Croke Park on St. Patrick’s day beckons.
Four teams remain in the running in the AIB All-Ireland Club Football Championships, with two cracking encounters in Portlaoise and Cavan in store this weekend.
Who’ll be still standing and looking forward to a date in Croke Park on St. Patrick’s Day? We put it to a debate.
Castlebar Mitchels v Crossmaglen
Conor Heneghan says: Defeats for Mayo teams in the All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate finals last weekend dealt a further blow to the county’s already undistinguished record in finals in Croke Park, but there’s a lot of faith that the best club in the county will go some way to putting that right next month.
Talk of an All-Ireland Final may sound premature when the best club team of all-time are standing in your way, but there were murmurs of a potential All-Ireland for Castlebar even before they won the county title in Mayo and those murmurs have grown louder and louder ever since.
Mitchels lack the national silverware that their opponents on Saturday possess, but their status as one of the strongest clubs in the country is not in doubt.
All-Ireland finalists in 2014, they defeated the reigning All-Ireland Champions Corofin to earn a place in the semi-finals this time around.
The Connacht Championship is often something of a laughing stock on the inter-county scene, but it’s seriously competitive at club level, with the Connacht champions appearing in four of the last five finals and coming out on top on two of those occasions.
Judging by what we’ve seen so far this year, the Andy Merrigan Cup could well be returning west of the Shannon after Paddy’s Day..
Barry Moran has been in the form of his life in this club campaign, but for the most part, Castlebar are a side without any distinguishable stars, instead boastinga team ethic that makes them more than the sum of their parts.
Moran, Patrick Durcan and Tom Cunniffe will all likely represent Mayo this year. Neil Douglas, Danny Kirby and Donal Newcombe may yet get their chance and Richie Feeney has done in the recent past, but such is the overall high standard in the Castlebar side that they don’t often stand out.
County men aside, Declan O’Reilly and Declan Shaw’s side is littered with above average club players who have all subscribed to what is a lovely, flowing, kick-pass heavy brand of football and have it down to a tee at this stage.
And they can score goals. They scored four in the county-final win over Breaffy, three in the Connacht semi-final victory over Clann na nGael and the two goals in the Connacht Final against Corofin effectively put the reigning All-Ireland Champions to the sword.
It will take a hell of a team to take down Crossmaglen but Castlebar Mitchels are a hell of a team. Expect them to come out on the right side of a tight one on Saturday evening.
Conán Doherty says: History means nothing.
Crossmaglen won’t give a damn. They don’t read history, they make it.
Oisin McConville’s men aren’t satisfied with what they’ve done in the past or what teams before them have achieved. That’s not in their mentality. They go on to the next one. They don’t stop.
For God’s sake, two years without an Ulster title returning to south Armagh was considered a drought.
But, do you know what, Crossmaglen’s hunger is nearly talked about too much. Their commitment and relentlessness deserves every plaudit but not at the expense of their talent. Not by taking away just how damn good they are.
Just glance at their spine.
Look at the evergreen Paul Hearty. Still one of the finest goalkeepers in the land. Still with a laughable belt of a kickout.
Look at the award-winning James Morgan filling that number three jersey with the presence and conviction it deserves.
Aaron Kernan has almost taken things to a new level since his inter-county retirement. David McKenna didn’t even start in that Ulster final battle with Scotstown.
Then, you have the forward line. Then you have the game-winning line. Even in the absence of Jamie Clarke, the Crossmaglen attack is vicious. It’s as sharp and as gung-ho as a manager like Oisin McConville could command. Tony and Stephen Kernan controlling the play, Kyle Carragher nipping around the inside line. It’s actually scary to think about and you’d have to imagine that it has sent a few quakes through Mayo this week.
Crossmaglen have history, they have hunger, they have belief, experience, a slick style of play and all the rest. But they have the players to win an All-Ireland – it’s what they do.
Ballyboden St. Enda’s v Clonmel Commercials
Conor Heneghan says: You can get odds in excess of 2/1 on Clonmel Commercials coming out on top against Ballyboden on Saturday, so it seems the consensus is that what has been a fantastic journey for the Tipperary club will come to an end against the Dublin giants.
To be fair, it’s a pretty logical argument. Ballyboden are one of the most formidable teams in Dublin. They have Michael Darragh McAuley and Conal Keaney. They have Paul Durcan flying in from Qatar.
Clonmel Commercials are the best team in Tipperary but despite fairly giant strides in recent years, Tipp is still hardly a football stronghold. Clonmel became the first Tipperary team to win a Munster title last year and they had to score a last-minute goal to do it.
So they’ll be up against it. But can they still do it? Absolutely.
Clonmel’s county stars like Jason Lonergan, Seamus Kennedy and star man Michael Quinlivan have shone throughout this campaign, but those around them have stepped up when required, as they did when Quinlivan and another key man, Aldo Matassa, received black cards in the first half of their win over TÃr Chonaill Gaels last time out.
Quinlivan will be closely watched by the ‘Boden defence, but the Dublin club will have plenty of trouble trying to find cracks at the other end of the pitch.
Clonmel haven’t conceded a goal in their last three outings in this campaign and have only conceded 0-21 points in that time, an average of seven points a game.
If they get anywhere close to that this weekend then they’ll be halfway to Croke Park and their remarkable journey will continue for another day yet.
Conán Doherty says: It has to be Ballyboden.
Don’t even try to suggest that a club of their size isn’t a tight-knit club because it’s a club of their size. Don’t even think it.
St. Enda’s is a community. It is a family and it is full of club men and women who go the distance for each other.
And, do you know what, talking about their size or population or whatever will mean very little come throw-in. Because then it’s about 15 men against 15 men.
It just so happens that these men would do anything for their club. Paul Durcan – a Donegal native – would fly half way around the world to be there with them again.
When you have that passion and you combine it with the best team in Dublin, then you’re getting somewhere.
Ballyboden absolutely ripped St. Vincent’s a new one in the county final. They ran through one of the best sides in Ireland for a shortcut in that first half and they did it with a merciless forward line.
Michael Darragh Macauley is going to take some stopping and Andrew Kerin is in terrifying form up top alongside Conal Keaney.
The Dubs have been made to work for this. They had to hang on in the capital minefield against Vincent’s, they edged an absolute thriller provincial final versus Portlaoise and, here are they are, on the brink of an All-Ireland final for the first time in their club’s history.
That’s all 15 good men care about when they cross a white line. They have a dream like anyone else and if they have the man power and resources to achieve it, then that they will do.
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