Intriguing night of club championship action ahead

The big games come at you thick and fast at this time of year and on Friday evening we have three huge games to look forward to for varying reasons. One clubs will come off the field of play having qualified for the Coolrite JBFC Final and two will come off having secured their status for another twelve months. But on the other hand will be despair as a side crashes out at the semi-final stage while two more clubs have another fortnight to prepare for the dreaded relegation final.

The games are all ticket and are priced as follows.

Fairyhouse Steel SFC & Meade Farm IFC Relegation Quarter Finals

Adult – €10
Student/OAP – €5
U-16’s – Free of Charge when accompanied by an adult

Coolrite JBFC Semi-Final

Adult – €15
Student/OAP – €10
U-16’s – Free of Charge when accompanied by an adult

Tickets for all games can be purchased via the Meath GAA App which can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play Store.

It is very rare that a club will experience success of any description at adult level without the required foundations being in place at juvenile level and in Castletown this evening we have two sides in opposition who are desperately seeking to escape the Junior B grade. Two clubs operating off relatively low numbers, both have been making huge strides at underage level in recent times and have competed at a good level in Minor on their own. The fruits of this have been clear for all to see with ‘The Wood winning a Division 4 Championship two years ago while last year when out on their own, Slane went on an odyssey through the divisions before ending up competing admirably in Division 2 of the Championship.

It isn’t all rosy in the garden though for this evening’s protagonists with both sides looking likely to be short key forwards for this season defining encounter. Veteran marksman Stephen Kiernan doesn’t make the starting XV for Kilmainhamwood while for Slane, Matt Tully misses out on the panel altogether through suspension. Both losses could have a seismic impact on their teams.

It is said that every club has a favourite ground and if this is true then Castletown must be high up on the list for Slane. They played there on many occasions in 2022 both at adult and juvenile and always seemed to come away with success including victory over Drumconrath at this stage of the JBFC. It has already been a good year for the Boynesiders with a Premier Championship and League title brought home in the space of a week but after losing out in last years final, there is a sense of unfinished business for the side managed by Des Teeling.

The likes of Eanna Mooney and Podge McGowan are capable of racking up match winning tallies in the forwards while Matthew Kealy is a free taker of prodigious ability. Peter Martyn and Francis Marry form a formidable midfield partnership while the half back line of the ageless Eoin Feely, Kyle Tallon and Jim Marry is very solid.

Former Syddan manager Thomas Duffy is the man with the Bainisteoir bib for Kilmainhamwood and he also has an excellent half back line at his disposal. Centre back Niall Bennett is a Leinster Minor Championship winner from 2018 and he is flanked by 2022 Meath Minor Darragh Smith and Ciaran Boyle. Behind them Brian Cassidy is a sticky corner back who will relish the opportunity to pick up either Mooney or McGowan while some of the leading lights in the forward line are Michael Shankey, Killian Russell and the young gun slinger Rian Stafford.

Kilmainhamwood topped Group A of the Championship with five wins from five games while in Group B, Slane finished second with three wins from four games before comfortably accounting for the challenge of St. Mary’s in last weekends quarter final. Come the final whistle tonight will we be looking forward to a North Meath decider in a fortnights time with Moynalty already safely through or will Slane have an opportunity to atone for the loss twelve months ago?

Gaels around Dunboyne must be wondering how they have found themselves in a Relegation semi-final of the Fairyhouse Steel Senior Football Championship. An opening weekend victory over Seneschalstown seemed to set them up nicely for the remainder of the group stage and in Round 2 they led Simonstown with the clock in the red at the end of the game. They conspired to lose that game when conceding 1-02 at the death and then lightning struck twice two weeks later in Summerhill as Trim conjured up a goal with the last kick of the game to thwart Dunboyne. This pitted them into a Relegation quarter final against a struggling Gaeil Colmcille. Their travails appeared to be ending when leading the Kells outfit by eight points early in the second half but somehow Gaeil Colmcille found a way back into the game and forced it to extra-time with a 1-01 salvo in stoppage time securing the draw and then the Gaeils went on to claim victory.

This has pitched Dunboyne into a game where literally anything could happen as is the nature of relegation semi-finals. The club has been hit very hard in recent years with emigration while the production lines coming through haven’t been operating at the usual levels, three years ago their Minors were competing in Division 3 which would normally be unheard of.

Having missed out on the group stage of the competition when in America, Michael Murphy looks set to miss out on this match through suspension although there was an appeal hearing during the week, the results of which are unknown at the time of writing. Sean Ryan is another who spent the summer abroad and he has strengthened the defence since his return and he along with Shane McEntee and Conor Doran will be key figures in the Dunboyne defence.

Jack Kinlough at midfield is a young player with massive potential while up front the twin threats of Cathal Lacey and Donal Lenihan will need very big games if Dunboyne are to pull through.

Debate still rages over whether or not a last gasp Cillian O’Sullivan went just inside the upright or not in their quarter final loss to Curraha but with neither HawkEye or VAR in operation in Dunshaughlin, the match officials decision was final and instead of having extra-time to get ready for, Moynalvey had two more weeks to prepare for their latest relegation battle.

Positional switches before the throw in have been a feature of Moynalvey games to date in the Championship with numbers often bearing little or no resemblance to where players line out on the field of play and to that extent, while Cillian O’Sullivan is named at left half back, it would be a surprise to see the ace attacker line out anywhere other than in the forward line. Should that move come to fruition, he will be ably assisted by David McLoughlin who missed out on the Curraha game and Craig Gilsenan. His county colleague Padraic Harnan has been in superb form of late around midfield while Vinny Walsh is one of the brighter young talents coming through for the club.

27-07-23, SFC at Skryne GAA
Ratoath v Moynalvey
Conor McGill (Ratoath) and Vinny Walsh (Moynalvey)
Photo: David Mullen/www.cyberimages.net

Under their new LED Floodlights in Paddy O’Brien Park, Navan O’Mahonys play host to the second relegation semi-final this evening, this one in the Meade Farm Intermediate Football Championship where Dunderry and Nobber meet in the battle to avoid the drop to the Junior ranks for 2024.

Both sides have had something of an annus horribilis this year and find themselves scrapping for survival only twelve months after competing in the semi-finals of the Championship and both are trying to play a trump card to survive.

In the case of Dunderry, a new manager in the shape of club legend Kevin Dowd has come in and he is trying to get a kick out of the panel. Now in his third game in charge, if there is to be an improvement then it will need to be seen but he has plenty of firepower in the inside forward line with Stephen Coogan and Paddy Kennelly both potential match winners.

The Nobber wildcard is something of an even bigger surprise with another club legend being sprung in their efforts to survive. thirty-nine year old Brian Farrell who last featured for his club in the Championship when they won the Intermediate Football Championship Final against Trim four years ago although he did see game time in a League match earlier this year. Named on the bench, it is unlikely the ace attacker will be left warming it for the duration of the hour if Nobber are in need of scores.