Gloves are off ahead of second round action
Mark Healy's return boosted Roscommon Gaels during their opening round victory against Castlerea St. Kevin's. Can the Gaels make it two wins from two against Oran this (Friday) evening? Picture: Bernie O'Farrell
The window for teams that lost their opening round games to get their championship campaigns back on track is narrowing. For the teams that garnered some early momentum, however, next weekend’s second round of games in the senior and intermediate football championships can’t come quickly enough. IAN COONEY previews the fare on offer...
Whatever about losing to Roscommon Gaels, Tulsk upstaging Oran made things even worse in Group A for Castlerea St. Kevin’s.
It means that last year’s intermediate champions will have to visit the lion’s den against a side that will be buzzing following Kieran Donoghue’s last-gasp winning goal against Oran.
Tulsk’s ability to get three-pointers against Oran was their trump card. Castlerea’s defence was miserly in last year’s intermediate championship, but they found the going much tougher against Roscommon Gaels.
Getting the likes of Shane Keenan and Darren McDermott back on the field will be crucial for manager Dara Bruen.
Meanwhile, Tulsk will be buoyant and will see this as a brilliant opportunity to reach the knockout stages. With Dylan Gaughan, Thomas O'Rourke and Tadhg O’Rourke steering the ship, they have the wind in their sails.
Oran had high hopes of doing well coming into this championship, but suddenly they find themselves in a deep hole.
The last thing they probably need right now is a visit to their neighbours, Roscommon Gaels.
Or maybe Oran will look at things another way. For the past two seasons, expectation has accompanied them into this fixture, and they haven’t managed to seal the deal.
On Friday evening, it will take a brave pundit to put their head on the block and predict that they’ll resurrect their championship ambitions, although players like Darragh Walsh, Ciarán Lawless, Paul Kenny and Cormac Regan will do everything to defy the odds.
Roscommon Gaels, by virtue of their impressive second-half showing against Castlerea, are in the box seat in the group. Peter Gillooly, Mark Healy and Mark Purcell are going well, but there’s more to come from Senan Lambe and Cian Connolly. Scott Oates and John McManus have yet to come back into the mix.
In other words, it’s hard to see Roscommon Gaels slipping up.
A first look at Western Gaels against a Glaveys side that were steamrolled by the St. Brigid’s juggernaut in the opening round.
But Glaveys were never going to be judged on how they fared against the reigning county and provincial club champions. For Iain Daly’s side, the real work starts now.
With a healthy intercounty contingent of Conor Hussey, Dylan Ruane, Cathal Heneghan and Andy Glennon alongside a cohort of young players equipped with plenty of quality, this is Glaveys’ county final.
On their home patch, Western Gaels will fancy their chances but their strength-in-depth remains an issue. How many more times can their seasoned warriors keep going back to the well?
Glaveys get a hesitant nod.
It’s St. Faithleach’s turn to draw the short straw this weekend.
With a game under their belt, which did nothing to dispel the strong favourtism associated with Anthony Cunningham’s charges, Brigid’s will be odds-on to book their place in the knockout stages.
Any team with Diarmuid Murtagh leading their forward line has to be respected, but the sheer volume of quality within Brigid’s ranks makes them so good to watch.
Sixteen out of 17 scores from play against Glaveys, alongside nine different scorers and a level of control that few teams can match, another straightforward victory beckons.
It’s the least that will be demanded from a manager who won’t tolerate a drop in standards.
A potentially very tricky game for Pearses if they’ve spent the last ten days feeling sorry for themselves after their late collapse against Clann na nGael.
They did do much right against their southern neighbours, but their inability to take their chances killed them.
That’s something that can be put right on the training ground, so the hope from a Pearses perspective is that their conversion rate will be much higher on Friday evening.
Dominic’s introduced a lot of new faces against Boyle, but given that last year’s beaten finalists were missing some familiar faces, manager Enda Nugent will still feel that a two-point defeat was an opportunity lost.
But Dominic’s won’t fear Pearses, having put them to the pin of their collars in Woodmount in Round Three last season.
Eoin McCormack and Keith Doyle can secure plenty of ball around the middle of the field. Whether an inexperienced forward line can convert that possession into scores will be the key.
Probably the game of the weekend and a repeat of last year’s quarter-final, which Boyle won pulling up.
Despite their absentees, Cian Smith’s side will be quietly confident of repeating the trick against a Clann side that rose from the ashes to get the better of Pearses in the opening round.
While it was a famous win, the Clann management of Pat Fallon, Seán Conlon and Eamon Harney are in the game long enough to acknowledge that their team used their “get of out of jail” card, and an improvement will be required on Saturday evening.
Cathal McKeon was a real find for Boyle on his championship debut against St. Dominic’s. The problem for Boyle is that he’ll be a marked man this weekend.
A draw is a distinct possibility, but a better, more consistent showing from Clann might just about swing things their way.
Hard to see an upset here between two teams on very different trajectories.
While Elphin will see themselves as championship contenders, Kilbride’s unsustainable turnover of players looks likely to make this championship a hard slog.
Ryan Dowling and Albert Looby will take the game to their hosts, but this contest will, most likely, be about ascertaining if Elphin can marry their defensive stability with an ability to get the 14 or 15 scores they’ll need to be championship contenders.
In trying to achieve that goal, Saturday represents an ideal opportunity to test those waters.
A great chance for Shannon Gaels to confirm their place in the knockout stages against a Pádraig Pearses side shorn of the experience and quality they paraded last year.
Matthew Bourke, Evan Corcoran and Cian Harmon were to the fore last time out and, on their home patch, will be expected to deliver big games once more.
Pearses couldn’t penetrate Elphin’s defence in the first round, and while they should find scores easier to come by here, their long trip north is destined to be unfruitful.
Having lost out to Creggs, St. Croan’s will have to pull a rabbit from the hat in their next two games. On their home pitch, this looks like the best opportunity of doing so.
It won’t be pretty, but a positive result will be the only currency in town for both sides.
Croan’s are missing players, but they still had enough quality to see off Creggs. That they didn’t should be a huge cause for concern for Malachy Gately and his management.
Fuerty showed more appetite for the battle against Éire Óg, and get a tentative vote to get their campaign back on track.
With Darren Gately and Ronan Dowd to the fore in the opening round, Creggs will travel to James Timothy Park with plenty of hope and ambition on Saturday evening.
The trouble is that they’re facing a home side that don’t appear to have lost any of their competitive instincts, despite losing the last two finals.
In Liam Creaton’s absence, someone needed to help Conor Cox shoulder the scoring opportunity, and Brian Greene did just that against Fuerty.
Further back the field, Éire Óg look solid, and that overall package should be too much for Creggs.
Fresh from their comfortable win against St. Michael’s, championship favourites, Strokestown, meet neighbours Kilmore who won’t be short on confidence after taking St. Brigid’s scalp.
Despite taking advantage of a few decisions that went their way, there was a lot to like about the way Kilmore managed the closing stages of that victory in Kiltoom, but they’ll be facing a horse of a different colour next Saturday evening in terms of the firepower Strokestown have up front.
Kilmore will try and keep things tight for as long as they can, but Strokestown’s quality will eventually overwhelm them.
A huge game for both sides, with the loser facing a battle to stay afloat.
With Peter Domican, Niall McInerney and Gearóid Cunniffe in their ranks, Brigid’s have the personnel to make sure that their team-mates park the sense of injustice they felt against Kilmore.
St. Michael’s will want to recover quickly after last weekend’s defeat against Strokestown. Given their enthusiasm to make an impression at this level after claiming Junior A honours last season, they just might eke out the win they crave.
