Sash looking to halt Naas’ trophy winning run

With the inter-county season over for another year, it’s clubs all the way from here on and RICHARD COMMINS previews this weekend’s Hanon Concrete Senior Football League Division 1 Final as well as the start of the Tom Cross Transport Junior Football Championship.

NAAS v SARSFIELDS (Saturday 4pm, Cedral St Conleth’s Park)

For the third year in succession, it’s Naas against Sarsfields in the Division 1 final on Saturday in Newbridge, with the county town side aiming for their fourth title in a row.

Sarsfields are the form team of the round robin stage, perhaps benefitting from having fewer players on the county panel than previous years. They’ve looked like an improved proposition in their second year under Vinnie Walsh and were impressive winners over Sallins in the semi-final.

Naas of course had to do without a clutch of county players through the league but overcame Maynooth without too much difficulty in the semi-final, where young forward Liam O’Connor looked a promising addition.

The holders, under new manager Philly McMahon after Joe Murphy’s departure to Carlow, will be a different proposition if any of their county players are back for Saturday. Given that Brian Byrne turned out for the hurlers within 24 hours of his heroics in Croke Park, don’t rule out some involvement from a few Tailteann Cup winners.

There’s never any love lost when these two meet and Sarsfields in particular will want to lay down a marker ahead of the championship. Naas coasted to a 1-14 to 0-9 win in last year’s decider but a Sarsfields team with the Ryan brothers in good form may be more competitive on this occasion.

TOM CROSS TRANSPORT JUNIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Another highly competitive Junior Championship is in store this year and the action throws in this weekend with five fixtures across the two round robin groups. Castlemitchell have a bye in a five-team Group A with Rheban having withdrawn.

Predicting the winners of this competition is a treacherous exercise. Ellistown, jumped back up to Intermediate at the first attempt last year, beating Kill in the final, when most eyes had been on an upwardly mobile Grangenolvin, who succumbed at the semi-final stage.

League form will likely see Grangenolvin as favourites once more, the south county side having finished midtable in Division 2 of the League, and they face an intriguing opening Group A tie against Ballymore Eustace in Newbridge on Saturday.

Ballymore are well-known for yo-yoing between the grades and having come down from Intermediate they’ll be gunning for a third Junior title in nine years and a fifth overall. They just failed to win promotion from Division 4 of the league, though.

In the same group Kildangan mark their return to the competition with a tough opening encounter against Kill in Manguard Park on Friday night.

In Group B, Athgarvan and Cappagh, two teams who had impressive league campaigns, meet on Friday night in Newbridge. Cappagh won the Division 4 final against Robertstown, who are in the same group while ever-improving Athgarvan finished fifth in Division 3 and will fancy their chances of a run at the title.

Ardclough, who finished bottom of Division 4, face Rathcoffey on Saturday in Manguard Park with Ballykelly and Robertstown following that one.

GROUP A FIXTURES

KILDANGAN v KILL (Friday 7.30pm, Manguard Park Pitch 1)

BALLYMORE EUSTACE v GRANGENOLVIN (Saturday 2pm, Cedral St Conleth’s Park)

GROUP B FIXTURES

ATHGARVAN v CAPPAGH (Friday 7.30pm, Cedral St Conleth’s Park)

ARDCLOUGH v RATHCOFFEY (Saturday 2pm, Manguard Park Pitch 1)

BALLYKELLY v ROBERTSTOWN (Saturday 3.30pm, Manguard Park Pitch 1)