Everything in place for cracking Junior Final

Friendships will be put to one side on Saturday when Philip Casey and Paddy Madigan lead out St Kevin's and Cappagh in the Tom Cross Junior Football Championship final at 6pm.

Madigan is a Limerick man who managed his home club Glin to a Munster Junior final in 2014 and, after a spell of travelling up and down following his move to Kildare, eventually settled with Caragh.

There he played under, and eventually succeeded, Philip Casey as manager and, clearly, there remains a huge level of respect between the two men.

“I was living here for a year and pretty much wasn't playing anything or knowing anybody so I joined up with Caragh to play a bit of second team but I ended up making the first team and Philip was the coach. Philip was a gentleman and welcomed me in with open arms. He did two years and then he left and then I took over Caragh so yeah, we've kind of got a link there already,” said Madigan.

“I know Paddy very well,” said Casey. “He used to play for me and then went on to do very well as a manager. Two Caragh men on the line so that will add something to the game too,” he laughed.

Of course, that is only a very minor subplot to Saturday's final and the two managers would be the first to stress that the most important people are the ones who pull on the jerseys and boots and head into battle.

The two clubs arrive in very different circumstances. It is 50 years since St Kevin's won their only Junior title when beating Leixlip after a replay in 1976. They took something of a step backwards last year with a surprise relegation from the Intermediate ranks but, under Casey, have been extremely impressive as they have gone about trying to secure an immediate return.

They comfortably won all three group games before coming through an epic semi-final against Ballymore.

Casey felt his team were a little below their best in that last four tie after not playing for a month but believes they will be all the better for having come through it.

“I looked at it and I think it showed that both teams hadn’t played competitively in a month. We said it to the lads that we will only get better for that. I think we are better off playing every week, or at least every second week, as much as is possible,” said Casey.

Like any new manager coming into a club, there was a getting-to-know-you period for Casey and the squad at the start of the year, but after an indifferent start to the league they hit form with five successive wins before losing, ironically enough, to Cappagh.

“We had to get to know lads. It was a completely new management team, three of us involved in it. We trained hard. We lost a couple of games early on to the senior clubs Clogherinkoe and Kilcock and then Kilcullen beat us, but we went on a good run after that and beat some good teams like Nurney and Straffan.

“Of course we would have liked to have been promoted but once we couldn’t do that we eased off the lads slightly and started looking at the Championship.

“The league was a good stepping stone but the Championship was always our goal and to get Kevins back to Intermediate.

“We have gradually got better as the year has gone on. We had a couple of lads who were travelling and a couple of lads who were injured as well. It's all geared towards the Championship and we're getting better as the games go on.

“To me, I wasn't too happy with the performance in the semi-final. It was more about heart and will and desire to get over the line, as opposed to the quality of the game. I'm sure, as a neutral, it was probably exciting, but I was frustrated with the way it was,” said Casey.

One thing that St Kevin's won’t lack on Saturday is big-game experience. Barry Noone was part of the last county-winning team for Kevins when they won the Intermediate final in 2008 and remains as important as ever, having been their top scorer on the run to the final. His brother, Cormac, made a crucial impact off the bench against Ballymore.

Whether it be with a hurl in their hand or a ball at their toe, the likes of Mark Grace, Declan Flaherty and Dylan Brereton have played in some huge games down through the years.

The Smyths, Ciaran, Jamie and Diarmuid, give them a strong athletic presence, while Conor Murray and James Ralph can be relied upon to chip in with some important scores.

It's an enticing mix and easy to see why many observers picked them out as potential champions before a ball had even been kicked, but Casey is quick to stress that will count for nothing if they don't produce on the day.

“We have a good, strong team but I think Cappagh beating us in the league keeps us grounded too. It’s important to deal with the build-up to a Championship final without anybody getting ahead of themselves.

“I think the match against Ballymore was a kind of leveller because we didn’t play up to our standard. We played quite well against Rathcoffey, probably our best performance in the Championship so far, and I’m blaming the month break for the drop in performance. We played one or two challenge games but at the same time there is nothing like Championship football to get you on your toes. I’m hoping that we can get back to the level that we displayed in the group games against Cappagh in the final,” said Casey.

While St Kevin's are out to make an immediate return to a level they have grown accustomed to over the last few decades, Cappagh are looking to make a breakthrough they have never managed before.

This is only the third time in their history that they have reached a Junior final and, having lost the 1942 and 2015 deciders, they are hoping to lift the title for the first time.

It is something manager Madigan is fully aware of.

“We have three lads on the panel who played in 2015 but we said to this group that they have to go and make their own history, reach their own finals and then go on and win one. It’s huge for the club. They are only a small club but they are doing everything right,” he said.

Madigan is in his third year in charge of the team and they have been progressing nicely under his tutelage.

They made a semi-final last year and gave a more-than-decent account of themselves when pushing Rathcoffey all the way. There was a real determination this year to go one better.

“The last match before I took over, they lost in the 'A' Championship to Ballykelly and they have put in some work since then.

“Last year the goal was to get out of Division 4. I had seen that before with Caragh. When you get up to Division 3 it does give you that platform when it comes to the Junior Championship. We won Division 4 with Caragh and then the following year we won the Junior. Playing against a higher standard of teams definitely stands to you when it comes to Championship football.

“Towards the end of last year we went to Ballymore and whoever won that got promoted. We won that and won the league and that was great for the lads because they’d never won a trophy. It was brilliant. The celebrations for winning the league were fantastic.

“We had a good Championship after that. The semi-final against Rathcoffey could have gone either way. We had a couple of chances at the end that we didn’t take, but it probably stood to us this year to have a full season in Division 3 behind us going into the Championship,” said Madigan.

This year's Championship started with a narrow one-point defeat to Castlemitchell but Madigan said that, in some ways, it worked in their favour. With no margin for error, minds were sharpened and every game was treated like a final.

“We beat every other Junior team in Division 3 so that gave them a bit of belief, and belief would have been a big thing down here, just from not having won and beaten those teams, but they were brilliant this year.

“Of course, that day we lost to Castlemitchell. I probably got it wrong that day as well. There were a few reflections and quite a few things that didn't work.

“Every game we've played since then has been knockout because we couldn't even afford to lose another group game, so they've been building nicely,” said Madigan.

Like many clubs across the county, Cappagh operate under the One Club model and there is a great camaraderie between the men's and ladies' sides of the club. The semi-final win coming the day after the ladies won the Intermediate Championship made it a memorable weekend for all involved.

The ladies play in Leinster earlier on Saturday afternoon and Madigan said the success of both groups is driving each other on.

“In fairness to the women, none of them went celebrating on the Sunday. They all waited around until after the lads' match in the evening and came in and supported them in Hawkfield.

“The lads went for a couple of drinks after the game and the women came in with the trophy and had their celebrations. You could see in our boys that they were thinking, 'We want that too',” said Madigan.

Injuries are part of their build-up and could hamper them on the day. Goalkeeper Peter Warren injured a quad early in the semi-final win over Kill and is a major doubt, as is one of their star players, Darragh Devine.

Still, Madigan said they will give it their best shot.

“They've trained phenomenally well all year. I would imagine everybody outside the club hasn't seen it but we would genuinely have been trying to tell the lads that they are good enough to go all the way.

“We know that a lot of people would have seen Ballymore and Kevins as the two strongest teams, physically, both of them being bigger than us.

“But look, we're there. We know we're underdogs, but they have been building and improving all the time,” he said.

With St Kevin's chasing an immediate return to Intermediate football and Cappagh bidding to make history with a first-ever Junior title, all the ingredients are in place for a cracking final.