WHO ARE NA FIANNA?

MIDDLETOWN Na Fianna of Armagh will face Kanturk next weekend for a place in the All Ireland Intermediate Club Hurling Final and while many Cork people will be unaware of the Ulster Champions the men from the Orchard County are highly regarded North and South of the border.

Middletown Na Fianna have won their county title on more than 12 occasions – going on to win the provincial crown twice, 2011 and 2017.

Known to hit fast straight out of the blocks, Middletown Na Fianna will go into Sunday’s encounter in Newbridge well aware of the difficulties that face them, but they won’t be intimidated by a Kanturk side that are still finding their feet in the big time.

The free taking prowess of Ryan Gaffney will be crucial on Sunday as his eye for the posts is definitely one of the major assets for the underdogs. Others to watch would be Cathal Carvill, who has a goal threat in his locker as does Martin Maguire whose late three pointer sealed the Ulster title ahead of a valiant Lavey.

The boys in black and white stripes will be quietly confident that they can case an upset and to be fair to them they have all the attributes required as their solid defence, tall midfield and lively forwards would trouble many a club side – regardless of grade – and for those of you thinking this might be a bit of a mismatch, well, Middletown Na Fianna made it all the way to the All-Ireland Final back in 2012 only to narrowly lose out to Carlow’s Mount Leinster Rangers, but with still eleven starters from that faithful day still available to the first team there is no doubt that this Ulster side bring a credible challenge to the table.

Middletown Na Fianna have nothing to lose this weekend and will likely go for broke as soon as the ball goes in, however, they are unlikely to keep the pace up so if Kanturk can hang in there for the first half they would definitely be favourites in my book.