Blockbuster weekend of senior football semi-finals
Shea Ryan’s experience has been pivotal for Sarsfields so far in this year’s Championship. Photo: James Lawlor
With Athy’s demise to this weekend’s opponents Maynooth, Naas have firmed up in the betting for a fifth title in six years with latest odds of 8/15 for the favourites. The bookies seem to regard Maynooth’s take-down of the reigning champions as something of a one-off, and they still carry the tag of rank outsiders of the four semi-finalists at 14/1.
There was an awful lot to like about that extra-time win for a side who are building nicely under serial winner Ross Glavin, who both captained and managed Moorefield to the title in their heyday and took over the reigns of the Northern border men last year.
Mark Donnellan still looks among the best goalkeepers in the county, Niall O’Sullivan is a quality marker at the back, Matthew Diamond and Ciaran Flanagan are going well at midfield and the likes of Paddy Mahoney and Liam McDonald give bite to their attack.
A nagging doubt concerns their ability to rack up decent scores against the better defences and going a half without scoring against Athy is certainly a black mark against their credentials. On the other hand they came strong in extra-time and are clearly well-trained.
What to make of Naas on the other hand? Johnstownbridge, not for the first time this season, will be kicking themselves that they didn’t make the most of the many goal-scoring opportunities they created, and the looseness of the Naas defence must have been a cause for concern for manager Jimmy Higgins.
Their own conversion rate was better but not entirely perfect either, and the implications of Darragh Kirwan come off following medical attention and his subsequent absence for the hurlers at the weekend, could weaken them.
The return to fitness of Ryan Sinkey, who impressed with five points against Johnstownbridge, helps alleviate that concern a little while Cathal Daly and Rob Murray have been impressing as attacking half-backs, even if that tendency is perhaps leaving gaps further back. They had Luke Mullins in goal to thank for rescuing them on more than one occasion.
Naas struggled a little at midfield the last day with Paul McDermott and James Burke unusually quiet and with that being an area of strength for Maynooth they’ll need to improve in that sector.
Maynooth are featuring in their first semi-final in five years, and it was Saturday’s opponents Naas who brought their run to an end that day on an emphatic 1-17 to 1-9 scoreline.
They have not reached the county final since 1916 and haven’t won it since three years previous to that. It would certainly shake up a championship that has become predictable over the last five or six years if they were to pull off a shock on Saturday.
Expect them to get closer than the eight point margin in 2021, but it’s impossible to go against Naas in this one.
If there’s a novelty to Maynooth’s appearance in the semi-finals the same cannot be said of the other last four clash. Celbridge have arrived at this stage for the thirteenth year in succession while Sarsfields too rarely miss out on this stage.
The sides met in the last four on four occasions in the last decade with the Newbridge side coming out on top in 2015, 2019 and 2021 and Celbridge winning in 2024 having also beaten Sunday’s opponents in the 2023 quarter final.
Sarsfields looked impressive in coming through their group with three wins, comfortably so over Carbury and Caragh before edging out Maynooth but it was the manner of their demolition of fierce rivals Moorefield in the last eight that confirmed the suspicion they could be the most serious challengers to Naas for the crown.
Vinny Walsh’s side attacked that game with ferocity, with Barry Coffey pulling the strings and Karl Hartley providing the injection of pace and guile in an attack that was missing three star men in Ben Loakman, Ben McCormack and Ryan Kearney.
Luke Mahon and Conor O’Donovan were among the younger set raising eyebrows while Gavin Anderson and Matty Byrne were formidable at midfield and Kieran O’Dwyer, Daragh Conlon and Cathal White looked the part at the back that day.
How much of that display can be put down to a Moorefield off-day is hard to tell, and there is no doubt their neighbours are not getting any younger, but this observer was certainly impressed with the standard Sarsfields displayed.
The Celbridge story has been more nuanced, the graph not quite as linear, this campaign. Struggles against both Johnstownbridge and Clane saw them eventually come out the right side of tight games and that pattern repeated itself in the quarter-final against Raheens.
