![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tony-leahy-hails-effort-as-cork-masters-one-win-from-all-ireland-masters-challenge-cup-glory.jpeg\")
The Cork masters football team that beat London in the All-Ireland Challenge Cup semi-final in Annanough GAA club in Laois.<\/p>\nTHE Cork masters football team are on the cusp of All-Ireland glory.<\/p>\n
The Rebels face Galway in the All-Ireland Masters Challenge Cup final this Saturday (2pm) in Cappamore, Limerick, having beaten London in the semi-final, 1-14 to 1-8.<\/p>\n
Galway got to the decider having received a walkover from Antrim.<\/p>\n
Manager Tony Leahy, who has All-Ireland winning experience with the Cork U21s in 2007, has enjoyed this journey.<\/p>\n
\u2018We first got together in February and we did the simple stuff. The way I see it is that we have a game and we\u2019ll finish up with a win or a loss. A lot of fellas have bought into it,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018A great bond has developed. It\u2019s more about the players now than anything else. I said on the Star Sport Podcast that it doesn\u2019t make any difference what club you’re from \u2013 this is about Cork GAA and everyone is working for each other.<\/p>\n
\u2018Every game we go out, we give it 100 percent. We were unlucky to come up short in a few games, against Limerick and Kerry in particular.<\/p>\n
\u2018We are a settled team now. We got a run. We beat Clare, then Laois, then London. It took us a long time to get over the losses, but we did it. That\u2019s down to the lads\u2019 resilience. Their heart and just the competitiveness that’s there. You\u2019ll never lose that edge.\u2019<\/p>\n
Victory on Saturday against Galway would mean a lot to this group.<\/p>\n
The Cork masters football team that beat London in the All-Ireland Challenge Cup semi-final in Annanough GAA club in Laois.<\/p>\n
\u2018It’s hard to explain what an All-Ireland win would be like, but I know, from my own point of view, I\u2019d be absolutely thrilled,\u2019 Leahy said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The pleasure I\u2019m after getting out of this group of players is huge. Some of those fellas come from different parts of the county, with different levels of skills. Some of these fellas wouldn’t have played in county finals.<\/p>\n
\u2018The boys at training last Saturday morning were actually walking on air. They\u2019re looking forward to it. It would be absolutely tremendous to win it. All they want is to win an All-Ireland. Some of these lads wouldn’t have even dreamed of playing in an All-Ireland final back in the day. From the start of the year, I\u2019ve only been here to facilitate. That\u2019s all I\u2019m doing.\u2019<\/p>\n
The West Cork players involved include St Oliver Plunkett\u2019s John Paul O\u2019Driscoll, who captains the team, Flor Crowley from O\u2019Donovan Rossa, Flor O\u2019Sullivan of Goleen and Urhan\u2019s Flor Harrington. Bandon\u2019s Conor Sugrue was in previous matchday squads during the campaign.<\/p>\n
Cork trailed London 1-5 to 0-6 at the break, but a Ger O\u2019Neill goal was key for the Leesiders as they outscored the Exiles 1-8 to 0-3 in the second period.<\/p>\n
\u2018It took us a bit to get into the London game. They were absolutely huge in size. Physically, they were way bigger and stronger than us. They could play football too. But we found a way around it,\u2019 Leahy said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It was almost like a rugby team so we had to move them around the pitch with our passes. Once we got into it and started moving around the pitch, it worked a treat in the end.<\/p>\n
\u2018We pulled away from them as they were tiring and we just drove on. The goal settled us. We didn\u2019t give them possession during the second half and that made a huge difference. It was a great win,\u2019 Leahy added.<\/p>\n
The group will prepare for their final test as they have done throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n
\u2018We won\u2019t change anything. We were training the midweek after the semi-final and then on a Saturday morning. We\u2019re getting together on Thursday night before the game this weekend. There\u2019s no point in changing anything at this stage. We\u2019re organised,\u2019 the Cork boss said.<\/p>\n
\u2018We don\u2019t know much about Galway. They had no semi-final as Antrim pulled out. What we do know is that they\u2019d be good footballers. They\u2019ll be playing a good brand of football but I know we have the players that can match their skills as well. I expect it to be a good game and I\u2019d be hoping that we\u2019d come out on the right side of it.\u2019<\/p>\n
The work behind the scenes cannot go unnoticed either. People like secretary Sean Horgan deserve massive praise.<\/p>\n
\u2018The amount of work Sean is putting in is tremendous. The work he’s done is phenomenal, and the players appreciate that. He organises food on the way back from matches, referees, sponsorship, stuff like that. His organisational skills are epic. Sean is probably doing 80 percent of the work off the field,\u2019 Leahy added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Cork masters football team are on the cusp of All-Ireland glory. The Rebels face Galway in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-614514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614514","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=614514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}