Newbridge rivals ready to get to grips with each other once again
Moorefield's Aaron Masterson and Sarsfields' Sean Campbell come together in the typical style of a Newbridge derby Photo: Sean Brilly
There is a feast of football in store next weekend as the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship reaches the quarter-final stage with all four games down for decision at Manguard Park over Saturday and Sunday.
Celbridge are showing one more time this year they can win most games on grass no problem. It’s the games in their head they need to find a way to win, though.
Last year’s final had a sense of “now or never” about it and unfortunately the answer that came back was a negative one as Celbridge allowed yet another opportunity to win Dermot Bourke slip away from them.
That was after a highly impressive qualifying campaign and in fairness they’ve regrouped well with Micheál McDermott again at the helm. They have a compelling mixture of mature heads (Conway, O’Grady, McGrillen) and maturing youngsters (O’Regan, O’Donoghue, the Brownes) while Tony Archbold is between those age groups and has been in sizzling form.
What to make of Clane? Does their revenge win over Eadestown signify enough of an upturn in their fortunes to consider them contenders for this clash? They have quality all over the pitch, but they had that when scraping through their Losers’ group with one win in three games.
Celbridge have looked by far the superior side to date, pointing towards another semi-final appearance for the men from the Dublin border.
These sides met at the same stage last year with Athy winning a poor game by ei
ght points to four. Weather conditions didn’t help on that occasion when Niall Kelly outscored the entire Raheens team with five points.
Athy have been a curious beast this year. They scored twenty-four points against Maynooth but only an average of ten in three group games. They’ve scored eight goals in their last two games, though, and with a pacey half-back line they can attack from all angles. Still very inconsistent though under new management.
Kevin Feely wasn’t risked the last day but looked sprightly in the warm-ups and should feature while Raheens will hope to have Paddy Woodgate back. They are another team in good goalscoring form, with ten scored in two games against Carbury and St Laurence’s before drawing a blank against Johnstownbridge.
Contrary to last year’s affair this could be a high-scoring one, but despite the form of Woodgate, Gavin Thompson and Jack Taaffe up front for Raheens, Athy, particularly with Feely on board, may have too much firepower for them again this year.
Mick Mullen and the CCC can’t win, can they? They changed from pre-drawn groups to drawing them after the Preliminary Round and they’ve ended up with two repeats of those Preliminary Round ties in the Quarter Finals.
Naas had to dig relatively deep to overcome Johnstownbridge that day, five points the eventual margin, and the same team brought them to extra time at the same stage last year. Eventually, though, Naas found a way both times.
Alex Beirne has carried on the form that made him Club Senior Player of the Year last year and he’s their top scorer from play with twelve points in four games.
Darragh Kirwan is back the last couple of games to lend a hand on that score, but they’d like Kevin Cummins and Dermot Hanafin giving more of a helping hand on the scoreboard.
Johnstownbridge have had a decent campaign since that Preliminary Round tie, despite a number of absentees, going unbeaten through their group.
Sam Doran’s return has been crucial. He scored the equalising point coming on as substitute against Raheens and the goal that put daylight between them and Clogherinkoe last Saturday, even if they nearly got caught by the neighbours at the death.
Naas will lose eventually. It may not be this season, though, and if it is, there’s little to suggest Johnstownbridge will be the ones to take them down.
When they met in the final ten years ago, Moorefield won convincingly in a replay. But the intervening decade has seen Sarsfields take the upper hand.
Of eight meetings since, Moores have won only once, in 2017, with Sarsfields winning six times and one game drawn. The trend continued in the Preliminary Round last month with the Roseberry side winning by four points.
Since then, though, Moorefield have been building up a head of steam in a competitive Losers’ group and the three wins against Maynooth, Kilcock and Clane, with a plus twenty-three scoring difference, will surely leave them buoyant for the rematch.
Sarsfields have struggled for momentum under new manager Vinny Walsh. They couldn’t live with Naas in either the League final or the group game two weeks ago having struggled to a draw against Eadestown before the expected win over Confey.
Doubts remain over Ben McCormack’s fitness and while not a one-man team by any means few clubs wouldn’t be impacted by a player of that calibre not firing on all cylinders.
Moorefield, with Evan O’Brien scoring frequently and Jason Phillips and Dan O’Callaghan providing aerial threat, would relish sending Sarsfields packing. They might just manage it.
St Laurence’s have been in five finals over the 45 years of their current stay at Senior level and were the last rural club to win the Dermot Bourke Cup in 2009, with only Athy, the two Newbridge clubs and Naas winning it since.
But having escaped the drop last year against Ballyteague, the signs look pretty ominous this time. The loss of Mark Glynn and Pádraig Fogarty has shorn them of quality, and it’s been a long, hard campaign, with the seven goal hammering by Raheens triggering a parting of ways with manager Pat Ryan.
Mossy Doyle and Declan Lawlor steadied the ship for their final group game against Carbury and they kept a clean sheet but are lacking firepower.
Kilcock, meanwhile, had a morale-boosting win against Maynooth that wasn’t quite enough to escape this winner-takes-all final, but the height of Brendan Gibbons and Ciaran Murray was a big factor that night and they bring the same advantage to this one.
Larries will need all the resolve they showed against Ballyteague a year ago, but the odds appear to favour the North Kildare side escaping the drop.
