Looking good for An Ghaeltacht
IT was one of those nightmare days when nothing went right.
They weren’t at their best, far from it in fact, and the team they were playing hit a purple patch of rare good form. The result was the type of chastening defeat they would have imagined was long behind them.
Looking back you can see the roots of it. Templenoe were on the road a long time at that stage. They’d climbed the mountain, reached the promised land and were now expected to scale it all over again. On that day and in that final, Templenoe simply ran out of road. Perhaps there were even signs of it in last year’s semi-final when Templenoe just got over the line against their opponents in Sunday’s final, An Ghaeltacht. Some observers that day felt that An Ghaeltacht were the better side.
Had Padraig Ó Sé’s late shot for a goal sneaked inside the post instead of just outside it, it’s quite likely that Templenoe would have been defeated. Looking at that semi-final now at twelve months remove, does it foreshadow an An Ghaeltacht success this time around?
It’s a dangerous assumption to make we’d humbly suggest. Templenoe weren’t in an All Ireland final this year, they should be renewed and revived. They weren’t a key component of a title challenging district combination either. The circumstances of 2016 are not the circumstances of 2017. Templenoe are sure to be even more motivated now than they were at this time last year. The desire to put that horror-show behind them will be acute. Templenoe won’t have stood still, but then again neither will An Ghaeltacht. As a matter of fact the evidence of the last twelve months is that An Ghaeltacht have pushed on to a new level.
Their league form speaks for itself. They only lost two games all campaign and qualified for the league final with a couple of points to spare over third placed Rathmore. One result from their league campaign stands out – An Ghaeltacht 3-22, Templenoe 0-7.
Now nobody expects anything like that to happen on Sunday afternoon, but it is demonstrative of just how potent this An Ghaeltacht side can be. Whatever else they are, Templenoe are well warned.
The manner in which the west Kerry men put St Marys to the sword in the semi-final of this competition was just hugely impressive. Even without Denis Daly, that was a strong enough St Marys outfit and the Gaeltacht swatted them aside with ease. Four goals. Twelve points. A twelve point victory.
The only possible thing their management team will have to worry about is that they might have peaked too soon, but even then we’re not sold on the idea. An Ghaeltacht have been playing at such a high standard all season that the defeat of St Marys begins to look more like the mean than some of of outlier performance.
When you look at their team it’s easy to see why they’re performing at such a high level. From number one to fifteen they’ve got quality. In any other county Tomás Mac an tSaoir would have played inter-county football by now. They’ve got All Stars (Marc Ó Sé), county stars (Brian Ó Beaghlaoich) and likely stars of the future (Éanna Ó Conchúir).
It would behove Templenoe to be incredibly wary. That said Templenoe have proven themselves to be big game performers over the last couple of seasons. They’ve been at the business end of whatever championship they’ve been in for four years now and, apart from last year’s disappointment, they’ve fronted up in those games.
They do look set to be without a couple of incredibly important players – Adrian Spillane and Patrick Clifford – but even so they’ve got oodles of talent at their disposal. Gavin Crowley and Tadhg Morley both lined out for the county’s senior footballers this term and both impressed.
Up front, meanwhile, Stephen O’Sullivan and Killian Spillane have the ability to torment any defence at this level, even one as impressive and storied as An Ghaeltacht’s.
There’s every chance this will be a real nip and tuck affair. The quality of football on view – weather permitting – should be of a high standard. Both teams will aim to play football the way football should be played and, that being the case, it will likely come down to who has the most quality.
It’d be foolish to make a judgement on that based on a league game in March, but the likely loss of Adrian Spillane and Patrick Clifford could go a long way towards scuppering Templenoe’s chances against an impressive Gaeltacht outfit.
Verdict: An Ghaeltacht