Goalkeeper John Kerins will keep up the proud family tradition by lining out with St Finbarr's in today's All-Ireland club SFC semi-final against Down's Kilcoo at O'Moore Park.

Kerins is following in the footsteps of his late father and legendary Cork goakeeper, also John, who was the 'Barrs number one when they last contested an All-Ireland club SFC semi-final, 35 years ago, before going on to win the competition.

Kerins Jnr has had to bide his time to make his mark as first choice goalkeeper for St Finbarr's having been handed his championship debut as a substitute in the 2018 Cork SFC quarter-final against Douglas, aged 26.

"It was just a matter of circumstance I was even number 16 that day. Our sub-keeper James McDonnell stepped away that summer with work and family and stuff," he recalled.

“And Deccie [Murphy] unfortunately got injured which led to a crazy situation in the quarter-final when you're coming on in the heat of battle down to 14 men in the last 10 minutes and you're wondering are you going to get over the line.

"And people are probably looking at you thinking that if things go belly-up here who's going to be the scape-goat? I was looking at myself as the one who came on and would be kicking out the ball to the lads, is it going to fall back on me?"

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