Saints combo bidding to reverse league final result
BRINGING out the best in a combined side has proved a challenge for the St Mochta’s/St Bride’s management team, and win or lose next Sunday it’s been a great achievement to qualify for the Championship and League finals in the same year.
St Mary’s will be warm favourites to complete a two-ina-row of MFC titles - something that has already been achieved this century by Clan na Gael, Cooley Kickhams, Geraldines, St Joseph’s and Newtown Blues - but their final opponents on Sunday haven’t come this far just to make up the numbers in the Gaelic Grounds.
Manager Martin McMahon knows all too well what qualities St Mary’s bring, but St Mochta’s/ St Bride’s showed in their 3-11 to 0-8 semi-final win over Naomh Mairtin that they are also a force to be reckoned with.
‘It’s a huge task because the Mary’s are a super team who have won all before them from Under-14 right up,’ he pointed out.
‘They have talent throughout the team and I don’t think they’ve been beaten in a competitive game in the last three years.
‘But that’s a massive incentive for us. It’s the first time this group have reached a division one championship final and the guys are buzzing. They are going to give it everything and have a proper go.’
In McMahon’s view it’s crucial that the combined team learn from the experience of playing the Ardee outfit in that league final a few weeks ago.
‘We were carrying a couple of injuries going into the game, which didn’t help,’ McMahon recalled, ‘and we gave them too much of a head start.
‘We stood off them for the first 15 or 20 minutes and they did a lot of damage during that period. In the end I think there were nine points between us, but they had the game won when we came back and got a couple of late goals to make the scoreline more respectable.
‘This time we hope to stay with them for 40 or 50 minutes and if we can do that and go into the last 10 within a couple of points, who knows what might happen.’
Like the boys from Ardee, St Mochta’s/St Bride’s are also missing one of their big players in captain Ben Goss Kieran who suffered an ACL injury just two minutes from the end of the league decider, with Philip Tynan set to deputise as skipper next Sunday.
The management team were also sweating over the weekend on the fitness of James Farrell and Conor Garland who were expected to start for the Mochta’s in their Intermediate Championship decider with St Fechin’s. Martin’s son Ciaran McMahon was among the subs for that game.
As a standalone team, St Mochta’s won back-to-back Minor Division 2 league titles in 2016 and ‘17, but this year they’ve had to combine with their neighbours to give them sufficient numbers.
In terms of coaching, Martin McMahon has been assisted by his ex county player son Darren and Peter Smith, along with James McArdle from St Bride’s, while David Reilly also came in over the last couple of months to help out with training.
‘The manager acknowledged that it’s been a difficult task bringing together players from two different clubs.
‘We didn’t have enough players and had to amalgamate with St Bride’s who were in the same situation,’ McMahon recalled.
‘It takes a while for an amalgamated team to gell together and we’ve been working on that throughout the league, but a lot of them go to the same school and they knew each other very well already.
‘It’s a very young squad - half the team will be Minor again next year - but it’s a fantastic opportunity and it would be fantastic to win because we’ve put in an awful lot of work.’