Cracker of a final that’s too hard to call

Pádraig Pearses’ form or St. Brigid’s potential? Which is the greater?

It is a super senior football final to be looking forward to. It reminds me in many ways of the build-up to this year's All-Ireland decider. Kerry and Donegal seemed very evenly matched. I felt Donegal were the more likely to perform on the day, but also that if Kerry hit their peak, they would win as their ceiling was higher.

For Donegal, read Pearses and for Kerry, Brigid’s. The Kiltoom-based side are favourites but it’s not at all hard to make a strong argument in favour of Pearses.

Let’s look at Brigid’s first. It’s the sheer quality of personnel which jumps off the page. The level of strength-in-depth in their panel is as good as it has been at any club in the county in recent memory.

Take the O’Rourke Cup this year. Brigid’s topped the table comfortably. Then, to add to that team, they were able to welcome back nine players from county duty. Yes, nine! Imagine having the best league team in the county and then adding the likes of Brian Stack, Ben O’Carroll and Conor Hand plus six other county-level players to the mix.

That leaves you with a ridiculously impressive starting line-up. It’s no wonder that there would be many around the country who reckon Brigids to be among the favourites for the All-Ireland club title.

And wait, there’s more. As if that wasn’t enough, the club had the remarkable good fortune that the Roscommon goalkeeper — one of the best in the country — moved into their parish. The transfer of Conor Carroll to the pre-championship favourites could be seen as the final piece of the jigsaw. I think he’s a top-quality player and his influence so far on their championship has been very positive.

To round off the point on the strength of the St. Brigid’s teamsheet, their “non-county” players are serious operators as well. Any team around the country would be delighted to have a Paul McGrath or a Ciarán Sugrue in their ranks.

Yet for all the star names and undoubted potential, they haven’t clicked yet. They could be timing it perfectly and ready to explode into action on county final Sunday, but that lack of form coming into it must be a concern for them.

If you had to pick one team to beat them, it would be Pearses. The defending champions have form, in that they beat Brigid’s last year, and form in that they’ve been comfortably the best team in the knockout stages of the championship thus far.

They have plenty of weapons with which to hurt Brigid’s. Their inside line of Colleran, Darcy and Carey each offer different and very potent threats. Crucially, they’re all great kickers and will be very happy to loop into scoring positions around the arc as Brigid’s try to crowd the defence.

Will Pearses be able to get enough ball into them to win the game? Probably. Their middle eight has savage mobility. This midfield battle will be massively important — you'd have to think that whichever team gets on top here will generate the 20 or so points it’ll take to win.

Pearses’ athleticism in this sector will be right up there with Brigid’s. They often go long on their kickouts to Conor Ryan, while mopping up breaking ball is one of their biggest strengths. Brigid’s probably have a better spread of big ball-winners across the middle with Eddie Nolan, Shane Cunnane, Ruaidhrí Fallon and Brian Stack. Pearses will be happy if it turns into a battle of the breaking ball.

They have another trump card — Pearses keeper Paul Whelan has been the best this championship at getting short kickouts away. While most teams are avoiding the risky short or mid-range ones, Pearses are the one team who seem to consistently be able to win a good few of these each game.

While Brigid’s have a seriously strong line-up, one could argue that Pearses still have plenty of individuals who could cause them problems. I’ve been very impressed with Conor Lohan. Mark Richardson has come into form at the right time with some great man-marking performances. Jack Tumulty is flying it at wing-forward.

And, above all, they’re in the habit of winning. They’ll surely bristle at the thought that even as reigning champions they’re going into this as underdogs.

Whoever comes out on top, I bet we’re in for a cracker.

STROKESTOWN PREVAIL

The results in the intermediate and Junior A finals went along expected lines.

All year long, Croan’s were the obvious favourites to bounce back out of the Junior A ranks and you could see in the final that they were a team used to playing at a higher level than Ballinameen.

The intermediate final wasn’t as straightforward. On my way to the game, I feared we could be in for a one-sided affair with Strokestown winning comfortably. It was anything but.

Éire Óg are the nearly men of the Roscommon Intermediate Football Championship. They’re a bit like Mayo in the All-Ireland finals they’ve lost in the last while. They’ve never been favourites for any of them. In reality, you’d have to say they’ve performed extremely well to get back to the final repeatedly.

In many ways, they performed brilliantly on Sunday. They had several players who put in outstanding showings. Yet they couldn’t get the job done.

The obvious statistic to point at is the wide count. I had Éire Óg down for 12 wides, compared to just one for Strokestown. That tells its own, accurate (or not) story.

Aside from profligacy in shooting for points, which was at its worst in the opening half, there were also two key moments that went the wrong way for them.

Éire Óg came out firing at the start of the second half and quickly ate into the Strokestown lead. Brian Greene had a really good game after coming on in the first half, and he hit a super double to leave just two in it. Immediately after, Éire Óg turned over a Strokestown short kickout and sent Conor Cox through on goal.

He elected to fist a safe point, but I reckon the opportunity was there for him to bury it to the roof of the net. It would have been a massive score for the Loughglynn, Lisacul and Gorthaganny men. 

As it was, Strokestown weren’t long in responding with a ruthlessly efficient goal from Keith Murphy after a long kickout.

It felt like that was that, but, to their credit, Éire Óg rallied once more. At four points down with a few minutes remaining, Cox again was involved as he blasted a 13-metre free to the net. Unfortunately, for them, it was called back to be retaken by referee Mark Grehan.

In a game of fine margins, they are surely thinking, “what if” this week.

Enda Crawley at centre-back was superb for them. He had two bad wides in the first half when he should have passed or at least carried the ball closer to goal, but that didn’t perturb him at all.

He kept coming back, making big plays, making things happen for his team. For me, he was the clearest candidate for the Man of the Match selection.

Jamesie Greene had a super game in midfield, while Conor Cox’s accuracy was, once again, outstanding.

For the winners, Séan Mullooly was excellent in the first half, in particular. What a loss that man has been for our county team in the last few years.

Colm Neary had some brilliant moments for them too. He’s a real Rolls Royce of a defender, although he played the first half in midfield. Keith Murphy’s impacts from full-forward were few but very fruitful. He hit a beauty of a double early on before his all-important goal in the second half — a superb finish to the bottom corner.

Colin Compton got the official Man of the Match award, and I think it’s fair to say he was at least Strokestown’s best performer. His positioning at wing-back worked a treat. He’s not a natural defender, of course, but it’s very hard to stop him when he attacks from further back the field.

Éire Óg’s man-marking efforts would have been focussed on denying space to the likes of Diarmuid McGann and Shane McGinley, but it’s very hard to then get tight to someone like Compton arriving late to attacks. He kicked a couple of super second-half points, at crucial times, which not many wing-backs would get.

Strokestown, unusually, may well feel that they haven’t peaked yet at all and still managed to win the title. That augurs well, you would hope, for a good tilt at the Connacht Intermediate Championship.