Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup semi-final:Patrician High, Carrickmacross
v St Louis', Ballymena (Saturday, 12pm, St Paul’s, Lurgan); Danske Bank MacRory Cup semi-final: St Paul’s, Bessbrook v St Ronan’s, Lurgan (Saturday, 5pm, Athletic Grounds)
AT TIMES in their quarter-final games a fortnight ago, both St Louis', Ballymena and Patrician High, Carrickmacross looked on their way out of the MacLarnon Cup.
Indeed, Dunloy’s Allstar hurler Keelan Molloy rescued St Louis' with two very late points against St Eunan’s, Letterkenny to turn defeat into a single-point victory in a low-scoring game. By contrast, Patrician held a strong lead early in their game with St Mary’s CBS, but were caught by goals late in the second-half. With the game at 3-3 to 1-9 and the momentum with the Belfast side, David Garland won and pointed a free that gave them the foothold they needed to see out the game.
Garland, a current Colleges’ Allstar, is a big player for them, but they have five others who featured in last year’s disappointing defeat to neighbours Castleblayney in the final - Stephen Finnegan, Alan Kieran, Feargal Hanratty, Ross McDonald and Killian Hand, although Hand has been out injured since Christmas and only started light training last week. The school was impressive in winning the Rannafast final and players such as Kieran Slavin and Liam Óg Murray in defence and Sean Burns and Andrew Woods in attack are featuring well for this team.
St Louis' had their injury worries going into the quarter-final, with three key players out of the reckoning. The youngest of the three, Eoin Daly, came in for the last 20 minutes of the Letterkenny win and is in with a shout of a starting jersey against Carrickmacross. The other two, Michael O’Connell and Josh Henry, are still not fully fit and are not believed to be in manager Gearoid Adams’ plans to start.
Adams set them up defensively against St Eunan’s, relying on quick breaks to pick-off scores. They got the quick breaks from defence, but didn’t always make use of the chances, shooting six second-half wides and only two points. They will probably repeat the defensive format against Patrician, but will need to pick-off all their chances if they are to knock out the team many favoured at the start of the competition.
Although the favourites’ tag didn’t sit well with Patrician last time out, they survived that scare and are still very much the team to beat, with strong players in every line and speed up front. But St Louis' still have a decent chance of reaching their first decider in 18 years.
IT IS almost a century since the MacRory Cup had its origins in games involving St Patrick’s, Armagh. How ironic then that, when the first ever all-Armagh semi-final materialises, the college on Cathedral Hill is not invovled.
Of course, some of the players from south-west Antrim clubs in the St Ronan’s, Lurgan side and Burren’s Liam Kerr in the St Paul’s, Bessbrook forward-line might want to argue the 'all-Armagh' tag, but for all intents and purposes, the Orchard county is guaranteed a participant in the MacRory Cup final in their own Athletic Grounds on St Patrick’s Day.
The management teams in both schools will secretly be happy enough they have avoided the big-hitters in the other semi-final - but they will still have to deliver in the Athletic Grounds if they hope to return to the same stage in mid-March.
St Ronan’s have been a revelation since the knock-out stages kicked in. They didn’t look in great shape in the league in October/November, with only a 0-7 to 0-6 win over Abbey CBS on the plus side of their account balance. They slumped to defeat in the other four games and these included a six-point defeat to Bessbrook and a seven-point defeat to St Colman’s, Newry.
After a surprise play-off victory over St Macartan’s, Monaghan, however, St Ronan’s avenged the 2-14 to 1-10 defeat by St Colman’s with a 1-13 to 1-10 win a fortnight ago. At the start of the second-half, St Ronan’s dropped four points behind, but they showed great character to haul themselves back from the brink with a series of points and then finish the Newry side off with a Kevin McAlinden goal.
They have matured into a good footballing side and have a number of players who are excelling on the big stage. Ryan Owens and Barry McCambridge have more than justified their selection as Colleges’ Allstars with terrific performances recently. No less significant have been the displays of the McConville cousins, Eunan Walsh and young Jack Lenehan.
It is doubtful if St Paul’s would have survived their first Armagh derby - with St Patrick’s in the play-off three weeks ago - had Jarlath Óg Burns not stepped on the gas. The Silverbridge midfielder, twice an Allstar, drove right through the centre of the St Patrick’s defence to create two goals and score two points.
Burns was less prominent in attack in Clones last Sunday, when they controlled the quarter-final with Enniskillen, but Liam Kerr and Shea Loye created and scored enough to see Bessbrook through. This pair can do a lot of damage and Lurgan will need to get their defensive match-ups right to keep them quiet.
When the quarter-final draw was made before Christmas, St Ronan’s were probably the least likely of the pair to be involved in the semi-finals. They are very much there on merit, however, and improving in each game.
Whoever wins this tie will be ranked outsiders for the final. The pressure will come in this semi-final - familiarity, expectation and a big crowd gathering for the Armagh National league game that follows could all play a significant part in the biggest game any of these young men will have played. It simply could go either way.