That day two weeks ago saw some of the poorest football played in the championship to date, particularly in terms of shooting and shot-selection, but given their history since winning their only title in 2008, Celbridge will have been happy to emerge from another tight contest with another win.
Alan Costello’s side have had the benefit of a full panel this year with no senior inter-county panel members but they still had another touch of the semi-final ‘yips’ with defeat to Moorefield in that competition and they will clearly have to raise their game against Sarsfields.
They remain very reliant on experience with Kevin Flynn, Fergal Conway and Davy Hughes all pitching in against Raheens but the Browne brothers and Dean O’Donoghue are starting to influence more as well.
They certainly have enough talent to beat Sarsfields. But it was never a shortage of talent that held Celbridge back. The bookies see Sarsfields as 3/10 favourites for this one and 5/2 second favourites to Naas to win out overall, and with Celbridge at 11/2 third favourites, that seems about right unless Costello’s side have been keeping their powder dry up to now.
How seriously teams will take the ‘A’ championship now they are free of the potential burden of relegation?
For Sallins, who have had a couple of exacting years and are suffering with fitness and suspension concerns, the temptation might be to take a little bit of a breather at this stage.
We’ll have to see whether they display the same urgency they showed against Allenwood, particularly in the second half, now that the trapdoor back to Intermediate has closed.
Eadestown’s win over Kilcock saw them leading by five at half-time but having to withstand a strong surge in the second half before two-pointers from Niall Cummins and Cian Bolton saw them home.
Another tight encounter is in store this weekend.
Sharpshooters who wore the Kildare jersey this year were to the fore as Clane and Clogherinkoe made it through to this stage with wins over Carbury and Caragh respectively.
Brian McLoughlin was inspirational for Clane, racking up no less than 1-8 in total against Carbury, with 1-6 from play including a two-pointer. A forward who is out of the Kildare picture, Shane O’Sullivan, was another to continue his good club form with five points, four from play.
Clogherinkoe had to fight tooth and nail to edge out Caragh in their quarter-final. Under 20 star Jimmy Lynch landed the winner with the last kick and remarkably he and Kildare senior star Jack Robinson registered seventeen of Cloghs’ eighteen points between them with nine and eight respectively.
This one has the makings of a classic high-scoring game (hopefully not famous last words). In theory Clogherinkoe, who have never won a Senior championship, might value an ‘A’ version higher than 17-times county champions Clane but it has been 29 years since the men in white landed the big one so they wouldn’t turn their noses up either.
Carbury have never been relegated from the senior championship, the only club it is believed who can claim such a record. They are getting dangerously close in 2026 to relinquishing that claim, one year on from celebrating their centenary.
Their reliance on the scoring feats of the championship’s top scorer Eoin Cully has been a key issue and he couldn’t prevent them being edged out by four points by Clane in the previous round, thrusting them into a relegation semi-final with Allenwood.
A local derby will whet the appetite, though, and Allenwood have had a difficult campaign themselves. Sallins proved too strong for them despite a fine performance from their defensive inspiration Darragh Malone.
Like Carbury with Cully, they rely a lot on Eoin Bagnall for scores, but dual star Johnny Byrne has been weighing in too with plenty of scores including four the last day.
If Malone is marking Cully, the outcome of that duel could be a key deciding factor.
Kilcock weren’t a million miles away from the last eight of the competition proper, but here they are two games away from relegation. They always seem to be among the favourites to go back down to the Intermediate grade they emerged from five years ago and they won’t get anything easy from the 2024 winners Caragh.
Michael Browne’s Caragh have struggled a little this year after the heights of the last two. It’s been a case of the difficult second album for them this time around and they succumbed to a last gasp Clogherinkoe winner in the last round.
Kilcock have strength and power in the Gibbons trio and the return to fitness of Shane Farrell is a huge bonus, the Kildare senior looking closer to his best in the defeat to Eadestown.
Caragh still have the bulk of that Kildare and Leinster winning team from two years ago and Darragh Swords was impressive with six points the last day (five from play). They were missing the power of Dan Lynam though and they will find Kilcock’s physicality difficult to match.
Another close one in store between two teams who may feel a little unfortunate to be in this position in the first place. Results don’t lie, unfortunately.
