Road to Intermediate final narrows as final four take centre stage

RICHARD COMMINS looks ahead to this weekend’s semi-final action in the National Electrical Wholesalers Intermediate Football Championship as well as the semi-finals of the new ‘A’ Championship. Meanwhile survival is at stake for the four teams in the relegation semi-finals.

AFTER a year in which Sallins blitzed their way to the title, normal service has returned to the Intermediate grade with another fascinating, unpredictable campaign.

Only four teams remain and while Milltown and Rathangan would have been on many betting dockets from the start, you would have got longer odds against Junior Champions Grangenolvin joining them along with the lowest ranked league team in the competition, Suncroft.

But here we are, with a number of fancied teams having fallen by the wayside, including the last two beaten finalists St Laurence’s and Leixlip.

Grangenolvin’s progress isn’t the biggest surprise ever, with the Carlow border side having won the provincial title impressively last year and with the likes of the Bergins, the Doyles, Paul Huntingdon & co. playing such refreshing, attacking football over the last couple of years. Their win over Larries in the big local derby in the quarter final, though, raises their credentials up a notch and it will take a very good team to beat them.

They’ll go into Saturday’s first semi-final looking to become the first team in 22 years to reach the Intermediate final the season after winning Junior. Confey were the last to do so in 2003 and 2004.

Grangenolvin will go in as favourites against a Suncroft team who failed to escape from Division 4 of the League, and were among the favourites for relegation, but their wins over Leixlip and Confey in the group stages followed by the success over Two Mile House in the last eight has put them in sight of a first Intermediate final since winning this title in 2007. It will be their first semi-final in championship football since 2009 when they met Moorefield in the last four at Senior level.

Suncroft, whose only loss came against Straffan, overcame the absence of injured midfielder Tom Martin the last day and have seen the likes of Danny Morgan, Chris Phillips and Eoin Magee step up alongside the more well-known trio of Fionn Dowling, Conn Kehoe and Eoghan Lawless. Grangenolvin will be favourites but Suncroft are not without a chance.

Saturday’s second semi-final was perhaps more predictable with Milltown looking to go one step further having failed at the last four stage in each of the last two years. It took an excellent Sallins team to beat them last year.

They have been solid rather than spectacular in winning all their games so far and an injury-hit Leixlip pushed them all the way the last day, with only a late, late breach decision handing Milltown the clinching score.

The 2-14 conceded that day may be a concern for them, particularly with opponents Rathangan having a strong attack, where Padraig Carty and Sam Savage have been their main men, but it’s the battle around the middle that is most fascinating on Saturday. Milltown have Conor Sheerin and Joe Dunne while Rathangan can offer Rian Teehan and Eoghan Boyle, both playing superbly in that sector.

Rathangan put their reversal to Two Mile House behind them with that emphatic win over Round Towers and if they can find their best form on the day there’s no doubt they can match Milltown, though the latter may be slightly the better bet given their all-round consistency and experience.

The ‘A’ championship sees Ballyteague meet Ellistown on Friday while Castledermot and Nurney clash in a South County derby on Saturday.

The Larks finally got a win under their belt, and an important one at that, when they beat Confey by two points in a low-quality encounter in the quarter finals and with the risk of relegation removed they perhaps can relax a little for this one. Jimmy Hyland remains their talisman but Ellistown, who were so unfortunate not to progress from their group on four points, will know if they can keep Jimmy as quiet as possible they have a good chance of reaching another final after winning Junior in 2024. They’ll need to play a lot better than they did against Kilcullen last time out though.

Castledermot have been improving as the championship went on but they’re up against a Nurney side for whom the Hagneys have been in sparkling form. A tough one to call but Castledermot might just have turned enough of a corner to keep the momentum going.

Staying up is the only thing on the mind of Monasterevan and Straffan, who meet on Friday and Kilcullen and Confey who clash on Sunday. Straffan, who beat Suncroft earlier in the campaign, will feel they can overcome Monasterevan, while Kilcullen will need to repeat the fight they showed against Ellistown if they’re to send Confey into a second relegation final in two years.