Kilmurry boss Cormac Linehan: It’s pure ecstasy and to beat your local rivals is extra special
Kilmurry celebrate their win.
Kilmurry manager Cormac Linehan says his young team can take their football to the next level after gaining promotion to the intermediate grades.
Having fallen to a late St Finbarr’s goal in last year’s final, his troops came through an intense battle to come out the right side of a one-point game against fellow parishioners Canovee.
“It’s amazing. It’s just that combination of relief and elation,” said Linehan.
“Our team, even though they’re young, they’re learning. It’s their third county final in a row, they’ve won two, and it’s a fair testament to the players. They’re a great bunch.
“The big thing tonight is that Kilmurry are obviously county champions but also gone up intermediate. Every club needs to progress when you’ve young players coming through. Now there’s a platform for them to move on.
“We lost last year, it set us back a bit. We’d to dig in, come again, regroup. We were ok in a tough group. We recalibrated then for the knockout stages. We got a system in place and everyone bought into it.
“With the weather conditions, the occasion, the local derby, the county final, there was a lot riding on tonight.
“There was a bit of learning from last year that we managed the last 10 minutes much better. We kept our composure, we dug in, we worked very hard, and it’s a great feeling tonight to be county champions.”
They can also look forward to a third consecutive Munster JFC campaign. They qualified as Junior A champions in 2022. They were the final first team standing after the Premier Junior grade was introduced in 2023. Now, they will advance as champions.
“It’s a freak how it happened,” said Linehan. “We’ve been to two Munster finals and lost both of them against good Kerry teams.
“We’ll enjoy a good few days because they deserve it and then we’ll regroup and attack the Munster campaign because we’re representing Cork and that’s very important to us.”
Match-winner Liam Wall said the victory was extra special after last year’s disappointment.
“We’d a few mediocre performances in the group stages but since the quarter-finals, we’ve been on point.
“To win a county final any time is hard to put into words. It just means so much to the footballing-mad people of Kilmurry. They’ll have a smile on their face for the next week.
“It’s pure elation, pure ecstasy. To see everyone run onto the pitch, it’s a dream come true. It makes it all the more worthwhile after last year and to beat your local rivals as well, it’s extra special.”
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