ST FINBARR’S MANAGER Paul O’Keeffe hailed the effort of his players as their campaign just ran out of road in extra-time at the All-Ireland semi-final stage in Portlaoise yesterday.
The Munster champions pushed favourites Kilcoo to the wire but the Down side packed the greater energy and purpose in extra-time to claim a merited five-point success.
Referencing their position as rank outsiders before the game when meeting the 2020 All-Ireland finalists, O’Keeffe was pleased to see his team had been so competitive.
“We are still county champions and we are still Munster club champions at the end of the day. Kilcoo have been at this level for a bit longer and I think it tells. They just had the legs on us in extra-time. But up to that point, it was ding-dong.
“It could have been over a bit earlier only for the brain freeze with the last kick of the game when their number 17 got sent off, but jeez, I was thankful for it. I didn’t think it was a free initially, but at the end of the day you are only splitting hairs.
“But look, a brilliant effort. We have been on a rollercoaster ride, and we go to the well once too often. You have to be proud of the lads, a monumental effort. They left it all out there, especially when going into the game some quarters were writing us off and saying we had no chance.
“It just showed that Cork football is still in a good position. They were talking about us being tactically naive and all the rest of it, which I thought was really unfair. I am proud of the lads, that is the first feeling you have. I think we did ourselves proud there and we represented Cork football in the manner it should be represented. We’ll learn from it and move on.”
O’Keeffe felt St Finbarr’s were successful in taking on Kilcoo’s rearguard but bemoaned a dip in their fortunes after half-time.
“When you reflect on the year, just how we managed to break down that ultra defensive structure. Today, they didn’t set up as defensively as they normally do, so that probably gave us a bit more space than we had anticipated.
“They are a good side, they’ll be hard beaten, and we took them to the wire which is brilliant. It shows we are doing something right. We had a great patch coming into half-time. Even though we were better today, I still think we lagged a small bit in the first 15 minutes after half-time and allowed them back in and that is probably what caught us.
“You can’t switch off. It wasn’t as pronounced [as our lull periods in other games]. That’s progress. But if you want to make real progress, you got to be on for the hour.
But looking back, there has been a load of learnings from the year. I think we are in a much stronger position going forward to next year. Sometimes it is just learning to be patient when the game is in the melting pot, and we were for large parts.”
