{"id":532268,"date":"2026-07-04T05:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532268\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T05:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:34:17","slug":"all-ireland-mfc-final-four-of-cork-and-tyrones-finest-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532268\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Ireland MFC final: Four of Cork and Tyrone’s finest to watch\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who else to begin with but the Kilmeen kicking machine.<\/p>\n

How incredibly rare it is to see a team\u2019s scoring chart led by a goalkeeper on All-Ireland final eve, especially when that team has been scoring as lavishly as the 3-18 and 2-19 that Cork posted against Kerry and Derry in the Munster round-robin and All-Ireland semi-final respectively.<\/p>\n

Cork have raised 11 orange flags on the road to Sunday\u2019s minor decider. Their goalkeeper is responsible for seven. He\u2019s also nailed four 45s, as well as four frees from inside the arc, for a current total of 0-22.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phenomenal kicking and phenomenal craft when you consider the age group we\u2019re dealing with here. Such early placed-ball mastery for one so young.<\/p>\n

On the primary duty of shot-stopping, Twohig continues to score handsomely. Only six shots have successfully passed him across Cork\u2019s six-game campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was superb on the night of the Munster final, producing a series of early saves to deny Kerry both momentum and entry into the game.<\/p>\n

Conan Canavan (Tyrone)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest Canavan arriving on the Tyrone conveyor belt. Nephew of Peter the Great, Conan has been Tyrone\u2019s leading provider. 4-21 is his current total. 4-8 of that was fashioned from open play.<\/p>\n

When Cavan forged 11 ahead in the Ulster semi, it was Canavan who started raising flags of all colours to save them from championship exit. He was equally prominent in yet another second-half burst in their subsequent Ulster final outing.<\/p>\n

That he was twice denied with three of his goal attempts in said Ulster final, allied to the above scoring stat showing his four green flags across the championship, marks Canavan out as a nuclear threat in and around Rory Twohig\u2019s goal that Cork will be at pains to curtail.<\/p>\n

\"Tyrone'sTyrone’s Conan Canavan celebrates scoring a goal. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon\/Inpho<\/p>\n

Kieran O\u2019Shea (Cork)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tom Whooley, Eoghan Ahern, Ben Hegarty, and Joe Miskella have all been such regular contributors on the scoresheet that each of the four were in contention for mention here.<\/p>\n

But, ultimately, the second Cork pick was a Beara battle. Conor Downing of Adrigole and Urhan\u2019s Kieran O\u2019Shea have been so consistently towering at centre-back and midfield for Keith Ricken\u2019s side. We\u2019ve gone with O\u2019Shea, albeit we could so easily have gone in the Adrigole direction.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea is the chief long-range restart target for Twohig. He is the one to avoid for Tyrone \u2018keeper Ronan O\u2019Neill. His athleticism and ability to cover between the respective 20-metre lines is of almost equal importance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an impressive collection of runners in the wider O\u2019Shea family. Kieran\u2019s wheels will be central to Cork\u2019s bid for a 12th minor crown.<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Kieran O’Shea celebrates. Pic: Diarmuid Brennan\/Sportsfocus.<\/p>\n

Brian \u00d3g McGuckin (Tyrone)\u00a0<\/p>\n

His is a performance graph that has been trending in the right direction in recent weeks. The authority imparted by the Eglish centre-forward is growing game-by-game. 0-4 in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kildare backed up his 1-3 quarter-final contribution against Galway.<\/p>\n

\"Tyrone'sTyrone’s Brian \u00d3g McGuckin with Ryan Crawford of Kildare. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon\/Inpho<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I had a few bad injuries, and probably lost a lot of confidence in myself. I knew I had the ability to come on, but I feel this year I\u2019m playing with a lot of freedom, going past my man more and feeling more confident in myself,\u201d McGuckin said this week.<\/p>\n

A member of last year’s All-Ireland winning panel, his match-up with Conor Downing will be a collision of two of the most talented kids on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who else to begin with but the Kilmeen kicking machine. How incredibly rare it is to see a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[177329,2110,1964,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-532268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-championship-2026","tag-cork-sport","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}