Cork SHC Final: Imokilly 1-23 Sarsfields 0-17
There was a brief yahoo from the stands at the final whistle, but no pitch invasion or dam burst of emotion. Imokilly, a powerful divisional team composed of junior and intermediate players from east Cork, have many admirers but not many invested followers. With a clinical second-half performance they won their sixth county title, dethroning last year’s winners Sars, and dominating the final just as they had lorded the knock-out phase of the championship in recent weeks.
Playing with the gale, Imokilly rattled off 10 points without reply in the final quarter, crushing what remained of Sars’ resistance. The defending champions led by just six points at half-time, and even if it was impossible to estimate how much the gale was worth, six points felt like a cocktail umbrella in a storm. In the event they were on the sharp end of a 15-point swing.
As a divisional team Imokilly cannot represent Cork in the Munster club championship, and in recent weeks a debate about the continued desirability of divisional teams in the Cork championship has surfaced again. At the moment Imokilly are incredibly powerful with an array of players with intercounty pedigree, past and present.
Ciarán Joyce, Cork’s brilliant centre back, was imperious in the Imokilly half-back line. Séamus Harnedy, who had a resurgent season with Cork, thundered into the game in the second half. Elsewhere on the field were Bill Cooper, Brian Lawton and John Cronin, all of whom had played senior championship for Cork.
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The heart and lungs of the team, though, are seven or eight young players who had won Under-20 All-Irelands with Cork in recent years. Among them was the man of the match, Jack Leahy, who was terrific in the corner and racked up 11 points, three from play. Outside him, Diarmuid Leahy is an emerging player who will surely play for Cork in the National League in the new year.
For a divisional team, though, the unity in the group is undeniable. “People are saying all year, ye’re only a division,” said Joyce afterwards, “but literally, tonight, when we’re going out we’re like a club, we all get on very well. Even at half-time we were only saying to ourselves how great we get on. It showed in the second half there, we were fighting for every ball like we’re a club.”
In the end, Sars couldn’t hold back the tide. Their half-time lead was wiped out 10 minutes into the second half, and they did exceptionally well to still be level 10 minutes later.
Imokilly’s goal, though, three minutes into the second half, changed the tone of the game. Daniel Kearney was dispossessed by Cooper, 30 yards from his own goal, and with no covering defenders in his path, Adam Murphy had an unimpeded run. His finish was high and fierce.
Overall, the conditions were a menace. A gale blew towards the Blackrock end, extending the scoring zone to about 100 metres. Eoin Davis, the Imokilly goalkeeper, had a wide from a puck-out in the second half, and shortly afterwards landed a free from just outside the D.
The uprights at both ends swayed like backing singers. There must have been a strong case for postponement, but that decision would have been complicated by the significant number of Imokilly players still involved in unfinished championships with their clubs.
One of the original selling points for the split season was that the latter stages of county championships would be played out in kinder weather, but October has turned into a treacherous month, and county finals all over the country are routinely stalked by the colour card of weather warnings now.
Sars played with the elements in the first half, but they struggled to get into a rhythm with their shooting and reached half-time with more wides, 12, than points, 11. Conor O’Sullivan and Paul Leopold, their two corner backs, both scored without having to stray far from home.
Sars had eight different scorers in the first half, but they failed to threaten a goal when they really needed something to give an adrenaline shot to their scoring rate. Having won the toss Imokilly decided to play against the gale in the first half, and trailing by just 0-11 to 0-5 at the break, that gambit had paid off.
“It was fairly manageable with that wind,” said Joyce. “Obviously we knew the quality we had in the dressingroom. We’re star-studded at the moment so we knew we’d get over the line. It’s all about confidence, these type of games.”
Sars failed to score for 13 minutes in the final quarter, and in that time Imokilly put the game to bed. Shane Hegarty scored twice inside a minute to give Imokilly the lead for just the second time with 10 minutes left and from there they took flight.
IMOKILLY: E Davis (0-1, f); C O’Brien, M Russell, T Wilk; D O’Leary, C Joyce, J Cronin; S Hegarty (0-3), B Cooper; D Healy (0-1), S Harnedy (0-2), Brian Lawton; A Murphy (1-0), S Desmond (0-3), J Leahy (0-11, 7f, 1 65).
Subs: K O’Neill for Russell (36 mins), M Kelly (0-1) for Murphy (48), Barry Lawton (0-1) for Healy (52); W Leahy for Desmond (60+2).
SARSFIELDS: D McCarthy; P Leopold (0-1), C Leahy, C O’Sullivan (0-1); B Murphy (0-1), E Murphy, L Elliott; C Darcy (0-1), D Kearney (0-1); J Sweeney, D Hogan (0-5, 2f), A Myers (0-2); J O’Connor (0-3), Colm McCarthy (0-1), S O’Regan.
Subs: Cathal McCarthy (0-1) for O’Regan (h-t), L Healy for Sweeney (39), K Murphy for Kearney (52).
Referee: S Scanlon.
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