CORK’S MATCH WINNER in last night’s EirGrid Munster U21 football final against Kerry had extra cause to celebrate.
Ballincollig club man Cian Dorgan came off the bench to swing over a brilliant point in injury-time that sealed Cork’s 3-9 to 1-14 win over Kerry in Austin Stack Park in Tralee.
It was a moment to savour in contrast to the personal disappointment he had suffered twelve months ago at the same stage.
The 2015 Munster U21 decider saw Tipperary defeat Cork by 1-15 to 3-8 in Semple Stadium. Dorgan was introduced as a substitute in the second-half of that game, making an impact as he fired 1-1 but saw his injury-time effort to hit the levelling point drift just wide.
“It’s one of the best feelings I ever had now,” Dorgan told RedFM sport after last night’s game.
“It makes it all the sweeter, last year in the Munster final, I probably missed the last kick of the game by a couple of inches.
“And today I scored with nearly the last kick of the games just by inches again. So it makes it all the sweeter.”
Dorgan was one of nine Cork players that featured during last night’s win who had lost out in the 2015 decider to Tipperary.
“We knew how to play a Munster final and we knew how we lost it last year and not performing on the day probably. We were good today, thank God.”
“They got a very quick start, two points ahead. Then we kind of dominated and got ahead against the wind which was a good job, but they kept pulling it back.
“But thankfully the goals paid for us in the end. I don’t think it (2015 final loss) was weighing on our minds but experience is always good.”
Monaghan, crowned Ulster champions for the first time since 1999, are next up for Cork at the All-Ireland semi-final stage on 16 April in Tullamore.
“They’d a very good performance against Tyrone,” admitted Dorgan.
“They were probably underdogs like us today. They’ll be a hard battle the next day.”
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
