lenihan\u2019s brilliant two-pointer opened the scoring, and while Carraig hit their stride soon after getting a firm grasp on kickouts, the first half became a slug of frees.<\/p>\n
Murphy clipped over an outrageous two-point free from an acute angle, but Tom O\u2019Riordan, calm and consistent, nudged Erin\u2019s Own back in front with another placed orange flag.<\/p>\n
At half-time, it was 0-7 to 0-6 to Erin\u2019s Own. Still nothing in it. Ten minutes into the second half, still the same \u2013 1-8 to 1-7 after the swapped goals. Then came the Carraig hurricane, 18 minutes of wonder to end 50 years of wondering.<\/p>\n
Captain Tadhg O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s speech epitomised it. He saluted both the present and the past. After gently poking at half the parish, he made sure to remember the men from that 1975 side who didn\u2019t live to see this day.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Carraig na bhFear: S O\u2019Donoghue 2-2, C Murphy 0-7 (1 tpf, 0-2 f), E Flynn 1-0, T Geaney, R Sheehan, S Whelan 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Erin\u2019s Own: T O\u2019Riordan 0-6 (0-4 f, 1 tpf), Cormac Lenihan 1-0, Cathal Lenihan 0-2 (tp).<\/p>\n
\n CARRAIG NA BHFEAR: A Ryan; R McCarthy, S Farrell, C Cooney; P Sheehan, T O\u2019Donoghue (c), T Geaney; M Ahern, A Bowen; R Sheehan, E Flynn, J Ahern; S Whelan, C Murphy, S O\u2019Donoghue.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: B Connolly for J Ahern (39), O Crowley for M Ahern (43), P Geaney for Cooney (53 inj), C Murphy for McCarthy, D Sweeney for Whelan (both 60+2).<\/p>\n
\n ERIN\u2019S OWN: C O\u2019Donoghue; C Nolan, S Power, C Dunphy; R Blackton (c), C Dooley, J Carroll; Cathal Lenihan, C O\u2019Mahony; M O\u2019Riordan, C McDonnell, S Broderick; T O\u2019Riordan, Cormac Lenihan, M Carroll.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: P O\u2019Shea for S Broderick (HT), S Guilfoyle for M Carroll (43), C O\u2019Connor for J Carroll (50), E Murphy for M O\u2019Riordan (53), J Ryan for Dunphy (60+2).<\/p>\n
\n Referee: P O\u2019Driscoll (Bride Rovers)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East Cork Junior A Football Championship final: Carraig na bhFear 3-12 (3-1-10) Erin\u2019s Own 1-8 (1-2-4)\u00a0 Half a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[10417,24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-148873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gaelic-football","9":"tag-cork-gaa","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115449672851933675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148873","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=148873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}