IT WAS NOT the first county title this group had claimed together or even the culmination of a long title drought.
Only 14 months ago they were gathered in celebration in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the delayed 2020 championship concluding on a joyous note for the Nemo Rangers crew.
And yet yesterday they had the look of a club that applied extra significance to the latest demonstration of their excellence in Cork football circles.
There were collective reasons for that, the 23rd time they lifted the Andy Scannell Cup occurred a century after the club was founded and five decades after they first put their names on this roll of honour.
“I always prided myself on being cool, calm and collected,” remarked captain Luke Connolly.
“I fell apart at the full time whistle when I found my parents. It’s special. When I was made captain this year, centenary year, I probably buried it in my mind but as it got closer. It’s probably the first time I was nervous going into a game.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant but that’s what Nemo teams are reared on, getting to county finals and peaking at the right time of the year. Counties aren’t won in April, they’re won at this time of the year in October.”
The achievement of a fifth title in eight seasons was fuelled by a sense that outside their dressing-room their standing was being downplayed.
“We were criticized coming into it. I think this group was a bit disrespected to be perfectly honest. This was three counties in four years and I felt coming into this game we were almost a team in our first county final, the way we were being spoken about. I think a lot of people wrote us off based on a quarter final.
“Somebody asked me during the week were ye unconvincing? I’ll add it to the list of unconvincing counties I have at this stage. I don’t mean to be facetious but look I’ve heard that said about us several times. It’s about days like today and performing. That first half was probably a culmination of six months of work.”
Connolly finished the day with top scorer, a tally of eight points that underpinned the argument for him to bag the man-of-the-match awards. The input of other forwards stood out to him.
“I expected Conor (Horgan) to get man-of-the-match after that performance. I think he kicked one point of his right and left from the exact same position from an acute angle and obviously the goal. Huge credit to Hoggy.
“To be able to bring on a Paul Kerrigan with ten minutes to go in a county final there’s not many clubs in the county or the country who have that luxury and again he was pivotal to us there coming on. It was in the middle of their purple patch. He has more (medals) than most clubs at this stage (Paul Kerrigan).”
It was a win fashioned on other attributes as well.
“We’re probably known for the expansive football and having great players. That old saying that we’re a bit watery when it comes to it, I hope people saw a different side to us today.
“The back six were exceptional. The midfielder and the work rate up front, the likes of Barry O’Driscoll there, he’s probably as good a back as he is a forward. It’s a side of our game that we wanted to bring out. We’ve done a hell of a lot of work this year to bring that in.”
And they needed to display that grit to close out a game where they were ahead by 11 points in the 40th minute and saw that advantage whittled down to three by the 56th minute.
“It was reminiscent of 2017, the replay, when we went 14 up that day and left them back into it. There was also an element of the Barrs being a very good team with some exceptional players. Ian Maguire is probably the best midfielder in Cork and has been for many years.
“We half expected he’d get a foothold in midfield at some stage. It was just how we were going to weather it. Billy Hennessy put the ball in the top corner, if I had done it myself I’d have run up to the crowd.
“The way we finished, the last five minutes, we won a few key turnovers. We won two huge breaks to kill the clock and that’s what I’d be looking at.”
