Sarsfields look to end Leinster hex as Dublin giants loom large

Having savoured a first Kildare title in seven years over the last fortnight, Sarsfields are in at the deep end in the AIB Leinster Club Senior Football Championship when they face Dublin champions Cuala in Saturday’s last eight clash at Parnell Park (4.45pm). RICHARD COMMINS previews the action.

A goalscoring hero in the Dermot Bourke decider, and one of the more experienced men in the Sarsfields team, centre-back Con Kavanagh, was still enjoying the on-field celebrations from the Maynooth win two weeks ago when he looked ahead to Saturday’s game, but not without casting his mind back to his previous experiences in this competition.

“I think I’ve played in three Leinster games so far and I’ve lost every single one of them in the first round. It’s something that we really need to nail this time. Whoever it is, it’s going to be tough opposition. Sarsfields haven’t been good in the Leinster Championship in recent years, we really need to nail that.” 

His recollections are accurate. Sarsfields’ last three attempts to crack the provincial nut ended in failure at the first hurdle, to Portlaoise in 2015, Seán O’Mahony’s of Dundalk a year later, and Éire Óg of Carlow in their most recent attempt in 2019.

Those losses extended an unhappy history in the competition for The Sash. They have been crowned Kildare champions twelve times now since the competition came into being in the 1970’s and in the previous eleven attempts they have been beaten in the final twice, the semi-final four times and the last eight on five occasions.

Ominously, those finals saw them fall to Dublin opposition on both occasions. Na Fianna beat them in 1999 by six points and in 2005 it was Kilmacud Crokes who edged them out by a single point.

Indeed, while Sarsfields can boast a rare win by a Kildare senior club against Metropolitan opposition, having beaten Scoil Uí Chonaill 0-12 to 1-8 in the 1986 quarter-final, they have lost all four clashes with capital clubs since then. Apart from the two finals, Na Fianna beat them in a second replay thriller (2-17 to 1-18) in the 2001 semi-final, and Ballymun Kickham’s were too good for them at the same stage in 2012 (1-8 to 0-5).

Of course, it is a source of some disgruntlement in the environs of Roseberry that the club’s great town rivals Moorefield managed to climb the podium to claim the Seán McCabe Cup twice, in 2006 and 2017.

The bookies certainly favour the Dublin champions on this occasion with Sarsfields the 3/1 outsiders on this occasion.

Cuala, who blitzed Castleknock in their county final before scraping past a resolute Tullamore in the opening round in Leinster, are seeking to claim the 28th win by a Dublin side in this competition, with Kildare teams only sixth in the rankings with just three titles (Raheens’ 1981 win preceding Moorefield’s two successes).

Cuala themselves have a 100% record in Leinster, having beaten St Mary’s of Louth in the final the only other time they won the Dublin title, two years ago. They saw off a fine Naas performance at this same stage that year, winning 2-15 to 1-15 in front of an enthralled crowd at the newly re-opened Cedral St Conleth’s Park.

A look at the make-up of the Dublin side illustrates their strength. Besides having one of the greatest forwards in the game in Con O’Callaghan, whose two-pointer finally saw them shrug off Tullamore in Parnell Park two weeks ago, they can boast current Dublin midfielder Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, breakthrough Dubs star Charlie McMorrow and county panellists Eoghan O’Callaghan and Eoin Kennedy. That’s before you even consider the man with the joint most All Ireland senior medals (nine) in legendary defender Mick Fitzsimons.

The danger for Sarsfields may lie in focusing too much on Con O’Callaghan. When they dethroned Ballyboden St Enda’s in the county semi-final it was wing-back Kennedy, wing-forward Cillian Dunne and corner-forward Conor O’Brien who all chipped in with two-pointers as O’Callaghan was kept relatively quiet (scoring three points of their 21).

For all that, Sarsfields will go into this one with the confidence of a fine Kildare campaign behind them. They also have a manager in Vinnie Walsh who is building a good reputation in the county, having previously steered Athy to the Dermot Bourke in 2021.

Walsh will be chomping at the bit to get a run at the provincial competition having been denied the opportunity due to the pandemic when Athy conquered Kildare.

He knows history is against his team, but you sense that is part of the challenge for the Claremorris native.

“I’ve heard Sarsfields don’t have the best record in Leinster,” he told the Kildare Nationalist.

“I think it’s won 26 (Kildare titles) now but they’ve never won a Leinster which is quite surprising. I think club football is growing big now. I think clubs actually see it that you go on now on your Leinster run. But the Leinster one is a lottery; you’re playing the champions of every county. We’ll give it a shot this year and see how it goes.” 

Walsh may be boosted by re-enforcements for this one. Ben McCormack, newly retired from inter-county football, came off the bench late to shoot two clinching scores against Maynooth a fortnight ago while breakthrough Kildare star Ben Loakman was named on the bench that day after surgery and appeared for the under-23’s last week as he continued his comeback.

Sarsfields’ strength from the bench was important the last day, with Ryan Kearney surely pushing for a return to the team having lost his place since playing in the Lumsden Cup soccer final.

As regards stopping O’Callaghan, Colm Harnett, the man who snuffed out Paddy Mahoney in the Kildare final, looks to be a prime candidate to do another man-marking job, though Cian Hughes has been another impressive performer at full-back this year.

Sarsfields will look for Callum Bolton and Shea Ryan to supplement Matty Byrne around the middle and hope to swing that sector in their favour. If they can do that and manage to snuff O’Callaghan out while curtailing runs from deep of McMorrow and Kennedy in particular, that would go a long way towards them getting over the line.

It may be odds-against, and while weather can be a leveller this year, the record of Dublin clubs proves it’s not quite the “lottery” Walsh paints it as, and the performance of Tullamore in the previous round can give Sarsfields, and their “Sash Train” of supporters, hope of an upset heading to the capital on Saturday evening.