And then there were four...

While this weekend’s Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship Semi Finals have a familiar look to them, they are no less intriguing for that. RICHARD COMMINS looks ahead to a Super Sunday in Cedral St Conleth’s Park with five-in-a-row chasing NAAS reprising the last two finals against CELBRIDGE followed by SARSFIELDS taking on ATHY.

While Caragh and, in particular, Johnstownbridge, did their best to break through the glass ceiling with brave Quarter Final performances, we’re down to the same quartet as last year as we head towards the denouement of this year’s senior football championship.

Celbridge’s consistency – at least in reaching this stage – is beyond reproach. This will be their twelfth successive semi-final since they failed at the last eight stage in 2013 when Athy beat them by a point. That they only have three finals, and none of those victorious ones, to their name, is of course the stick with which it is very easy to beat them. But you can’t deny their stubbornness.

In contrast, opponents Naas only managed five semi-finals in the last decade, but of course those include the last four years, and they completed the job each time in taking home the Dermot Bourke Cup.

Sarsfields and Athy are both in their eighth semi-final in eleven years with Sarsfields having progressed to four finals (three wins), one more than Athy with three finals and that one win in 2020.

It is curious to see champions Naas involved in the curtain-raiser, perhaps due to Sarsfields being the home-town club. Indeed, they are unique among the sixteen senior clubs in having played all of their games this year at St Conleth’s.

Celbridge unquestionably have the credentials to lower the Naas colours, but this game will be played as much in the head as with the feet and hands. How on earth are they to shake off the seemingly never-ending run of heartache that afflicted an undoubtedly talented group over the last ten and more years as they sought to repeat their solo title win in 2008?

On the plus side, they arguably came as close as anyone to the champions in those two finals in 2023 and 2024, losing out by only two points in Carlow and then a single score in Newbridge.

There’s a wealth of talent available to the Hazelhatch side, with Aaron Browne playing out of his skin this season, Fergal Conway imperious and Dean O’Donoghue proving himself one of the county’s best attacking wing backs, his hat-trick of goals against Moorefield indicating a new string to his bow. Kevin Flynn was flying in that game, great to see for all Kildare fans.

Naas have looked uncharacteristically vulnerable this season, perhaps partly down to the backroom disruption that saw Rory Gallagher almost arrive, Joe Murphy departing and then a false start or two before Philly McMahon took on the manager role.

The loss to Sarsfields, and the manner of that performance, perhaps needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt and they certainly looked back on track against Clane. Like Celbridge, they have talent all over the field, and undoubtedly the most dangerous forward line with Alex Beirne, Ryan Sinkey and Darragh Kirwan in sync. The Duracell bunny Elliot Beirne has been a revelation as well while the two McDermotts beaver away often under the radar.

In theory Celbridge should have the greater hunger at this stage. But so did Mayo during their glorious inglorious spell at the top. Sport is a savage beast at times, and one fears Celbridge might find themselves in a familiar place this weekend. Naas may just have the stronger bench when legs grow weary.

Athy and Sarsfields would perhaps have been easier to call before the Quarter Finals where the Newbridge side got the fright of their lives against Johnstownbridge. Do you worry that they went twelve points behind or take comfort that they came back to win by four? A bit of both perhaps.

Athy meanwhile ground out a win against gutsy Caragh without reaching the heights of some earlier games and their no-show against Celbridge in the group stages continues to nag. In Colm Moran they have a player with a big future, but they missed another in Padraig Spillane the last day. Likewise, Sarsfields will hope to have Ben Loakman available despite the stabilising return to action of Barry Coffey and Ben McCormack.

Sarsfields just look a bit too powerful these days across the field, and their own injection of youth in the likes of Ryan Kearney, Conor O’Donovan and Loakman has given them a new dimension while manager Vinny Walsh knows everything there is to know about his former charges.

A Naas-Sarsfields final then? Not before plenty of drama one suspects.