Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools (Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan Cup) semi-final: Carndonagh CS (Donegal) v St Declan’s, Kilmacthomas (Waterford) [today, Abbottstown, 2pm]
THE new Danske Bank Markey Cup champions Carndonagh Community School and their All-Ireland semi-final opponents St Declan’s, Kilmacthomas have a few things in common.
Both are first time champions in their respective competitions, while both had to come behind at the break to beat their opponents in the provincial final.
Carndonagh were involved in a Donegal derby with St Columba’s, Stranorlar in Letterkenny last Wednesday and were 1-7 to 1-4 down at the break before taking the lead in the 54th minute and securing a 3-8 to 1-10 win.
A few weeks earlier, Kilmacthomas were 1-5 to 0-2 down at the break against Ennistymon, but eked out a 2-7 to 1-8 victory.
The difference between the performances was that Kilmacthomas had played with the aid of a strong breeze during the first half and did all their work against it – the opposite to Carndonagh, who had the assistance of the breeze while working their way back into contention.
Kilmacthomas, who beat another Clare school, Rice College Ennis, in the Munster semi-final are therefore a difficult team to work out, but Carndonagh will certainly want to keep tabs on James Power, Anthony Lonergan and Tom Walsh. They played their best football after Lonergan dropped back as sweeper and moved the ball quickly.
That Markey final challenge from Stranorlar was the only time that Carndonagh trailed a team for any significant period of time during a match, having won their other knock-out game with score-lines of 5-19 and 1-18.
And it took them more than 20 minutes of the second half to reel in a three-point lead, mainly because their opponents closed up shop at the back.
The Waterford school also worked hard in defence – but not in the first half. Early on they were quite open and a team like Carndonagh, with plenty of attacking flair could easily get into a winning position – and not fold as Ennistymon seemed to do in the Munster final.
Conor O’Donnell, Seamus and Daniel Houghton, Lorcán Bradley and Oisin Hessien are just some of the players that can attack and register key scores, not to mention Johnny Toye, who made a huge impact when coming in as a second half substitute in the Markey Cup final.
What happens in this semi-final could be dictated by which Kilmacthomas team turns up – the one that was so dominant in Munster, but failed to show up in the opening half of the final, or the team that came back from the brink in that same final.
Carndonagh must have a good chance of progress though.
