{"id":46134,"date":"2025-09-05T22:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/46134\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T22:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:25:08","slug":"st-catherines-overcome-st-finbarrs-test-to-book-quarter-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/46134\/","title":{"rendered":"St Catherine’s overcome St Finbarr’s test to book quarter-final spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n St Catherine\u2019s 0-19\u00a0
\n St Finbarr\u2019s 0-15\n <\/p>\n

St Catherine\u2019s came into this one in third, staring at elimination, but when victory was the only currency that counted, they delivered it against St Finbarr\u2019s at Carrigtwohill on Friday evening in the Co-Op Superstores Cork Premier Junior Hurling Championship to book a spot in the quarter-final, at the Barrs\u2019 expense.<\/p>\n

It was never comfortable. St Finbarr\u2019s harried and hassled, never quite allowing the East Cork men to stretch out of sight. But once Catherine\u2019s hit the front in the 28th minute, you sensed the last two Premier Junior beaten finalists had the steel to see it through.<\/p>\n

They carried a 0-9 to 0-7 lead to the break. Three of the first four scores after the restart pushed it out to four, and from there, the gap never shrank beyond three, never grew beyond five.<\/p>\n

When the Barrs did creep closest, it was a Kevin O\u2019Flynn free followed by Conor McCarthy clipping over from a turnover. Each time Catherine\u2019s swatted the challenge aside. Brian Mulcahy to Se\u00e1n O\u2019Donoghue for one, Evan O\u2019Driscoll \u2013 immense at the back \u2013 launching the move that ended with Kevin Barry for another. At 0-16 to 0-11 with seven left, they had the cushion.<\/p>\n

\" St Catherine’s Sean O’Donoghue in a clash with St Finbarr’s Luke Hannigan. Picture: David Keane.<\/p>\n

Every one of O\u2019Flynn\u2019s frees down the stretch was answered in kind from play. By the time David Murray closed the Barrs\u2019 account in added time, the contest had already tilted east.<\/p>\n

And yet, it was far from flawless.<\/p>\n

St Catherine\u2019s ended with 15 wides, their finishing betraying them as often as it carried them. St Finbarr\u2019s were worse again \u2013 13 wides and five efforts dropped short. An upset was there for the taking, but the Togher men never grabbed it.<\/p>\n

It was a poor first half, by all accounts. The Barrs were lively early, 0-4 to 0-1 ahead by the 12th minute with Murray, McCarthy and Jamie Linehan involved.<\/p>\n

But from the 23rd minute on, Catherine\u2019s strung together five in a row. Rory Galvin \u2013 on as an early sub \u2013 landed one to get only their second point from play, Mulcahy struck twice, and Ois\u00edn Fitzgerald, superb in a variety of roles, nailed a beauty from distance. That run turned a two-point deficit into a three-point lead and set the frame for what followed.<\/p>\n

\" St Catherine’s Sean O’Donoghue tries to hook St Finbarr’s Conor McCarthy. Picture: David Keane.<\/p>\n

Outside of McCarthy\u2019s drive from midfield and Murray\u2019s threat inside, the Barrs never got consistent traction. Catherine\u2019s, despite the scatter of wides, looked the side with the quality when it mattered, and the answers to book a quarter-final spot.<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for St Catherine\u2019s:\u00a0R Galvin 0-6 f, K Barry 0-4 (0-2 f), B Mulcahy 0-3, O Fitzgerald, S O\u2019Donoghue 0-2 each, R O\u2019Connell, W Leamy 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n St Finbarr\u2019s: K O\u2019Flynn 0-5 f, C O\u2019Connor (f), D Murray 0-3 each, C McCarthy 0-2, J Linehan, R Barrett 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n ST CATHERINE\u2019S: E Davis; E O\u2019Driscoll, E O\u2019Riordan, K Neville; B O\u2019Brien, C Hegarty, K O\u2019Donoghue; S Cotter, J Hayes; J Neville, O Fitzgerald, S O\u2019Donoghue; B Mulcahy, K Barry, E Condon.<\/p>\n

\n Subs:\u00a0R Galvin for S O\u2019Donoghue (5-7, temp), Galvin for Cotter (18 inj), F O\u2019Connell for K O\u2019Donoghue, R O\u2019Connell for Condon (both 39), W Leamy for Neville (48).<\/p>\n

\n ST FINBARR\u2019S: J McCarthy; J Goggin, M Ahern, J Kennefick; S Kennedy, L Hannigan, A Buckley; C McCarthy, A Barry; S Callanan, C O\u2019Connor, D Murray; J Linehan, C Keane, K O\u2019Flynn.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: R Barrett for O\u2019Connor, T Egan for Ahern (both HT), C Steele for Linehan (39), B Ramsay for C Keane (44), J O\u2019Brien for Callanan (51).<\/p>\n

\n Referee: D Motherway (Ballygiblin)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Catherine\u2019s 0-19\u00a0 St Finbarr\u2019s 0-15 St Catherine\u2019s came into this one in third, staring at elimination, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1263,24,18,129,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-46134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-sport","9":"tag-cork-gaa","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-hurling","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46134","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=46134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}