{"id":653111,"date":"2026-08-24T01:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/653111\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T01:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:44:22","slug":"robbie-cotter-hat-trick-fires-blackrock-to-comfortable-win-over-fr-oneills-in-pshc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/653111\/","title":{"rendered":"Robbie Cotter hat-trick fires Blackrock to comfortable win over Fr O’Neill’s in PSHC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Blackrock 3-29\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s 2-23\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

A fourth-quarter run with six different scorers, as well as a hat-trick from Robbie Cotter, allowed Blackrock to finally shake off Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s in Midleton and run off with a comfortable victory, despite their opponents limiting the damage with two late goals.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s result leaves the Rockies top of their Premier Senior group with maximum points, but Glen Rovers\u2019 win over Kanturk means their place in the knockout phases is not yet certain.<\/p>\n

Blackrock led by three here at half time in Midleton, but they started the second half strongly to push six clear again. When Cotter waltzed through to power home his and Blackrock\u2019s third goal in the 42nd minute, O\u2019Neill\u2019s were left with a mountain to summit.<\/p>\n

John Millerick reduced the gap to eight again by the 46th minute, but Blackrock \u2013 profiting from the boost of fresh legs \u2013 reeled off six points in a row to leave their opponents in the dust.<\/p>\n

To O\u2019Neill\u2019s credit they continued to battle hard, but Blackrock\u2019s half-back line hoovered up all the breaking ball in that fourth quarter. While Declan Dalton had a chance from a free kept out, O\u2019Neill\u2019s would finally find the net in the 59th minute, as Paudie O\u2019Sullivan dropped one in and Jason Hankard reacted quickest to pull to the net.<\/p>\n

Mike O\u2019Halloran \u2013 already on 0-5 \u2013 assisted PJ Linehan for his fourth of five from play, but O\u2019Neill\u2019s would get another chance to reduce the deficit when Cathal Cormack was shown a straight red card and O\u2019Neill\u2019s were awarded the 21-metre free. Dalton drove low but it crept over the bar, reducing the deficit to 10.<\/p>\n

\" Blackrock’s Cathal Cormack battles with Fr O’Neill’s Jason Hankard during their Premier SHC clash at Midleton.\u00a0Picture: David Keane.<\/p>\n

Billy Dunne would net their second goal deep into added time, but an Alan Connolly free left the gap at nine by the finish.<\/p>\n

The first half was packed with scores at either end, Blackrock marginally ahead at the break with a 2-13 to 0-16 lead. It was the goal threat of Robbie Cotter, who scored 2-2 in the first half and was a real handful for Mike Millerick, that made the difference.<\/p>\n

Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s finished the opening period strongly though, Dalton and Kevin O\u2019Sullivan (two) on target to leave them within an arm\u2019s length, and they almost drew level on the resumption, but were kept out by a brilliant double save from Gavin Connolly. He first denied Dalton but parried straight to Mark O\u2019Keeffe, and then got back in position to save again from O\u2019Keeffe.<\/p>\n

Once the Rockies\u2019 brought the lead back out to six though, the east Cork side were always going to struggle to get something from the game.<\/p>\n

It was the first half goals that were pivotal for the City side, Cotter netting the first after five minutes when he ran wide, cut in and blasted to the underside of the bar with conviction. O\u2019Neill\u2019s would not find parity thereafter but had the deficit at two by the 15th minute, only for Cotter to break through again with a powerful strike to the net on 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

\" Blackrock’s Alan O’Callaghan clears his lines as Fr O’Neill’s Declan Dalton closes in during their Premier SHC clash at Midleton.\u00a0Picture: David Keane.<\/p>\n

At that stage, it looked a question of when Blackrock would find the extra gear rather than if \u00ac\u2013 and while O\u2019Neill\u2019s made life awkward for as long as possible \u2013 they couldn\u2019t halt the inevitable.<\/p>\n

It leaves O\u2019Neill\u2019s fighting for their Premier Senior status when they meet the Glen at Carrigtwohill in a fortnight.<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for Blackrock: R Cotter 3-2, A Connolly 0-9 (0-7 f), PJ Linehan, M O\u2019Halloran 0-5 each, K O\u2019Keeffe 0-2, A O\u2019Callaghan, D Meaney, T Deasy, N Cashman, M O\u2019Keeffe, R Sweeney 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n Scorers for Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s: D Dalton 0-11 (0-9 f), B Dunne 1-2, K O\u2019Sullivan 0-4, J Hankard 1-0, M O\u2019Keeffe, J Millerick 0-2 each, P O\u2019Sullivan, M Wall 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

\n BLACKROCK: G Connolly; S Healy, Cathal Cormack, A O\u2019Callaghan; Ciar\u00e1n Cormack, J Cashman, T Deasy; O McAdoo, N Cashman; PJ Linehan, K O\u2019Keeffe, D Meaney; R Cotter, A Connolly, M O\u2019Halloran.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: D Cormack for Ciar\u00e1n Cormack (42), M O\u2019Keeffe for J Cashman, D O\u2019Farrell for McAdoo (both 47), R Sweeney for K O\u2019Keeffe (50), Jamie Ryan for Healy (56).<\/p>\n

\n FR O\u2019NEILL\u2019S: P O\u2019Sullivan; E Motherway, G Millerick, M Millerick; T Millerick, D Harrington, R Kenneally; C O\u2019Leary, K O\u2019Sullivan; R Cullinane, D Dalton, M O\u2019Keeffe; John Millerick, J Hankard, B Dunne.<\/p>\n

\n Subs: M Wall for Cullinane (8 inj), P Hassett for O\u2019Leary (HT), T O\u2019Donoghue-Brosnan for M O\u2019Keeffe (53).<\/p>\n

\n Referee: S Scanlon (Newcestown)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blackrock 3-29\u00a0 Fr O\u2019Neill\u2019s 2-23\u00a0 A fourth-quarter run with six different scorers, as well as a hat-trick from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[45615,24,18,129,19,17,132],"class_list":["post-653111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-county-championship","tag-cork-gaa","tag-eire","tag-hurling","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117147958015530401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653111","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=653111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}