Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
ALAN AIMS TO MAKE UP FOR 2018 defeat
ALAN O’Connor is looking to right the wrongs of St. Finbarr’s last venture into the Munster Club Championship.
The Cork city giants face Austin Stacks in tomorrow’s provincial decider in Thurles.
St. Finbarr’s lie joint fourth in the All-Ireland roll of honour on three titles, alongside St. Vincent’s and behind Nemo Rangers (seven), Crossmaglen (six) and Corofin (five).
But that history counted for nothing as Dr. Crokes blew them away in the 2018 Munster semi-final on a scoreline of 5-20 to 1-11 in their own grounds in Killarney.
No wonder Togher side St. Finbarr’s had no interest in tossing for home venue this time round.
“It was a very disappointing affair for all of us,” said O’Connor.
“To be fair to Crokes, they are obviously a great side. They had been playing at that level in Munster and the All-Ireland series for a long time.
“We had a 33-year gap to winning our last county. So for us, we were just not at that level. “We probably underperformed and un
dersold ourselves on the day and that was probably one of the more disappointing things.
“We felt the performance that we gave did not reflect where we were at as a team so this year that is something that we are looking to right.
“To show that we are up to that level and we have righted the wrongs of our previous campaign.
“But it was massively disappointing that from one to 15 as a team we did not put in the performance that we were capable of so we were not well pleased on the bus back.”
Years
St. Finbarr’s have plenty of firepower with Steven Sherlock topping the charts in Cork for four of the last five years, and Conor McCrickard, who played for Down last year.
They also have the powerful running from midfield of Cork star Ian Maguire.
Asked about Sherlock, O’Connor said: “Biased as I might be, I would say Steven has been doing this years.
“From his boot we get most of our scores, frees included.
“His finishing is absolutely top class and it has always been this way. One area where he has definitely progressed is Steven’s workrate. There is no easy out-ball.
“The other thing that he is probably a bit more conscious of and has tightened up is, he takes the right shots on in games.
“Maybe there was a little bit more pressure on him in years gone by to contribute those scores whereas this year he finds his mark and he puts the ball over the bar when we need him to.”