Orchard run to bear ripe fruit
IT’S possible affairs at either end of Division Three could be wrapped up tomorrow evening.
Wins for Armagh and Westmeath away to Fermanagh and Longford respectively would see both promoted, with Armagh enjoying a 100% record so far while Westmeath’s head-to-head record against those immediately below them would also make them unassailable.
FERMANAGH only lost their first game of the campaign last week but benefited from an easier series of games at the outset. ARMAGH are set to seal promotion here in the back of winning nine from their last 10 League and Championship matches.
WESTMEATH boss Colin Kelly is poised for the unique achievement of guiding different counties to promotion from Division Three in successive seasons, having done it with his native Louth last year. LONGFORD stumbled in Sligo last week and may just fall to their neighbours this time.
It’s a real relegation four-pointer in Tullamore between and SLIGO. Another defeat and a Derry victory would see the home side relegated, but Offaly get a hesitant vote to stay alive.
WEXFORD’S hopes of staying up were effectively extinguished by Offaly last week and should confirm their relegation at Celtic Park.
NFL DIVISION 3
ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 4 VICTORY away to tomorrow will send CARLOW on their way out of Division Four for the first time since 1985.
With five wins from as many games, along with Laois, Carlow hold a threepoint lead over Antrim, who have a game in hand, but a win at Corrigan Park would guarantee them a top two spot.
Although the League has seen various format changes in the last 33 years, it’s been that long since Carlow won promotion. Indeed, they didn’t even enjoy the benefits of it back then as the competition was restructured the following year with Division Four scrapped in favour of a Division Three North and Division
Three South in the 1985/86 season.
However, with little margin for error, Antrim may just spoil the party. Laois and London aren’t in action this weekend and the WATERFORD-LEITRIM and WICKLOW-LIMERICK games are off.
NFL DIVISION 4 Corofin (Galway) Nemo Rangers (Cork) All-ireland SFC club final, 2pm
v THE Connacht medals keep stacking up for Gary Sice but ultimate honours haven’t been as plentiful as he would like.
When Corofin held off the fierce challenges of St Brigid’s and Castlebar Mitchels – both after extra-time – to take another provincial crown late last year, they went top of the Connacht roll of honour with their eighth title in all.
Five of those have come since 2008 and Sice has featured in each of them. Yet he only had one All-ireland final appearance to show for himself prior to today’s decider against Nemo Rangers at Croke Park.
In 2009, Kilmacud Crokes beat them by six points in Mullingar en route to seeing off Crossmaglen Rangers in the final.
Twelve months later they returned to the same stage but St Gall’s edged them out in extra time before breezing past Kilmurry-ibrickane.
They finally won a semi-final three years ago against a much fancied St Vincent’s en route to becoming first Connacht club to win the Andy Merrigan Cup twice at Slaughtneil’s expense but last year were well beaten by Dr Crokes in the semi-final. “Tough competition,” says Sice. “We’ve
come up against a lot of really good sides. I think I’ve lost three semi-finals to eventual winners.
“That tells you where we’re at. Very tough competition.
“The Christmas break is the hardest part I think. Managing that Christmas break has been difficult, it always has been.
“It’s been difficult for every group that ever went through it. It’s great to be back in Croke Park, it’s great to be back in an All-ireland final.”
They mightn’t have won as many semi-finals as they would like and their victory BY Nemo Rangers’ standards, they’re in the midst of a famine.
Victory today would extend their record haul of
All-ireland club titles to eight, 15 years after their seventh. The longest ‘drought’ they experienced prior to that was nine years.
Both sides have endured testing routes to this stage but Corofin haven’t been quite as impressive as previous campaigns.
Nemo’s form suggests they’re in better shape coming into this game and, steeled by the semi-final win over Slaughtneil, can push themselves further away from Crossmaglen on the roll of honour. over Moorefield last month – on a
1-6 to 0-6 scoreline – certainly won’t go down as a classic but it was a stirring victory from a Corofin viewpoint having played the majority of the game with 14 men.
Sice added: “It was nice to get out of there, we’re an experienced group. We’re around a while now. We didn’t panic.
“I don’t think we changed our game plan a whole lot, we kept dogging it out.
“The pitch didn’t allow for any fantastic football on either side.
“We got out of there alive, that’s all that mattered.”
It’s somewhat surprising that despite the stack of provincial titles in either club, Corofin and Nemo haven’t met before.
Sice said: “They’re a superpower in the club championship aren’t they? They’re top of the pile.
“They won’t be in any way worried about us coming to Croke Park. It’s going to be a great battle, I think it’ll be a good game of football actually.”
Winning a second title is the ambition for this core group of players but, as Sice explains, the team has evolved significantly from 2015.
He said: “We’ve got a good turnover of personnel, we’ve a lot of younger fellas in.
“We still have the same goal in mind, just to get over the line in Croke Park.”