Danske Bank Leonard Cup final
Monday 15th January 1pm at Allen Park 4G in Antrim
Cross and Passion Ballycastle v St Killian’s Garron Tower
Cross and Passion Ballycastle have been waiting fully eight weeks for this Danske Bank Leonard Cup final after seeing off competition favourites in the semi-final as scheduled in mid November.
However a combination of snow, the unavailability of pitches and pre-Christmas exams meant that the second semi-final involving St Killian’s Garron Tower and St Louis Ballymena didn’t take place until last Wednesday when the Tower rather easily powered past their opponents.
This age-group has been hard to call with St Killian’s comfortable winners against St Patrick’s Maghera in the final of the MacNamee Cup two seasons ago and then last season, they were beaten by both St Mary’s CBGS and Cross and Passion with St Mary’s then comfortably seeing off the north Antrim school in the Gallagher Cup decider in May.
That’s why the ease of Cross and Passion’s semi-final win over St Mary’s in November raised an eye-brow or two and it will be interesting to see if they can re-discover that form after the two month lay-off.
Key man in that semi-final win was Michael O’Boyle who scored a superb 3-4 out of their 4-7 to 1-5 win. Interestingly the Glenarriffe forward was top-scorer for St Killian’s in their MacNamee win in 2015 before transferring to CPC this time last year.
He is an exceptional talent both from open play and placed balls and will feature very much in the plans that St Killian’s defence will lay down.
However he is certainly not the only player in the Ballycastle pack with the defence looking very strong around Enda óg McGarry and Dylan Devlin, particularly in the group game with St Killian’s that finished level.
Colm McKeegan scored a late equaliser for the Tower in that game. He is part of a physically strong team physically, while there are certainly scoring options in the attack, there is no one individual capable of causing the mayhem that O’Boyle could impose on a game.
Liam McLaughlin is strong and quick at full-back with the half-backs Aidan Scullion, Pearse McKeegan and Euan Mulvenna the key line in the team.
Cathal Hynds and Mark Emerson have forged a good partnership at midfield while Fintan McQuillan, Shea McDonnell and Ciaran Magill up front have been opening defences for scores.
However victory will revolve around the performance of Michael O’Boyle. If the Tower can curtail his influence on the scoring, they should take a first title. Alternatively if O’Boyle continues where he left off in the semi-final, Cross and Passion could win a fourth title from the last seven.
Possible teams :
St Killian’s : James McAllister, Declan Magill, Liam McLaughlin, Conor McCollam, Pearse McKeegan, Aidan Scullion, Euan McSparron, Cathal Hynds capt, Mark Emerson, Fintan McQuillan, Ciaran Magill, Calum Kilgore, Colm McKeegan, Shea McDonnell, Seanie McIntosh.
Subs : Sean O’Boyle, Gabriel Leech, Niall McGarrel, Daniel Kearney, Dara Mort, Shea McNaughton, Shane McKenna.
Cross & Passion : Kevin McAuley, Jack McGowan, Enda óg McGarry, Christy McGarry, Conall McGlynn, Dylan Devlin, Reuben McClean, Rian McMullan, Conleth McKinley, Michael O’Boyle, Eunan Laverty, Oisin Elliot, Conor O’Mullan, Caolan O’Connor, Damien Quinn
Subs : Tiernan McCaughan, Shane Kelly, Cormac Doherty, Christy McAuley, Ruairi McCormick, James Bakewell, Tadhg Donnelly