Blues and Martin’s face off in SFC final
RONAN Phillips knows exactly what it takes to win back-to-back Joe Wards - he’s been there and bought the T-shirt!
But he wants his players to forget the two-in-a-row talk and just concentrate on seizing the moment this Sunday.
The Blues haven’t managed to retain a senior title since 2001 and they’re hotly fancied to end that 17-year wait against Naomh Mairtin, but Phillips reckons it’s more about fulfilling your destiny than trying to emulate past feats.
‘It’s not about two-in-a-row for me, it’s about winning championships when you have the team to win championships. I think we’re good enough to win this one and the Mairtin’s are probably saying the same thing, and rightly so.
‘People say it takes a great team to win two-in-a-row and we’ll probably agree with that, but for me it’s about winning championships when you’re time is right and I think our time is right.
‘We’ve a good chance, we’re going well in training and we’re happy enough. We seem to be injury free with just two long-term injuries to Jimmy Murray and Paul Kelleher, but apart from that we seem to be in good shape.’
So far it’s been a near perfect season for the Blues. They suffered just one defeat en route to Division 1 league glory and have batted away all-comers in the Championship, including Naomh Mairtin, but if there’s one seed of doubt of doubt in Phillips’ mind, it’s the Jocks.
‘Monasterboice are probably the only thing niggling in fairness. Since we beat them in the first round of the championship, they’ve gone unbeaten, apart from us in the league final which could have gone either way, so you have to give them a lot of credit.
‘They’re a young team, as young as us I suppose, and they could have walked away and forgot about it, but they’ve come back bigger and stronger and I think it’s fair to say the two best teams in the county are in the final. There’s not much between the two teams, Monasterboice are coming good at the right time and I think it will be a closer game than most people think.
‘It’s not that they’re beating teams, they’ve been beating teams well. There’s nothing flukey about it, they hammered the Pat’s by 12 points they beat Clogherhead in the semi-final of the league and I heard they could have won that one by a lot more.
‘They beat Kilkerley, O’Connell’s, so there’s nothing wrong with their form.’
Of course, the one blot on the Jock’s copybook came in the league final against the Blues last month, but Phillips reckons they could be stronger for that experience.
‘A sending off can go either way, but up until the red card it was fairly even. We struck with a goal at the right time just after the sending off and that probably changed the whole course of the game.’
If nothing else Phillips is expecting an entertaining game of football for the neutral.
‘Two good football teams and both sets of players are bred to play a good style of football. For them young Callaghan is really one to watch and then young Mulroy and young Whelan too. They’re all great prospects and then you throw in JP, who in my eyes is probably the last great forward that played with
Louth. To have
that ammo makes it fairly daunting for us, but all you can do is try your best on the day and hope that gets you over the line.’
While Phillips feels the Mairtin’s form is rock solid, he feels his own side have left some room for improvement.
‘Since the Mairtin’s game it has been a little bit up and down. We are winning games, but a lot of the time we live on the edge and you always fear that you might get caught out one of theses days.
‘Going back to the league final, Dean [Martin] pulled off two great saves and if one of them had gone in it might have went another way. I’d prefer that when we’re in control of the game, that we keep control of it.
‘I was watching the Dreadnots game from the stand and we controlled the first-half, and maybe I’m down on the Blues a bit, but I’d question Clogher’ on the day. They seemed to be lacklustre and just didn’t seem up for the game, so maybe we caught them on a bad day. I wouldn’t read too much into that game to be honest.’
But the small concerns about form aside, Phillips has the utmost faith in this Blues’ panel and he’s confident they can deliver.
‘There’s definitely a serious panel and for as long as I’ve been involved with the Blues, playing or as a selector, it has to be up there as one of the strongest panels I’ve seen.
‘But you can only put 15 on the pitch and up to now it’s great to have six subs because they can make a difference. On any given day you’re taking a fella off and the fella coming on is just as good as him, so we’re blessed in that way. You’re always dreading a banana skin and we just hope it’s not in a final,’ he added.