Reilly - Quinlivan duel could Tipp the balance
SHORTLY after Louth had slipped to an inconsequential defeat to Sligo, word drifted through on the Twitter-sphere that Tipperary had plundered the win they needed in Armagh.
Patrick Reilly probably heard the news as he warmed down in the spring sunshine at the Gaelic Grounds, but what he may not have realised was that Michael Quinlivan had bagged a hat-trick for Tipp, including an injury-time winning goal.
The supremely talented full forward has been touted, with some justification, as one of the rising stars of the modern game and he certainly delivered when Tipp needed him most on Sunday.
Reilly (pictured right) will be tasked with keeping tabs on the Clonmel man on Saturday evening at Croke Park and it’s a duel that could have a major bearing on the destination of the Division 3 trophy.
Both players were black-carded in Thurles last Sunday week, Reilly after 25 minutes and, Quinlivan five minutes from full-time, when he bizarrely found himself back inside his own 13m line defending.
By and large, Louth dealt pretty well with Tipp’s star man the last day and Reilly will be hoping to keep him quiet again on Saturday.
It will be a fascinating match-up in what the St Bride’s man feels could be a cracker.
‘It’s a national league final in Croke Park and you don’t get to play in too many of them. If both teams put strong teams out and we have a good cut at it you never know what might happen - it should be a good game.’
Realistically, Reilly will be one of only a handful of players who will retain their place in the starting 15 from the Sligo game, but he doesn’t expect that result to have any bearing on the decider.
‘We just need to push on quickly from this during the week and prepare as well as we can for Tipperary. Lads will brush it off pretty quickly and move on. We’ve a great chance to turn Tipperary over, we’ve done it before. They’ll be chomping at the bit to get revenge, but it’s a national league final, a one-off game - if you perform you never know where it will take you.’ There’s no denying that promotion was the big prize, but Reilly insists a trophy would be a helluva bonus and he says everyone is focused on securing silverware for the second year running. ‘It’s brilliant to be in this position. No-one really gave us a chance and we were favourites to go down so to be heading into a league final is superb. It just shows the work the management and players have put in over the winter months and it’s just rewards for what we’ve done. ‘As the league progressed and we got a bit of momentum we really believed we could win promotion and after that the target is silverware. It’s the extra carrot to have a go at a league final, so to have this chance two years in a row is brilliant for Louth football and for the supporters.’ It’s no ideal heading into the final on Pictures: Ken Finegan the back of a defeat, while Tipp will be on a high after their last-gasp win in Armagh, but Reilly feels the run-out will stand to players who haven’t had much game time this term and he is confident that anyone called upon to do a job on Saturday will be up to the task.
‘We believe in our squad and everyone that comes off the bench is well able to step up. We’re a wee bit disappointed we didn’t get the win, but we’re all focused on the final now and hopefully that result will be different.
‘Today we lost a wee bit of shape in the second-half and we were trying to get back in the game when Sligo got a run on us. But in the first-half I thought we were solid defensively and we had a good spread of scores. We moved the ball well through the hands and off the boot, so there were positives and negatives.
‘I thought the boys did well off the frees and young Sam Mulroy did very well from play. I thought Ronan Holcroft showed up well too. There are plenty of options there and lads are chomping at the bit to get in and show what they can do.
‘Overall we would have been happy enough to get the game time into lads and we’ll push on next week for Tipperary,’ he added.