O’Malley will take nothing for granted

ATHIRD time a club from Mid Kerry will head to Portlaoise for an All-Ireland Club semi-final. Indeed, in heading there for the Junior grade, Beaufort complete the set after Laune Rangers played their 1997 Senior semi-final with Crossmaglen and Milltown/ Castlemaine playing their 2012 Intermediate semi-final with Derry’s Craigbane at O’Moore Park. Beaufort go to the Laois venue with the Munster title win that was expected, but not in the manner necessarily expected, after the dramatic nature of their extra-time win over Dromtariffe of Cork at the start of December.

Manager Eanna O’Malley believes on further reflection that the lack of a meaningful competitive game in the province beforehand came against them in the fright they received from the Duhallow side in Mallow.

“You can prepare properly as much as possible like we did but nothing quite prepares you an experience like that except a tough game itself beforehand,” O’Malley said of the provincial decider.

Losing Liam Carey to a hamstring injury in the warm-up did not help as he is Beaufort’s main injury concern ahead of facing Dundalk’s Young Ireland’s this weekend. The return to full fitness of Ronan Murphy is a big boost however for the club as O’Malley further reflects on where it didn’t quite go as planned for Beaufort against Dromtariffe.

“We had the chances early on to make it a lot more comfortable for ourselves but certainly our work-rate was not great in the first-half. We had more chances in the last 10 minutes of the second half to win it as well without it going to extra-time but we would still be happy with the players for pulling through and getting us out of the situation we found ourselves in that day,” the Beaufort boss said. A two week break followed for all concerned, something O’Malley felt was well-timed with the poor weather at the time as he says the improvement in the weather over the Christmas period greatly aided their preparations.

“We did about five sessions over Christmas and have returned to our normal training programme recently. We had three challenge matches with IT Tralee, the UCC Fresher’s team and Kilcummin as well, the Kilcummin one was a tough one for us as we were missing a few regulars but we are focussed now on the challenge of Young Irelands and eagerly anticipating the trip to Portlaoise,” he said.

A trip to Dublin prior to Christmas allowed O’Malley the chance to slip off Exit 17 on the M7 Motorway and get a bit more familiar with the surrounds

of O’Moore Park, a venue that has brought mixed fortune to Kerry sides in its regular use for All-Ireland semi-finals involving the Kingdom.

Portlaoise was also the venue for a 2017 All-Ireland Minor quarter-final involving Kerry and Louth and even though the Wee County might not normally be regarded as a footballing powerhouse, O’Malley feels that it is wrong to judge inter-county standards when it comes to club sides.

“I think Mullinalaghta winning the Leinster Senior shows that you can’t take anything for granted when it comes to going outside of your own county. I was at the Leinster Junior Final and I was very impressed with how Young Irelands came from five points down with 10 minutes to go to win by three points. I would describe them as what we would consider a typical town team and one that is very well coached,” he said.

That Liam Carey is based in Louth as a teacher at the moment adds an extra degree of spice to Sunday’s meeting as Derek and Dean Maguire carry a big threat for the Dundalk side who had to thank Dermot Mone and Aidan Sheekey for the late goals that saw them defeat St Brigids of Offaly in the Leinster decider by 2-10 to 2-7. An overnight will be required for Beaufort ahead of Saturday’s game as O’Malley explains.

“We considered going up and down on the day but that would mean a very early start for us on Sunday so we will go up the night before. We hope it will relax the players and create a bit of bonding amongst the team before the game,” the Beaufort manager said.

When asked about what he wants to see from the side on Sunday, improvement from the Dromtariffe display is foremost in Beaufort’s desires.

“We want to be far more efficient when we have the ball this time and not make things difficult for ourselves like we did in Mallow. There are many aspects that we feel we have to improve on and we need to see that on Sunday if we want to win.”

Laune Rangers lost their meeting with Crossmaglen in Portlaoise, Milltown/Castlemaine squeezed by Craigbane up there seven years ago. Beaufort are not playing an Ulster side on Sunday but they are playing one that appears to be on the rise with population shifts in the country.