Mary’s taking nothing for granted in minor decider
THEY are the raging-hot favourites to succeed Naomh Mairtin as Louth Minor champions, but getting over that final hurdle can be the toughest challenge of all and St Mary’s are taking nothing for granted going into Sunday’s decider against Geraldines.
It’s been a disjointed campaign to say the least for Tommy Kirk’s charges who played their one and only group game at the start of August and their two knockout matches in successive weeks in the first half of September.
In terms of preparation, it’s hardly been ideal, but if there’s any team capable of dealing with that disruption it’s surely the boys from Ardee who put 7-21 past Dundalk Gaels in the quarter-finals before seeing off Cooley Kickhams by a six-point margin in the semis.
Looking ahead to next Sunday, though, Kirk believes Geraldines are the type of team who could pose plenty of problems for St Mary’s.
‘We found it hard to come to terms with Cooley Kickhams’ physicality in the semi-final and it could be a similar sort of game against Geraldines,’ he said.
‘We’ve seen them play in the two games against the Mairtins and they have strong, physical players, but we’re basically concentrating on ourselves and we believe we’re good enough to beat everybody.
‘I’m sure Geraldines will be saying the same thing, though, Anything can happen. The wind or a wet day might have an impact, a bounce of the ball could beat you and I don’t know how we will react in front of the crowd.
‘But we have a good bit of experience through the team. We had five on the Louth [Minor] team and another one on the panel who didn’t make it to the final 25, and they will carry the younger lads through.’
St Mary’s kicked off their championship campaign with a 2-15 to 0-12 win away to St Mochta’s, but with Wolfe Tones withdrawing from the competition and Roche/St Bride’s not showing up it would be a full month before they demolished Dundalk Gaels in the last eight.
The tough semi-final clash against Cooley Kickhams was just the type of game St Mary’s needed, but by next Sunday another month will have passed without a championship fixture.
‘We have a great bunch of lads and are working off a panel of 30 or 31 and the ones coming off the bench are as good as the ones starting, so we’ve loads of options,’ Kirk continued.
‘We’re unbeaten in the league as well and have more or less qualified in that, but the championship is the big one because we haven’t won it in 30 years.
‘We’ve had a few different people in [at training], different voices, different faces - I don’t want to say who - to keep them fresh and these lads are hungry to win it.’
This group of players won the Feile in Cork and the Under-16 Championship over the past few years, although their manager points out that such success doesn’t give them the right to land the Fr Larry Murray Cup next Sunday.
Nevertheless, that silverware at underage level has convinced Kirk that St Mary’s is a club going in the right direction.
‘A few years back our structures were bad at underage level, but eight or nine years ago we put structures in place and we now have some terrific people involved over all the ages from Under-6 upwards.
‘It’s going to bear fruit and we’ve already seen a lot of minors going onto the senior team in recent years.’