MFC Semi-Final Preview
O’Donovan Rossa v Creggan Kickhams
Glenavy 1-15 pm
The first of the Antrim Minor Football Championship semi-finals are down for decision this Sunday when O’Donovan Rossa take on Kickham’s Creggan at Glenavy and it looks a difficult one to call. Two years ago Rossa strolled through the U16 League, having won the U14 and represented Antrim in the Feile, two years earlier.
At the start of the year they would have been fancied to go on and win the Minor League this year and would have been many peoples favourite for the Championship but it hasn’t quite worked out that way for the West Belfast side.
They started their league campaign well enough with big wins over Lamh Dearg and St. Gall’s and when they travelled to the Staffordstown Road in Round 3 and recorded a 14 point win over Creggan everything looked to be going to plan.
Tir na nOg and Sean Stinson’s were put to the sword in early May as the O’Donovan Rossa side continued to rack up big scores before they travelled out to Toome and suffered their first defeat against Erin’s Own at the end of June.
They lost again in their next outing at St. Mary’s Aghagallon but seemed to have returned to form when they travelled to St. Brigid’s and recorded a big win over the Musgrave Park side. A win over Glenavy suggested they had got over their mid-season wobbles but they lost again to All Saints Ballymena at Rossa Park, next time out.
Creggan recovered from that early season defeat to Rossa to put an excellent run together and it turned out to be the Kickham’s only defeat and on Saturday night they travelled to Ahoghill and defeated Sean Stinson’s to win the league title.
League form isn’t always a great gauge as we try to assess the potential of both sides for Sunday’s Championship encounter. The league itself threw up a lot of fixtures that weren’t fulfilled and just what strength Rossa fielded at in those defeats is not known.
Saturday night’s victory over Sean Stinson’s in a very competitive encounter will have done the Staffordstown Road side no harm in their Championship preparations and may stand to them on Sunday.
They came through a tough quarter-final against St. Brigid’s by four points and will be in confident form that they can reverse that league defeat against Rossa when the sides meet again on Sunday. Their team is backboned by several players who experienced success with St. Mary’s Magherafelt in this year’s MacRory Cup and will lead their challenge on Sunday.
Jamie McCann, Liam Quinn, Kealan McCann and Tiernan McAteer were all part of that St. Mary’s success while Dermot Carey, Killian Burke, Liam McCann and Diarmuid Mulholland are players who can lend considerable weight to Creggan’s bid for a place in the final.
Rossa will be hoping to rediscover that early season form that installed them as favourites for honours this season and will probably look to that win over Creggan in particular to boost their belief that they can win on Sunday.
Keeper, Michael Byrne has been a regular on the Rossa senior team all season while defenders Manus Smith and Tiernan Murphy were member of the Antrim Minor Hurling team. Matt McIvor and Jack Morris are likely to figure in defence with Morris the team captain. Eoghan McMemamin should anchor the side at mid-field while their main attacking threat could come from Dominic McEnhill and Michael Close
That early season defeat to Rossa in the league has been the only blemish on an otherwise unblemished season for the South West side and they will be keen to reverse that result while Rossa will take confidence from that result. Despite the 14 point margin of victory on that occasion I would expect this one to be much tighter with the team that wants it most prevailing and it could go either way.