Beaufort should be too strong for Dundalk

ALL-IRELAND CLUB JFC SEMI-FINAL Beaufort v Dundalk Young Irelands Sunday, January 20 O’Moore Park, Portlaoise Throw-in at 2pm

SINCE Finuge made the breakthrough in 2005 and brought the All-Ireland Club Junior football title back to Kerry for the first time, a Kerry club has reached the All-Ireland final nine of the following 13 years. Of those nine final appearance seven ended in victory for the team from the Kingdom. It’s as good a record as any county could hope for in club football, but it means that for those coming next there’s added pressure to keep that strong winloss ratio going.

Whether or not Beaufort feel any of that weight of expectation is, perhaps, a moot point, but the county and now Munster champions face into next Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Dundalk Young Irelands knowing they’ll be strongly fancied to at least make it to Croke Park for February’s finale.

For one, this is a very good Beaufort team to be operating at this level. Also, Leinster clubs don’t have a great record in this championship, and while that in itself isn’t a very reliable yardstick, at a very simple level Kerry’s junior champions should be somewhat stronger than Louth’s. Not that the Mid Kerry club will be adopting that view or taking anything for granted: there are, after all, those few years when Kerry teams fell at the penultimate hurdle.

There is also the not insignificant matter of the hiatus between the Munster final (December 2) and this All-Ireland semi-final, which amounts to seven weeks for Beaufort to try to time their run perfectly into Sunday. It will have taken some judicious planning by the management to have the team peaking perfectly in Portlaoise, which isn’t always easy with such a gap between games. Dundalk Young Irelands’ lead in time since they played their Leinster final on December 15 is a slightly more manageable five weeks and these things can make a difference.

So too can those provincial contests, and the relative ease with which some Kerry champions have breezed through the Munster campaign hasn’t always done them a huge favour when they’ve moved beyond the province. Beaufort’s 19-point and 34-point wins over Ballylooby-Castlegrace and Michael Cusacks respectively did next to nothing for them in terms of steeling them for the steeper climbs ahead, and those nonevents almost came against them against Cork’s Dromtariffe, who took Beaufort to extra-time and a 2-13 to 2-12 win. It’s that game that Beaufort will draw on to appreciate the collective character and resolve within their group.

Dundalk Young Irelands have played four games since coming out as Louth champions, and with the exception of their 2-14 to 0-5 win over Annonough of Laois in the quarter-final they have been given stern examinations. Kilbeggan Shamrocks pushed them hard to a 1-9 to 0-9 win in a preliminary round win, before they had things a little easier in the provincial semi-final against Tullogher/Rosbercon from Kilkenny, which they won by 0-13 to 0-6.

Their Leinster final win over St Brigids from Offaly was similarly as tight as Beaufort’s provincial final, and it took a goal in additional time from substitute Aidan Sheekey to wrestle the win for the Louth champions.

It’s always next to impossible to evaluate how two small clubs from opposite ends of the country measure up against each other, but even GAA people in the Wee county would concede that the Kerry junior champions should be a better footballing outfit that the equivalent in Louth. Of course, the Young Irelands need only look across their own province to Mullinalaghta in Longford and see what they did against Kilmacud Crokes in the senior championship. Upsets are always possible.

Personnel-wise Beaufort are a well-balanced and strong team. From Ger Hartnett at full back, the Breens, Nathan and Mike, around the middle of the park along with Ronan Murphy, and Liam Carey, Fergal Hallissey (pictured right) and Ciaran Kennedy in the attack, the Kerry champions have excellent footballers in every line of their team.

The return from injury of the powerful Ronan Murphy is a big boost, and while an unfortunate hamstring injury picked up in the Munster Final warm-up has curtailed Liam Carey’s training over the Christmas, it’s hoped the former Kerry minor will be ready to take his place in the attack.

Individually they are very good, but collectively Beaufort have grown into a fine team, and a handful of very useful challenge matches since the Munster final will, they hope, have kept them sharp ahead of Sunday.

It’s for the rest of us on the outside to look at the bigger picture and probably decide that Beaufort, a Division 2 team in Kerry, should be too good for the junior champions from Louth. The Beaufort players and management cannot afford to make such assumptions or be complacent.

Still, if Beaufort bring their

‘A’ game to Portlaoise on Sunday it’s reasonable to think that it will take a very good team to beat them. Whether or not Dundalk are that team remains to be seen.