Kilmurry Crush Buttevant in McCarthy Insurance Group IAFC Final
Under the Friday night lights at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Kilmurry didn’t just win a county title. They slammed the door on old scars and kicked open another one to the future.
This was ruthless. Clinical. A 14-point dismantling of Buttevant in the McCarthy Insurance Group IAFC final that underlined a club on a steep upward curve and left no doubt about who now belongs in the third tier of Cork football.
The ghosts of the 1995 intermediate final defeat to Dohenys can finally be put away. This generation has seen to that.
A club on the march
JAFC champions in 2022. Premier JFC winners in 2024. Now intermediate A kings.
Kilmurry’s ascent has been relentless, and on this evidence, far from finished. They took on a Buttevant side chasing back-to-back county titles after last year’s Premier JFC success and simply never let them breathe.
From the throw-in, the tone was set. After just 34 seconds, Ruadhrán Ó Curraoín split the posts. Two minutes gone and Liam Wall, razor sharp, buried the ball in the net, punishing Buttevant after Mark Lenahan had spurned an early goal chance at the other end.
The Muskerry men were off and running. Buttevant were already chasing shadows.
Kilmurry control, Buttevant contained
It developed into a tactical, cagey first quarter, but only one team were getting their rewards. Kilmurry’s scores came that bit easier; their movement that bit sharper.
Aaron Horgan finally got Buttevant on the board on 11 minutes, with Lenahan adding another to make it 1-1 to 0-2, but they were feeding off scraps. Every attack met a green and gold wall.
At the other end, the scoreboard ticked along. A Denis O’Mullane free, a driving effort from the tireless Seán O’Leary, and two more from Wall pushed Kilmurry into a 1-5 to 0-2 lead after 22 minutes. It felt bigger than six points. It felt like control.
Buttevant needed a break. They got a half-chance. A rare Kilmurry slip allowed Conor Hanlon through, but he had to settle for a point when a goal was on. It was their first score in ten minutes. It didn’t change the flow.
Kilmurry simply went up a gear.
Kyle Kelleher, with a touch of class, curled over with the outside of his boot. Then came the moment that effectively killed the contest. A minute before the break, Ó Curraoín found himself in space and calmly rolled the ball into the corner of the net. 2-6 to 0-3. Buttevant were reeling.
David Hanlon did land an awkward two-point free on the stroke of half-time to cut it to 2-6 to 0-5, a lifeline of sorts. But it felt like damage limitation rather than a platform for a comeback.
Defence sets the platform
The second half opened in a slow burn, not through any lack of effort from Buttevant, but because Kilmurry’s defensive structure was rock solid. W Ronan, B Hinchion and O Keane anchored a back line that refused to yield cheap scores, with the half-back line and midfield snapping into tackles and closing down space.
Buttevant threw what they could at it. They owned territory for a spell. Still, Kilmurry carried the greater threat.
They almost had a third goal when Wall’s two-point effort cannoned off the post and dropped invitingly for Ó Curraoín, only for Ronan Donovan to produce a vital save. It kept Buttevant alive, just about.
Substitute Michael O’Neill finally notched the first score of the half eight minutes in, trimming the gap to six. Any hint of a surge was quickly smothered. Kilmurry responded with two points to restore a 2-8 to 0-6 advantage with 18 minutes left.
Then came the killer stretch.
O’Mullane stroked over a two-point free to stretch the margin to ten. Buttevant needed something dramatic entering the last quarter. It never arrived. Hanlon tapped over a free, but the response was instant and emphatic.
Wall raised an orange flag, his influence undimmed, and substitute Tomás Collins added his second point to make it 2-13 to 0-7 on 51 minutes. The contest, by then, was only heading one way.
Bench impact, statement finish
From there, it was about game management and a little bit of flourish.
The sides exchanged points, O’Mullane again on target, while a two-point effort from Hanlon at least underlined Buttevant’s refusal to throw in the towel. Their spirit didn’t crack, even as the scoreboard did.
Kilmurry’s bench, though, underlined the depth now at the club. Joe McGinn came in and clipped two late points, one from a free, showing composure and confidence. Joe Ryan followed with an easy free to round off the scoring as the Muskerry men closed out another county final with authority.
Wall finished with 1-4, Ó Curraoín with 1-2, O’Mullane with 0-4, while O’Leary buzzed around like that “Duracell Bunny” presence the performance report suggested, forever offering, forever harrying. It was, in truth, a complete team display.
Buttevant had their moments through Hanlon, Lenahan and David Hanlon, and their run to this stage, on the back of last year’s title, speaks to a side with plenty of character. On this night, they simply ran into a team operating at a different level.
Kilmurry have climbed from junior to the third grade of Cork football in four seasons, collecting silverware at every step. The question now isn’t whether they belong here.
It’s how far this rising group can go from here.
