Everything points

Preview

AND so, it all comes down to this. Then men of St Patrick’s, going for their second title in a row, a first double in the club since 1961, hoping to maintain what has been a stunningly impressive season of championship football coming up against an AGB side who have progressed steadily and consistently through a championship campaign before coming through a thrilling semi-final and semi-final replay against Blessington to find themselves deservedly in the final this Sunday at 3.30pm.

Now all Damien Redmond’s team have to do is dismantle one of the finest outfits this county has seen in a while and make them worry about an AGB team packed with promising young footballers and men with experience to burn.

In many ways, it’s a slight form of David and Goliath, AGB not long up from Intermediate, Pat’s a powerhouse of Senior football for years but that would be way too simplistic a way to look at this because that would suggest that AGB are rank outsiders and kind of chancing their arm and needing a miracle when it comes to the battle on Sunday and that is quite simply not the case regardless of what any bookmaker tells you.

AGB have a serious chance here. Ciaran Hyland mentioned momentum in the sense that they have it coming of the back of that two-game epic struggle with Blessington. They have youth, fearlessness, style, ability, and they have speed.

Granted, Pat’s have all those qualities as well, but AGB will not fear Casey O’Brien’s men and they will not be cowed by reputation. They have leaders in Ciaran Hyland, Stephen Hurley, Philip Healy and Mervyn Travers and they have young soldiers like Darragh Fitzgerald, Tom Maher, Andy Maher, Chris O’Brien and the list goes on and none of them are very familiar with losing or a losing mentality and in AGB Pat’s have a significantly more difficult task than they would have face in Blessington, absolutely no offence to Blessington.

But how do AGB stop Tommy Kelly, how to they frustrate Paudge McWalter, how do they put a stop to the thundering runs of Dean Healy, who will Patrick O’Keane almost certainly take out of the game with his tight marking, who can cause Conor Ffrench problems and stop the massive