Cork SFC final: Hurley brothers star as Castlehaven beat Nemo Rangers

Cork SFC final: Castlehaven 0-11 Nemo Rangers 0-9

The excitement came late and fast and out of the blue. After nearly an hour of a red-faced, white-knuckled, arm-wrestle Castlehaven made a blistering surge. The Hurley brothers, Michael and Brian, brought Castlehaven level twice in the closing minutes of normal time, and with the clock having ticked into the red, the same pair kicked the points that changed everything.

It was a tipsy finish to a sober match. None of that will trouble Castlehaven. In the 10 years since they won their last Cork football title they have been ever-present on the short list of contenders without finding a way to win.

They trailed for much of the second half here, and were behind with three minutes of normal time left, after Barry Cripps had kicked a stunning long-range point for Nemo. But the defending champions didn’t score again and from the pit of their stomachs Castlehaven came up with the last three scores of the game.

It was a triumph for the Hurley brothers, who kicked 10 points between them, five each. Three of Brian’s came from frees, including a clutch kick at the beginning of stoppage time to put Castlehaven ahead for the first time since just before the break.

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Having won the free himself he gave his hamstring a quick stretch, and on a still, breathless day he threw up a blade of grass, just in case. Out of his hands, from just outside the Nemo 45, he launched a towering kick that cleared the crossbar with feet to spare.

Nemo lay siege in search of an equaliser. At one stage in their last attack there were 29 players inside the Castlehaven 45, with the Nemo goalie, Michael Aodh Martin, hovering inside the Castlehaven 65. But when that attack broke down Castlehaven suddenly had men over. The ball reached Michael Hurley, and from 30 metres out, he executed another beautiful shot, his fifth point from play.

Released from the Cork panel at the end of the 2021 season, Michael is a couple of years younger than Brian and has often been in his brother’s shadow. On this occasion he was the outstanding player on the field. When Castlehaven last won the title in 2013 he was a teenage rookie, with no idea of the anguish that lay ahead.

“Ten years seems an awful long time,” he said afterwards. “I still remember being inside in the bus driving home and one of the older fellas said, ‘Enjoy this, they don’t come around too often.’ I was 17 then.

“What kept us going? I can’t describe it. Castlehaven is a special, special place. Everyone kind of says it but it’s very hard to explain it to people who aren’t from there. It really is a special place. People don’t really know much else, to be honest. That’s what keep us going. It’s like we don’t know anything else really. If you don’t play football you’re nearly seen as an odd one out. That’s kind of what keeps us going.”

The old saying that a watched pot never boils tends to break down under scrutiny, but maybe you needed to witness the first half here. There was a hysterical couple of minutes in the middle of the second quarter when three points were kicked, but there had been 11 scoreless minutes before that, and the threat of those ceasefires was never entirely lifted.

Castlehaven enjoyed more possession, but Nemo’s counter-attacks were dynamic. Either way, the shooting was sketchy and by half-time they had shared more wides (nine) than points (eight).

Nemo took the lead for the first time just after half-time when Luke Connolly kicked his second point from play, but the former Cork player couldn’t repeat the dazzling performance he gave in last year’s final and the only addition to his tally was a pointed free.

Over the course of the second half Castlehaven came up with five equalisers, but they never trailed by more than a point, and in a game of such suffocating closeness that was critical. Including stoppage time, Castlehaven outscored Nemo 0-4 to 0-1 in the closing seven minutes which in the context of this game was tantamount to running amok.

Castlehaven: Darragh Cahalane, J O’Regan, R Maguire, R Walsh, T O’Mahony, Damien Cahalane, M Collins, C Cahalane, A Whelton, J O’Neill, B Hurley (0-5, three frees, one mark), S Browne (0-1), C Maguire, J Cahalane, M Hurley (0-5). Subs: C O’Driscoll for Browne 47 mins; R Minihane for Whelton 49 mins; J O’Driscoll for O’Neill 55 mins; C O’Sullivan for O’Mahony.

Nemo Rangers: Micheal Aodh Martin, K Histon, B Murphy, K O’Donovan, C Molloy, K Fulganati, S Cronin, B Cripps (0-1), A O’Donovan, C Horgan, B O’Driscoll (0-1), J Horgan (0-1), M Cronin (0-3, three frees) L Horgan, L Connolly (0-3, 0-1 frees). Subs: P Kerrigan for L Horgan 45 mins; R Dalton for O’Driscoll 48 mins; G Sayers for Molloy 49 mins; C Kiely for C Horgan 56 mins.

Referee: P O’Driscoll (Bride Rovers).