ONE of the Down heavyweights Kilcoo or Burren will hit the canvas in tonight’s Morgan Fuels Down SFC quarter-final (Pairc Esler, 7.30pm), while the victor will be clear favourites to lift the Frank O’Hare Cup.
It was a clash of the titans when the sides met in the opening round, which required extra-time and a late Donal O’Hare goal to give Burren a 2-13 to 2-10 lead.
Burren manager Sean Ward expects another titanic battle but believes revenge will not play a part in Kilcoo’s preparation.
“I don’t think anyone needs help with motivation for a club championship quarter-final no matter who it is,” said Ward.
“There’ll be no quarter asked and no quarter given.
“We would be clasping at straws if we were concerned that [revenge] is on their mind. All we will be trying to do is to get our performance levels to where we know we can reach and we can’t really do any more than that. If you do that then you’ll either be good enough or you’ll not.”
Both teams are expected to have no injury concerns but Kilcoo are boosted with the return of Down’s Paul Devlin, who spent the summer in America. Devlin offers creativity going forward and is deadly accurate from the placed ball.
Athletic brothers Jerome and Ryan Johnston, Darragh O’Hanlon and Conor Laverty will again be players capable of inflicting damage on Burren, while the St Mary’s side has brought through a number of impressive young players to assist the usually reliable Kevin McKernan, Donal O’Hare and Sean Murdoch. Tadgh Murdoch, Ryan Trainor and Mark McKay are all players who won at U21 Ulster Championship level when Ward was their coach.
While Burren v Kilcoo is undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend, the undercard to Saturday’s game at Pairc Esler is another intriguing tie between last year’s Ulster intermediate champions Warrenpoint and Castlewellan (6pm).
Castlewellan are coming good at the right time of the season and with Aidan and Rory Burns in free-scoring form and Liam McKibben and Kevin Duffin impressing throughout the championship, they will fancy their chances on Saturday.
Warrenpoint won’t be found wanting but they need players such as Ciaran McCartan, brothers Ryan and John Boyle and sharp-shooter Ross McGarry to deliver if they are to reach the semi-finals.
On Sunday the action switches to Castlewellan where Mayobridge take on surprise package Liatroim, (6.15pm) who dumped Bryansford out of the championship last week.
Mayobridge suffered defeat in the league following their last championship win over Saval and they will be wary of a Liatroim side that has given former Down star Laim Doyle a new lease of life, as he plays a roaming role around the half forwards.
Another former Down star Benny Coulter is desperate to win silverware with the Mayobridge, but they will need Kevin O’Rourke, Conleth O’Hare and Conor Garvey to be focused to finish the job against Laitroim.
The remaining quarter-final takes place on Monday night at Pairc Esler, where Rostrevor and Ballyholland go head-to-head in what should be an interesting clash (8.15pm).
Rostrevor were relegated from division one at the start of the month, while Ballyholland are almost certain of a top-three finish.
Both Rostrevor and Ballyholland needed to score injury-time winners against Clonduff and there is nothing to suggest anything other than Monday’s contest also going down to the wire.
