Twenty minutes after the final whistle blew in Killeagh this afternoon, they were still there. Soaking it in, replaying the key moments, laughing, joking reveling in just being together. Erin\u2019s Own had long trudged off, crestfallen, the tanks empty after giving everything in a thrilling game of hurling. They\u2019ll have to go again against Newtownshandrum in the relegation playoff in a fortnight. Come what may, they\u2019ll be there or thereabouts. They always are.<\/p>\n
A game to decide who would finish in third place in Group 1 of the Co-op Superstores Cork PSHC may seem like nothing. But it was clear to Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s that it meant everything. Their journey to this point meant far more than the 65 or 66 minutes played in the now famous P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chinn\u00e9ide. Their arrival at the highest level in Cork hurling felt like a pipe dream 20 years ago. This win guarantees a fourth season of hurling on Mount Olympus.<\/p>\n
Nobody summed up the feeling better than their manager, Ray O\u2019Neill. \u201cIt was a different ask this time. Because it was almost an ask for survival as opposed to our season being over after today. If we lost, we were obviously in a relegation final. We didn\u2019t want to go there. So, we said the ask is different, but the need is the same. You just need to go away out and win the game and see where it takes you. The relief, the relief, just getting over the line. We can breathe now again.\u201d<\/p>\n
They did it the hard way. They will say they always do. Goals from Conor Lenihan, Robbie O\u2019Flynn and Peter O\u2019Shea gave Erin\u2019s Own a dream opening half. They led by 3-8 to 0-8 going into first half injury time, and looked sharper, crisper, better. All of their goalscorers had a point to their name too, while Finn O\u2019Brien had clipped over a brace. Millericks Joseph, John and Tom had all scored for O\u2019Neill\u2019s, and while Declan Dalton had 0-5 to his name, he was struggling to get his hands on the ball.<\/p>\n
Then, in the third minute of added time, he heaved and hoed around the Erin\u2019s Own \u2018D\u2019 before passing to his old partner in crime, Billy Dunne. Dunne rattled the net, and 3-8 to 1-8 at half time felt a hell of a lot better, even if O\u2019Neill admitted that their dressing room wasn\u2019t all sunshine and lollipops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave us something at half time, but yet, we\u2019d harsh words at half time, let\u2019s not be skirting around with that one! But, the start to the second half, I think fellas were really geared up at half time, we came back out, scored early, scored 1-3 to close the gap and from there on, we always had a chance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It only took them seven minutes to find parity. Dalton buried a penalty after Rob Cullinane was fouled Joe Millerick fired over his second point, Dalton tapped over another free, John Millerick scored his second. The rampant John Millerick then arrowed over his third, Dalton tapped over another free and after being three goals down just before the break, they were now two up with twenty to go.<\/p>\n
The Caherlag based men were never going to go away though. After absorbing body blow after body blow, they eventually came off the ropes, with O\u2019Brien, O\u2019Flynn, Cian O\u2019Callaghan and the excellent Lenihan all finding their range to put them 3-13 to 2-14 up going into the last ten minutes.<\/p>\n
Then came goal number three. Dalton shot, Tom Dillon saved, Robert Cullinane was on hand to poke the rebound to the net. Joeseph Millerick and Kevin O\u2019Sullivan pointed, and all of a sudden, O\u2019Neill\u2019s were 3-16 to 3-13 up with five to play. That soon became 3-17 to 3-14 before Matty O\u2019Riordan fed Ronan Twomey for Erin\u2019s Own fourth goal in the final minute of the game.<\/p>\n
A draw would have been enough for O\u2019Neill\u2019s, but Erin\u2019s Own needed the win. But it was O\u2019Neill\u2019s substitutes Tadhg O\u2019Donoghue Brosnan and Peter Hassett who pushed them two clear. However, Erin\u2019s Own willed themselves on one more time, and there was time for a final act.<\/p>\n
Dalton fouled O\u2019Flynn 25 yards from goal and while O\u2019Flynn struck the free true, there was no way through. And so it was that one story of 2025 came to an end, while another has one more chapter to be written.<\/p>\n
Scorers for Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s: D Dalton (1-9, 1-7 frees, 0-1 \u201965), B Dunne and R Cullinane (1-0 each), Joseph Millerick and John Millerick (0-3 each), T Millerick, K O\u2019Sullivan, P Hassett and T O\u2019Donoghue Brosnan (0-1 each).<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Erin\u2019s Own: R O\u2019Flynn (1-7, 1-4 frees, 0-2 \u201965), C Lenihan (1-3), P O\u2019Shea (1-1), R Twomey (1-0), F O\u2019Brien (0-2), C O\u2019Callaghan (0-1).<\/p>\n
FR O\u2019NEILL\u2019S: P O\u2019Sullivan; R Kenneally, T Millerick, M Millerick; E Motherway (JC), D Harrington (JC), M O\u2019Keeffe; K O\u2019Sullivan, Joseph Millerick; R Cullinane, D Dalton, P McMahon; John Millerick, M Wall, B Dunne.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: P Hassett for McMahon (49), T O\u2019Donoghue Brosnan for Motherway (inj, 54), J O\u2019Brien for Dunne (63).<\/p>\n
\n ERIN\u2019S OWN: T Dillon; C O\u2019Connor, C Dunphy, R O\u2019Regan (JC); B \u00d3g Murphy, C Dooley, O O\u2019Regan; M O\u2019Carroll, C McDonnell; F O\u2019Brien, P O\u2019Shea, S Irwin; C Lenihan, R O\u2019Flynn (JC), C O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: R Twomey for O \u2018Carroll (inj, 37), T O\u2019Connell for R O\u2019Regan (51), M O\u2019Riordan for McDonnell (56).<\/p>\n
Referee: Ian McCarthy (Bandon).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty minutes after the final whistle blew in Killeagh this afternoon, they were still there. Soaking it in,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,22,129,19,17,119,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-50744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hurling","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50744","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=50744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}