Village determined to upset the odds again
Rathnew facing Kildare champions in Leinster semi-final
FOR the first time since 2002, a Wicklow football team is 60 minutes away from a Leinster club final. Moorefield, the Kildare champions, stand in Rathnew’s way.
On the same day as Rathnew’s seismic victory against St Vincent’s, Moorefield overcame their own underdog status by beating Portlaoise and the two favourites for the Leinster title were knocked out.
In their place Moorefield have been installed as the bookies favourites for provincial honours, though Rathnew have been known to upset the odds every now and then.
The two teams face each other for the first time since 2014 when Moorefield prevailed as four point victors in the Leinster quarter-finals.
On that day Rathnew started without the injured Leighton Glynn and Nicky Mernagh and relied on goals to keep in touch with a superior Moorefield team who led by seven points at one stage in the second half.
The Rathnew team has barely changed since that meeting, all but three of the players involved that day have been involved this year for the Village.
The Kildare champions have had a few more changes, though a number of the players who hurt Rathnew that day on the scoreboard will play again on Sunday.
On Sunday they face Moorefield who have won eight of their nine county titles since the turn of the Millennium.
They won the 2006 Leinster club championship, succumbing to Dr Crokes of Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.
The Newbridge side went through the 2017 county championship undefeated, beating Celbridge by two points in the final having been reduced to 13 after only twenty minutes.
They are a team that know how to win tight games, building a big lead and then holding out against Celbridge by a couple of points before edging Portlaoise in the quarter final by a point. They were three points behind with five minutes to go but a late 1-01 stole the victory.
They’ll bring a boisterous crowd of followers with them whose raucous support will spur their team on.
One end of St Conleth’s Park, Kildare’s county grounds, has become known as “Moorefield Hill” due to their fans.
Moorefield boast a few familiar names in the likes of Daryl Flynn and Ronan Sweeney who were a regular feature on the Kildare team since 2000.
Both played for 13 years with Flynn hanging up his inter-county boots in 2016 while Sweeney retired three years earlier. The latter is a selector with Kildare.
Along with this duo brothers Cian and Éanna O’Connor bring a fine footballing pedigree, their father Jack guided Kerry to three All-Ireland titles as manager during the 2000s.
Éanna O’Connor will line out at full forward and has topped Moorefield’s scoring charts throughout the year.
He was the match winner against Portlaoise, kicking 1-05 of Moorefield’s 1-09.
Beside him Niall Hurley-Lynch has an eye for goal while Adam Tyrrell will punish Rathnew from frees and open play.
Between them they scored 12 of Moorefield’s 17 points in their 2014 victory over Rathnew.
That might spell danger for the Rathnew defence but Paul Merrigan, Damien Power and Jamie Snell defanged the St Vincent’s attack a couple of weeks ago and they’ll relish the challenge again.
The Rathnew defence have not conceded more than 12 points in each of their last seven matches and another uncharitable performance would go quite a long way towards Rathnew pulling off another shock.
Eddie Heavey is usually positioned at centre-forward and Ross O’Brien will have his hands full with the Kildare man who pitches in with a score or two per game from his left foot and was credited for his performance during the county final as an outlet for ball from their besieged defence.
The classy centre forward pulls the strings for his team though O’Brien may try to turn the tables and attack, forcing Heavey to follow.
Daryl Flynn should be back from the suspension that ruled him out of the Portlaoise win.
Flynn and wing forward David Whyte were the men sent off early in the county final and could face further suspension. It was reported in the Irish Independent the following week that a little known rule forbids players sent off in a final to participate in the victory celebrations.
Flynn and Whyte were captain and vice-captain respectively and therefore were presented with the trophy.
If the Kildare county board choose to act on it both men will be suspended for the first round next year.
Flynn lines out at midfield alongside Aaron Masterson and they have the small matter of James Stafford and Theo Smith to handle. It will be a massive clash between the four and whichever duo wins this battle will give their team a huge advantage.
Rathnew’s forward line has been hampered with injury over the last couple of weeks and they’ll be sweating on who can start.
Jody Merrigan couldn’t start in the win over St Vincent’s with a finger issue while Nicky Mernagh wasn’t available at all. Leighton Glynn wore an ash guard during Glenealy’s match against St Anne’s.
Without them, Rathnew are in trouble. Granted, they won against St Vincent’s but without the three attackers at full tilt it makes Rathnew’s difficulties much harder.
They face a Moorefield defence almost as mean as Rathnew and the maximum they’ve conceded in this year’s championship is 14 points. 18 year old Mark Dempsey did an excellent job on Kildare star Paddy Brophy in the county final and he has a bright future in front of him.
He was called into the Kildare squad earlier this year to train with the senior team.
Kevin Murnaghan was man of the match in the county final and is an attacking wing back.
The former Kildare player is an elder statesman of the team and leader of their defence.
Trying to guess what Harry Murphy has up his sleeve is always hard, but maybe he’ll detail the hard working Graham Merrigan to limit Murnaghan’s influence.
Rathnew will have to dig deep into their well of talent again to pull off another unpredicted victory. Eddie Doyle had a much better game against St Vincent’s than in previous outings and will need to step up again. Mark Doyle will look to terrorise Moorefield’s full back like he has every other full back he has come up against this year and any long balls going into him will be won.
Leighton Glynn will do what Leighton Glynn does.
The injury situation will dictate the other starters though Stephen Byrne and Danny Staunton were more than worth their start against St Vincent’s.
Rathnew go into this match as underdogs. They face a seasoned team who know about winning and who won’t feel any sort of complacency given Rathnew’s win over St Vincent’s. It’s a wide open Leinster championship and Moorefield will look at this as a great opportunity to win the Leinster title again.
However, there is one thing that must never be forgotten: don’t bet against Rathnew.
They have a habit of making you look silly.