STATEMENT OF INTENT
Rathnew lay down marker after opening joust
THINGS are starting to become a little clearer after last weekend’s round of Renault Senior Football Championship games.
Rathnew’s demolition of Avondale suggests that the retention of the Miley Cup is very much within the Village’s own hands and that should they maintain that standard of play throughout this championship it is going to take a monumental effort for any team to dethrone them.
Leighton Glynn continues to dominate games and remains one of the best footballers on display in the Garden County. Add to that the style of play and the tactics being utilised by Harry Murphy’s men and you have a heady cocktail of footballing potential.
Who are the leading challengers? Within their group, Hollywood look to be the team who will cause them the most problems, having already enjoyed victory in Merrymeeting in the league earlier this year and having dispatched a depleted Éire Óg in their game last weekend.
Kiltegan’s promising defeat of Bray Emmets would suggest that Trevor Doyle’s charges will cause Harry Murphy’s men headaches but a shock result here is unlikely and Rathnew should top this group at their leisure.
The main danger will come from Group 1. Casey O’Brien’s St Pat’s lead the charge with two from two while Blessington’s defeat of a physical Annacurra will leave them in good stead as they look to go one better than last season and capture the Miley Cup themselves.
Recovering Baltinglass can never be discounted while AGB will cause problems for all teams as this championship progresses.
At the other end of the scale, Thursday night’s clash with Baltinglass is of humongous importance to Annacurra. Defeat here will condemn them to the Keating Trophy in the space of three weeks of football and that change of direction can bring its own difficulties in terms of momentum and commitment.
A win against Ciarán Walshe’s side would put John Hynes’s men back in the hunt with games against AGB and Newtown to follow.
The Magpies face Blessington on Saturday in Aughrim having already suffered two bad defeats to AGB and Baltinglass and it will take a massive effort from them to get over Paddy O’Connor’s men and the gulf in ability at this level might be too much.
This weekend sees the Philip Doyle Junior ‘B’ and the Arklow Bay Hotel Junior ‘C’ football championships get underway with the pick of the bunch being the meeting of Enniskerry and AGB in Kilgarron on Thursday evening.