St Brigid's are through to their third AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship final after overcoming Castlehaven 1-11 to 0-10 at Thurles.
The Connacht champions survived a second-half attempted comeback by their west Cork opponents, who were aiming to play at Croke Park at the fourth time of asking after losing semi-finals in 1990, 1995, and 1998.
Any attempt to correct that record was undone by a Roscommon side led by All-Star nominee Ben O'Carroll, who kicked 0-03 for his club.
St Brigid's went into the game having scored 13 goals in their last five championship outings and they showed that lust for scores with a young side featuring three members of the Rossies team that made it to the 2021 All-Ireland U20 final and lost to Offaly.
O’Carroll was one of those; along with Ruaidhrí Fallon and Robbie Dolan, and together they helped the team race into a 1-05 to 0-02 lead.
It all started with a brace of Bobby Nugent points, with a white flag for Brian Derwin in between.
After Brian Hurley opened Castlehaven’s account for the afternoon, O’Carroll got his first of the game and the Cork star responded by kicking over a '45.
At 0-04 to 0-02, it was evenly balanced. Then Dolan burrowed through and created a scoring opportunity for Derwin, and he used it to hit the back of the net in the 13th minute.
Ciarán Sugrue followed that up by splitting the posts and St Brigid's led 1-05 to 0-02 and all the pressure was on Castlehaven, and they hit back with white flags raised by Cathal Maguire and Brian Hurley.
The pair helped their club finish the first half with a flourish and it was 1-07 to 0-06 at the interval.
Castlehaven came out from the break and Brian Hurley scored twice in quick succession, and St Brigid's four-point cushion was reduced to two.
Castlehaven almost took the lead during their next spell in possession, as a Brian Hurley free dropped short and went towards the goal. St Brigid's easily dealt with this and an attempted counter-attack ended in Derwin hitting their third wide of the second half.
Another opportunity to go in front went the way of the west Cork club after this and Cathal Maguire smacked the ball off the crossbar.
O’Carroll wrestled momentum back from Castlehaven with a point from open play, but that comfort blanket was torn apart when Brian Hurley converted back-to-back frees.
Suddenly, it was a one point game with six minutes left on the clock, and any assurance of a safe passage to Croke Park was gone.
They survived the Castlehaven push for a late winner, a caused helped by missed 45s from Brian Hurley, and qualified for the biggest day on the club football calendar.
Castlehaven: Darragh Cahalane; Johnny O’Regan, Rory Maguire, Ronan Walsh, Thomas O’Mahony, Damien Cahalane, Mark Collins, Conor Cahalane, Andrew Whelton, Ciaran O’Sullivan, Brian Hurley (0-07), Sean Browne, Cathal Maguire (0-02), Jack Cahalane, Michael Hurley (0-01).
Subs: Conor O’Driscoll for Browne (HT); James O’Driscoll for O’Sullivan (58), Michael Maguire for Conor Cahalane (60).
St Brigid's: Cormac Sheehy; Luke Griselain, Brian Stack, Pearse Frost, Ruaidhrí Fallon, Ronan Stack, Paul McGrath (0-01), Eddie Nolan, Shane Cunnane, Conor Hand, Ciarán Sugrue, Robbie Dolan (0-01), Ben O’Carroll (0-02), Brian Derwin (1-01), Bobby Nugent (0-03).
Subs: John Cunningham for Derwin (44); Mark Daly for Cunnane (53), Conor Gleeson for Nugent (60).
Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)
