Sport

Stewartstown out to spring a surprise against Clifford's Fossa

Stewartstown Harps huddle as joint manager Blake Smyth speaks following their win over Letterkenny Gaels during the Ulster Club Junior Football Championship semi final match played at Owenbeg on Sunday 20th November 2022. Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Stewartstown Harps huddle as joint manager Blake Smyth speaks following their win over Letterkenny Gaels during the Ulster Club Junior Football Championship semi final match played at Owenbeg on Sunday 20th November 2022. Picture Margaret McLaughlin Stewartstown Harps huddle as joint manager Blake Smyth speaks following their win over Letterkenny Gaels during the Ulster Club Junior Football Championship semi final match played at Owenbeg on Sunday 20th November 2022. Picture Margaret McLaughlin

AIB All-Ireland Club Junior Football Championship final: Stewartstown Harps (Tyrone) v Fossa (Kerry) (tomorrow, Croke Park, 1.30pm)

Another chapter of the intriguing and always interesting Kerry-Tyrone saga will be written in Croke Park this weekend and it’s Stewartstown and Fossa who get the ball rolling on Sunday.

It’s the curtain raiser to Galbally’s clash with Rathmore in the All-Ireland Intermediate Club final, but the main attraction will likely be in the first game. Kerry superstar David Clifford will be decked out in the red and white of Fossa, along with his brother Paudie, and the pair, as you’d expect, will attract not only Stewartstown’s attention, but most of the crowds.

At Junior level, you can often tell a county player a mile away, but David Clifford is a different story all together. The post-match swarming of the current Player of the Year in Portlaoise after their semi-final victory is an indication of how high his stock is at the minute.

Whatever about the autographs and selfies after the match, Clifford delivers on the field. The younger of the siblings has hit 0-21 in three outings, including a personal haul of 0-10 in the Munster final.

He isn’t on his own up front however, and Paudie, the Fossa playmaker, knows where the goal posts are as well. Eamon O’Shea is another potential threat to the Stewartstown defence for a Fossa side that have posted 5-53 in three games.

So, the question for Blake Smith and Peter Armour, Stewartstown’s joint managers, is how do you stop David Clifford? Plenty of county teams haven’t come up with an answer to that one yet.

Once the ball is in his hands, you’ve already lost, so the Tyrone champs will likely hang most of their hopes on pressuring the ball further out the field and cutting off the supply to the four-time All-Star.

The Harps won’t be turning up to Jones’ Road just to make up the numbers of course, they’ll be going with a plan and with confidence that they can get the job done. And they’re fairly battle-hardened by this stage as well.

They came through penalties to capture the Ulster title, beating Drumlane 5-4, and prevailed in their All-Ireland semi-final against Clifden after extra time. And while the Clifford’s will command most of the headlines, Stewartstown certainly aren’t lacking when it comes to firepower.

Dan Lowe and Gareth Devlin are the joint top scorers in the Junior Club All-Ireland Championship. Lowe has recorded 4-16 (28) on their way to headquarters while veteran Devlin has chalked up 2-22 (28).

Devlin was a member of the Stewartstown team that reached the All-Ireland Junior final back in 2005, but lost to a Finuge side, another team hailing from the Kingdom, that included Kerry legends Paul Galvin and Eamon Fitzmaurice.

Devlin and crew will be hoping to right those wrongs and climb the famed steps of the Hogan Stand this weekend. They’re the underdogs, but that will matter little once the ball is in the air.

Expect fireworks, expect passion, but don’t expect much open, free-flowing football. Stewartstown’s best chance is to turn this into a real dogfight and as we’ve seen before, when Tyrone and Kerry sides clash, it’s usually the men from the Kingdom that blink first.

At both club and county level, there’s a ferocious tension between the two counties and it never fails to disappoint. This one will likely follow that trend, but for Stewartstown, the bookies are rarely wrong, and they’ll be up against it from the start. Like all Tyrone teams, they’re going to Croke Park to win, and they have the potential to upset the odds.