Talented sides to clash

BRAY EMMETS and AGB will face off in the Minor ‘B’ football championship final on Sunday morning in Rathnew at 11am in a game that promises to be a fascinating encounter between two very capable sides.

Gary Prunty’s side will start the game as favourites given that they have recorded two victories over Joe Dunning’s charges this season to date but the B ray lads will be only too aware of the damage the AGB players can inflict.

Joe Dunning says that a final is a different game at the end of the day and although they will start the game as underdogs, they will be giving it a lash regardless.

‘A final is a final at the end of the day. Up to now they’ve beaten us comprehensively, they’ve given us a lesson. Our lads are young so it’s going to be tough but we’ll give it a lash as they say and that’s all you can ask for from the lads,’ he said.

One thing the Westmeath native is confident of is that this will be a game of football, with both sides eager to play the game and not get bogged down in other things.

‘It’s refreshing to see pure football teams play. It’s good for Minor and Senior teams going forward. Total football.

‘Where we’re coming from in AGB is we’re trying to develop players for the adult team. We try to play them in their individual age groups all the way up to Minor and then hopefully develop them into the Senor squad and go and try to win Senior titles.

‘I was chairman of that committee when we brought Darren Magee in. We kind of looked at playing them all in their individual age groups. You don’t win many underage titles doing that but you grow your numbers and keep them playing football for as long as you can, and then, hopefully, come 15, 16 or 17, they start to develop and get into the Senior set-up, and look at the long-term picture rather than the short-term,’ he said.

For Gary Prunty, Sunday morning’s game will be a very significant one. He’s had the majority of these young players since they were four and five years of age. Together they’ve went on a journey and for many of them this final will be the end of their juvenile careers.

With Bray’s hurlers also through to the ‘A’ hurling final, there’s good work being done up there.

‘We’re doing quite good. It’s a good bunch of lads we have this time around. They put a lot of work in over the last few years.

‘This will be my third year with the Minor footballers. We would have loved to be in the ‘A’ championship, it was just that Hugh (Kenny) asked us to drop down to the ‘B’ and we were quite content with the way the year worked out with Covid and that,’ he said.

A semi-final against St Kevin’s should have been a straight-forward hurdle but was anything but in the end.

‘We didn’t play our best football against St Kevin’s. I think the lads had it in their heads that they had it won. They know that AGB are a very good, strong team. We’ve played them twice and there has been very little between the teams.

‘I’m not sure it’s going to be that high-scoring. I think both sides will be a bit cagey. We know AGB are well capable and we won’t be taking anything for granted,’ he said. .

Gary says that his group of players are not just talented footballers but well-rounded young lads as well who came into their own during the pandemic.

‘In fairness to the lads they did their own group things and they did a lot of helping out with the community. They’ve done so much work with our academy. Out of my panel of 23 kids, I think there are 17 of them who help out with opur academy. They come every Saturday morning and help out with the training. They are an outstanding group of young lads. Even through the pandemic, they got together and decided to run a marathon challenge and they raised €2,000 for Purple House.

‘Out of the 23 I’ve had 15 of them since they were four and five. This is my original team since I started in Bray. It’s always nice to see them do well at the end of their juvenile careers,’ he added.