Morgan Fuels Down Senior Football Championship semi-final:
Ballyholland Harps v Castlewellan (Sunday, Páirc Esler, 7pm)
BALLYHOLLAND HARPS will be attempting to make history by reaching their first ever Down Senior Club Championship final when they take on Castlewellan on Sunday.
For a team such as Castlewellan, it has also been a long time since they last reached the last two. They lost to Mayobridge in 2001 and, 10 years before that, to Downpatrick, but more importantly they were back-to-back winners of the Frank O’Hare Cup in 1994 and '95.
Town are coming good at the right time as, having cantered past Clann na Banna 2-18 to 0-6, they lost 1-7 to 1-15 to Mayobridge but got back on track with convincing wins over Longstone (3-15 to 1-13) and CPN (0-19 to 2-6), where Castlewellan’s Aidan Burns kicked an incredible 0-12.
Ballyholland also suffered defeat, to CPN (0-10 to 1-8) in the opening game of the championship before bouncing back with wins over Annaclone (0-12 to 0-7), Clonduff (2-11 to 1-13) and most recently Rostrevor (0-10 to 1-5).
It is not Ballyholland’s style to blow teams out of the water. Manager Stephen Poacher has them playing measured and controlled football, where maintaining possession is paramount until an opportunity to score becomes available. This is in contrast to Castlewellan’s style, who under shrewd manager John Shorty Treanor, attack from deep at pace and with excellent support play. They like to line up their shooters before taking a shot.
Yet both sides are happy kicking long when they need to. Castlewellan’s Aidan Burns and Ballyholland’s Ronan Murtagh are well versed at the edge of the square, but neither team are over-reliant on one player.
Dead-ball expert Fintan McGreevy is expected back in Castlewellan’s squad, while Seán Dornan, Cahal Crilly and Liam McKibbon are useful in front of the posts.
Rory Burns and Conrad Corrigan will jostle for midfield possession with Ballyholland’s Joe Murphy and Niall McKevitt, while Robbie White and Keelan Haughey are steady defenders but also offer a threat for Ballyholland going forward. Teenager Tiarnan Rushe and young Patrick McAteer have also excelled up front for the Harps.
Murtagh and full-back Damien McCrink are the only Harps players to have featured in a senior championship semi-final and, only 12 months ago, a semi-final position was unthinkable as Ballyholland were facing relegation from Division One. So to reach a semi-final is a massive turnaround, but Ballyholland manager Stephen Poacher insists last year’s difficulties, where they had nine men missing through injury and immigration, has made this team even stronger.
“You take nine out of any team – be it Burren or Kilcoo – you will miss them,” said Poacher
“But having those men missing probably was a blessing in disguise because what happened was the guys that came in became mentally stronger, they managed to stay in Division One last season, winning five of their last six games – beating Kilcoo in last league game.”
And it is that battling quality that is seeing Ballyholland widely tipped to edge this contest, but only as long as Castlewellan’s championship pedigree is not permitted to shine through.
