This weekend sees the three grades of Minor Football championship finals take place at three different venues at the same time. The minor football championship, once the opener to our Senior Football finals has undergone changes in recent years and some will feel it is no longer afforded the platform it deserves.
There are many factors that have contributed to these changes. Covid played its part and brought about the need to restrict crowd numbers and still appears to be a factor in avoiding double headers wherever possible.
Minor football-and hurling- have undergone big changes themselves with the age group being changed from U18 to U17 and in Antrim now-as in most counties- we have Minor championships in U17A-U17B- and U17C grades where there was once only the A championship.
This, in my opinion is a good thing as it affords lesser teams the opportunity to compete at their own level and provides them with the possibility of winning a championship medal.
Whatever the merits of playing the minor final prior to the senior one it will be all guns blazing for the young footballers, mentors and supporters of St. Brigid’s, Glenravel, Aldergrove, St. Enda’s, Rasharkin and Tir na nOg this Sunday with one collective aim – to bring home the silverware.
St. Brigid’s v Glenravel
U17A Final-Creggan 11-00am
The U17A final sees a fancied St. Brigid’s take on Con Magee’s Glenravel at Creggan and the Musgrave Park side will start as favourites for this one but they should be wary of a Glenravel team who are here on merit and produced a great result when they travelled to Milltown last Sunday and came away with a four point win over St. Gall’s.
Oisin Kelly’s superb fisted effort to the net for the home side into added time ensured there was only a point in it going into the last minute. However, seconds later, when Glenravel broke on the counter attack, Daire Higgins ruthlessly despatched his effort to the net to seal his side’s progression to the final where they will meet St Brigid’s.
St. Brigid’s have been knocking at the championship door now for a number of years but have found it difficult to get over the line and have been thwarted in their efforts by an Erin’s Own Cargin team in two of the last three deciders.
The Musgrave Park side finally got the Cargin monkey off their backs when they travelled to Toome on Sunday morning last. A 10th minute goal by impressive full forward JJ Higgins was to prove crucial as St Brigid’s pushed on to win by 1-4 to 0-5 in conditions that were not conducive to good football.
Conor Logue, Sonny Doyle, Donnach McGurk, Rory McErlean and JJ Higgins will lead the St. Brigid’s bid for honours while Eamon Ward, Daire Higgins, Shea O’Brion and Cormac McKeown will spearhead the Con Magee’s challenge.
Naomh Eanna v Aldergrove
U17B Final – Dunsilly 11-00am
St. James Aldergrove produced a great result when they travel;led to Davitt’s Park last Sunday and defeated a Corpus Christi Gaels side who had performed much better in the division 2 league. St. James were pushed hard all the way before emerging 3-9 to 2-8 winners and this will have given them confidence going into Sunday’s decider.
At the same time St. Enda’s defeated a fancied Creggan at Hightown by 1-7 to 0-6 and once again it was a side from further down the league finishing places that took the spoils.
Creggan finished second in division 2 to Lamh Dhearg but league positions doesn’t seem to count where this championship is concerned and I don’t expect there to be too much in it in this cone with Aldergrove given a tentative nod.
Rasharkin v Tir na nOg
U17C final – Ballymena 11-00am
While Aldergrove were impressing at Davitt’s Park in the U17B semi-final a dogged St. Mary’s Rasharkin were overcoming a conceivably more difficult hurdle when they defeated Ardoyne at Fennell Park.
Oisin Casey 1-03, Daniel Doherty 1-02, Joseph McNeill 1-00 and Cormac McMullan 0-01were the men who provided the all-important scores as Rasharkin finished a point ahead in an excellent game.
St. Mary’s will start as underdogs against a Tir na nOg side who finished top in division 3 of the league but things look very much on the up in Rasharkin this year with their senior hurlers through to the JHC Final and their U13 Footballers already Shield champions.
The sides met in a cracking league encounter back in March when Rasharklin emerged 3-11 to 4-6 winners down in Dreen. When the same sides met again in July at Whitehill Tir na nOg avenged that defeat winning 4-10 to 4-5 and there could be another goal feast in Ballymena on Sunday.