Danske Bank MacRory Cup semi-finals
St Patrick’s, Dungannon v Holy Trinity, Cookstown (Saturday, Carrickmore, 11.30am)
Omagh CBS v Patrician, Carrickmacross (Saturday, Monaghan Harps, 2pm)
A PLACE in the Danske Bank MacRory Cup final is the prize at stake at Carrickmore when Tyrone neighbours St Patrick’s, Dungannon and Holy Trinity, Cookstown go head to head in an eagerly awaited encounter.
This will be the first time that the two schools will have met in the knock-out stages of the competition and it is sure to be keenly contested with both sides from the east of the county containing players from the same clubs.
It should also be interesting on the line with All-Ireland senior football winners Ciaran Gourley, Colin Holmes, Peter Canavan and Kieran McGeary all involved.
The sides met in the opening game of the group stages in Eglish with the Academy coming out on top but that will result will have no bearing on this encounter.
Holy Trinity are bidding to make it to back-to-back deciders and they will take a lot of confidence from the way that they overcame St Patrick’s, Maghera last day out.
With the game in injury-time they trailed by three points but a Michael McElhatton goal brought them level before Ryan Quinn kicked the priceless winner.
That duo will be pivotal in their attack here again alongside the Devlin brothers – Conan and Cormac – the latter having lined out with the Academy throughout his school career until this year.
At midfield, All-Ireland U20 winner Ruairi McHugh will hope to give his side the edge, while in defence they will be looking for big displays from the likes of Brian Hampsey, Luke Cullen and Shea McCann.
The last time that the Academy reached the decider was in 2015 and it was six years prior to that that they won the last of their five titles.
Their league form was patchy but they have hit the ground running since Christmas with wins over St Michael’s, Enniskillen and St Macartan’s, Monaghan, scoring an impressive 5-25 in the process.
Ronan Cassidy was in superb form last weekend, scoring 2-7 against St Macartan’s and alongside Finn Spence and Sean Hughes will ask questions of the Holy Trinity defence.
Matthew Quinn is also a key player for the Academy and while he will wear number 14 he is likely to appear all over the field.
Sheehan Fay will give Dungannon a physical presence in the middle of the park, while Michael Carty, Liam Traynor and Ben Cullen will try and curb the Cookstown attack.
A close contest is on the cards and extra-time can’t be ruled out.
THE second semi-final at Gavan Duffy Park in Monaghan brings together two sides with contrasting history in the competition but it certainly is all to play for despite the novel pairing.
While Omagh CBS are bidding to make it through to their 11th decider, Patrician, Carrickmacross find themselves only 60 minutes away from a first-ever appearance in the final.
The Monaghan lads are worthy semi-finalists as they have built on last season’s success when they were MacLarnon Cup champions.
In their campaign to date they have certainly made people sit up and take notice.
They overcame fellow Monaghan side Our Lady’s, Castleblayney in the play-offs on a 2-10 to 0-9 scoreline before knocking out holders St Mary’s, Magherafelt in the quarter-final.
In that encounter they had to show fighting spirit and bucketloads of character to hit the last three points to force extra-time before they got the decisive goal to edge it 2-5 to 1-7.
They showed in that game that they relish the underdog tag, a role that they will find themselves in here again.
Niall Meehan and Packie Doogan man the two central positions in defence, while Darragh Mee will aim to give them a platform at midfield.
Up front they have players like Kian Duffy, Finn Carolan, Matthew Carolan and James Maguire who are all capable of getting scores.
Omagh are unbeaten this season to date and are fancied to make it through to an all-Tyrone final.
They topped their group with the minimum of fuss to gain an automatic quarter-final spot, where they were put to the pin of their collar by St Colman’s.
The Newry school were two points up with six minutes left to play but Omagh dug deep to land the last four scores of the game to go through on a 0-11 to 0-9 scoreline and no doubt that stiff test will stand to them.
Callum Daly is a strong presence for them at centre half-back, with Thomas Haigney and Caolan Donnelly other key defenders, while Eoin Donaghy will strive to win his fair share of possession in the midfield engine room.
It’s up front, though, were Omagh may hold the aces with attackers of the calibre of Eoin McElholm, Ruairi McCullagh, Liam Óg Mossey and Conor Owens and they can get enough scores to propel their school through to the final.
