Masita Hogan Cup semi-final: St Mary’s, Magherafelt (Derry) v St Peter’s (Wexford)
(Wednesday, Gaelic Grounds, Drogheda, 2pm)
WELL, how do you calm down and re-focus a team that, just five days ago, won the school its first ever Danske Bank MacRory Cup?
That could well prove to be as difficult a task for Kevin Brady, John McElhome, Ronan Devlin and the rest of the backroom staff, as was their journey through the shark-infested waters of the knock-out stages of the MacRory Cup.
But a five-match journey from the end of January ended last Friday with captain Declan Cassidy bringing the MacRory Cup back to St Mary’s, Magherafelt.
There wasn’t much schoolwork done since that 0-19 to 0-13 breakthrough in the Athletic Grounds, and I doubt if the boys got much football work done either.
Meanwhile, St Peter’s College, Wexford have been waiting in the wings since January 27 when they won their first Leinster title in a quarter-of-a-century with a 2-13 to 0-7 win over Moate CS.
Although man-of-the-match Barry O’Connor, son of Wexford All-Ireland hurler George, and Cathal Devereux only hit the net in the last few minutes for St Peter’s, the Wexford school was in control for the whole of the game with the Moate goalie almost single-handedly making a game of it.
Devereux scored 1-5 in the final, O’Connor grabbing 1-4 and both will be a threat to the new MacRory champions who go into the game knowing nothing about the opposition.
“That is one of the difficulties of playing the MacRory Cup final on St Patrick’s Day when all the other provincial champions are already known,” said Kevin Brady on Sunday evening.
“Your opponents can come up to Armagh and watch you and then analyse you again with the live TV coverage. We, on the other hand, could not afford to look beyond Friday.”
“Hopefully, however, we can bring our MacRory final form through to the semi-final.”
It’s a short turnaround, but St Mary’s really performed in Armagh, the culmination of steady improvement through each of their five games.
Captain Declan Cassidy was really impressive in breaking out of defence to set up attacks. Conall Devlin also broke through on several occasions and his point from the corner before half-time was a top class finish.
The pace of Adam Connolly and Simon McErlean also opened pathways to deliver the ball to impressive full-forward Kevin Small, who picked off five points from play.
Small is the go-to man for Magherafelt and, despite St Colman’s posting a marker and a cover man on the Creggan forward, he still got his hands on ball coming in high.
St Peter’s, by all accounts are a fairly big and physical outfit and will pose a slightly different problem than St Colman’s did in Armagh.
They won the Leinster league title a couple of weeks ago with a 3-13 to 0-9 win over Patrician Newbridge. They have momentum, but also have had rest and time to analyse their opponents.
St Mary’s will find it very difficult to rise to the standards they set in the MacRory Cup final.
That performance showed that they have the players and the talent to go further, but the short turnaround leaves them vulnerable.
This game may mentally test them more than any other to date.
Masita All-Ireland Paddy Drummond Cup semi-final
St Ciaran’s Ballygawley v St Mary’s Carlow (Wednesday, the Downs, Westmeath, 1pm)
NEITHER St Mary’s, Carlow nor St Ciaran’s, Ballygawley have had much time to enjoy their latest provincial successes.
St Mary’s required extra-time last Thursday before they defeated Dublin’s Clonkeen College 2-14 to 1-9 in the Leinster final, while less than 24 hours later St Ciaran’s clinched a maiden Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup title, pulling away at the end of high-scoring game in the Athletic Grounds to win by 1-19 to 2-10 against Our Lady’s, Castleblayney.
St Ciaran’s management, I’m sure, was delighted to lift the MacLarnon Cup for the first time, but there were aspects of the game that they would like to improve ahead of this semi-final.
While taking into account how slippery James Wilson is, the defence allowed him a bit too much space during the opening half – and Our Lady’s punished that slackness, despite St Ciaran’s dominating possession during the same period.
The concession of a goal in the first minute would be another thing to avoid, as is the inclination for the defence to push beyond midfield when the team is doing well.
The same thing happened in the semi-final against Ballymena and almost brought the mid-Antrim side back into the game.
However, to their credit Ballygawley have been able to drag themselves back from the brink because they have fast, handy and accurate forwards.
Darragh Canavan posted six points in the final and really caught the eye, but so too did Caoimhin O’Donnell and Pascal Donaghy, something that was a lot clearer in the semi-final, when Canavan was fairly well shackled and the other pair fired over nine points between them.
In general, there can be little complaint about St Ciaran’s going forward with a combined return of 1-36 from the last two games, impressive point-taking by any standards.
Carlow also have been doing fairly well up front, with corner-forwards Gavin Healy and Evan Lowry the go-to players. Both have an eye for goals, and that will require extra vigilance from Marc Lennon and James Murray.
Carlow’s midfield diamond of Brian Coady, Éire Óg pair Jordan Morrissey and Ross Dunphy and Robert Browne are the engine-room of the team, but they will get their fill of it from Cathair Quinn, Joseph Oguz, Daniel Millar and Cormaic Donnelly and the clean ball that comes out of this area into the respective forward lines will determine the outcome of the game.
The deliveries, invariably to Canavan, in the Athletic Grounds set up most of St Ciaran’s 19 points but the Carlow management, who watched the MacLarnon final, will have pinpointed the need to close out quality ball from this area of the pitch.
Having seen their opponents will give the Carlow management an advantage in how to set their team up, but really neither team have had much time to fine-tune things.
If Ballygawley rediscover their form over the last two games, perhaps with a little less cavalier play from their half-back line, then the south Tyrone school should be planning ahead for the final in Croke Park on Saturday week against Ballinrobe from Mayo who defeated Coachford College from Cork in the first semi-final on Saturday last.
