This time, Cill na Martra inflicted a harrowing one-point beating. This, in spite of playing their best football in the second-half after they had fallen behind by four at the break.

When they overtook their opponents, you could not blame them for thinking they had done enough to be triumphant. Cill na Martra’s late burst of scores denying them.

Yet, O’Donovan tried his best to assess what had just happened.

“At the moment, it is not a pretty sight inside in the dressing-room. But that is the way it is. That is sport. It can be cruel sometimes,” he admitted.

“For some reason, we looked very disjointed in the first-half, especially in the last quarter hour of it. In fairness, we kind of sorted a few things at half-time. We really came strong in the first 20 minutes of the second-half.

“Ruairí Deane’s goal lifted us and it got the crowd behind us. It gave us a bit of momentum, and I’d say it gave the lads a bit of belief that they could kick for home.

“You plan for all these eventualities when you come up here. But on the day, once the clock starts, it is up to certain individuals then to perform. You cannot legislate for what goes on between the white lines. All you can do is try and prepare, dot as many i’s and tick as many t’s, as we can.”

It will hardly provide any consolation to Bantry that Kanturk had to lose two finals before eventually getting their hands on the silverware in 2022. Bantry's losing margin last year was seven points.

“Last year we left here and we probably hadn’t performed, whereas today it is a different story. We will have to let the dust settle on this and see what decisions the club wants to make going forward.

“There has to be a winner, and there has to be a loser. It is the same with Blarney on Saturday, and the same with Kilmurry on Saturday.

“That is the good thing about the competitiveness of the grades. But that is no consolation to us.”