O'Mahonys and Tones look good

When asked last April who would win the Meath SFC one pundit rather flippantly remarked that the winner would be whoever plays Navan O"Mahonys in the final. That tongue in cheek comment was meant in good humour and in recent years has been the case, but this year there has been a renewed purpose and poise about Navan O"Mahonys that makes them most peoples favourites to lift the Keegan Cup for the first time since 1997. There was a frailty about O"Mahonys is each of the last two finals which they lost to Seneschalstown last year and Wolfe Tones in 2006 while in 2005 they lost out at the penultimate hurdle on a technicality. It is testament to the club"s fortitude that they keep bouncing back. However, before they can start thinking about a 17th Keegan Cup there is a significant challenge of Blackhall Gaels to be negotiated. Blackhall Gaels will be no mugs and having tasted success in 2004 they will be hungry to make it to another final. There has been something eerily silent about Blackhall Gaels this year. They have gone about their business under the radar, quietly made their way into the quarter-finals and then in explosive fashion they blew away this decades three-in-a-row winners Dunshaughlin with a convincing nine-point victory. That forms suggests that they will take a lot of beating. They also achieved that win with their two key players Anthony Moyles and Alan Nestor carrying injuries and only appearing for the second-half. They are a very solid team with a robust and decisive defensive unit and a creative attacking department. The one major failing for Blackhall Gaels is their heavy reliance on Tadhg Brosnan for scores. There is plenty of creativity in the side with Sean Whelan, Mark Ferris, Nestor and Moyles, but the burden of popping the ball over the bar rests with Brosnan. If O"Mahonys can stifle him then they will be halfway towards victory, but the other half of the win will be equally difficult to achieve, breaking down the Blackhall Gaels excellent defence. Their scoring difference of plus one from the group stages would suggest that they are suspect at the back, but don"t be fooled by that statistic. They have no superstar defenders, but are a solid unit and O"Mahonys will need to be at their best to break them down. That is the key battle. The O"Mahonys forwards, inspired by Stephen and David Bray, Paddy Smyth, Henry Finnegan and Sean Keating, against the powerful Blackhall Gaels defensive unit. Blackhall Gaels manager Eamonn Barry believes that his side will face a tough test and he realises that his men will have to be at their best to overcome O"Mahonys. 'We"re really up against it because O"Mahonys are the form team, they have plenty of quality players and it will be a difficult assignment for us,' said Barry. It will require a really big performance from us to turn them over at the weekend, but we still have an outside chance. We played well to get past Dunshaughlin in the quarter-final and if we can repeat that and maybe find some improvement, then we will have a chance. 'There is no real pressure on us anyway, O"Mahonys have lost the last two senior finals and they will be expected to beat us without too much difficulty,' concluded Barry. Navan O"Mahonys manager Sean Kelly believes that Blackhall Gaels are hitting top gear at just the right time. They were very impressive in their win over Dunshaugghlion and Kelly believes that O"Mahonys will need to be at their best if they are to advance to the final. 'I was very impressed with Blackhall Gaels against Dunshaughlin. They are a bit like Seneschalstown were last year in that they are starting to come really good now,' said O"Mahonys coach Sean Kelly. 'Blackhall have a good pedigree and have won the SFC more recently than O"Mahonys. We are going reasonably well, but it is done now to how they perform on the day. We are injury free at the moment and that makes a difference as well. 'Of the four that are left any of the teams can win the championship. Any team that can put together three weeks of good work and have things go their way will win. It will come down to how we perform on the day and who is hungrier. We need things to go our way as well,' concluded Kelly. O"Mahonys have so much individual talent that they would be the envy of many county teams around the country. Players like Kevin Reilly, Niall McKeigue, Cormac McGuinness, Mark Brennan, Stephen MacGabhann, Mark Ward and the Brays have all represented Meath at various levels and that individual brilliance will have to frighten Blackhall Gaels. O"Mahonys have been the pick of the championship so far. That off-the-cuff remark about who will win the championship looks like being wide of the mark so far and Blackhall Gaels could feel the full force of an O"Mahonys onslaught on Saturday. Wolfe Tones v Summerhill When the draws for the SFC were made in February, the county drew a collective gasp at the difficulty of Group A. Immediately speculation commenced about who would emerge to make it to the last four. Amazingly all three qualifiers from the group have made it to the penultimate hurdle, but at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday one of those qualifiers, either Summerhill or Wolfe Tones, will exit the race for the Keegan Cup. Surviving the "group of death" that included Navan O"Mahonys, Skryne, Rathkenny and defending champions Seneschalstown should be viewed as an achievement in itself, but both Wolfe Tones and Summerhill have higher aspirations that don"t involve being knocked out of the championship at the semi-final stage. When the sides met in the second round of the championship in early May Wolfe Tones enjoyed what appeared to be a comfortable 2-13 to 1-10 victory over Paraic Lyons and Mattie Kerrigan"s men. Cian Ward was the scorer-in-chief with nine points, but closer inspection of the game proves that Summerhill had their chances, but were lacking one vital component, a free-taker. Summerhill owned the ball for the majority of the second-half of that contest, but they failed to turn possession into scores as Ward tormented them. However, Summerhill quickly redressed their lack of a quality free taker by recalling veteran Billy Shaw from retirement and his impact had the desired effect in the following game. Since then Shaw has suffered an injury and lost his place, but Summerhill have found a quality free taker in Stephen Kennedy and his input on Sunday will be vital if Summerhill are to prove capable of overturning a six-point deficit in just four months. With a couple of wins under their belts Summerhill grew in confidence and their wins over Seneschalstown and Dunboyne in their last two outings have earmarked them as potential champions. All the talk of winning a championship may be too soon for the south Meath side this year. They were regular participants in the relegation battles in the early part of the Millennium, but having stuck with their decent young players they are now ready to have a major say in the destination of the Keegan Cup. Winning against Wolfe Tones may be just out of their reach. Tony Kearney"s men have been excellent to date and it is difficult to see that trend being broken. There is a huge reliance on Ward for scores, but when you have a player of that calibre he can be almost impossible to contain. Summerhill will probably try to deploy Gary Rispin and Mark O"Reilly on Ward and if they manage to shackle him then they will have an excellent chance. Wolfe Tones have dipped in form over the last couple of games, but have still been too strong and that could well be the case again on Sunday if Summerhill don"t play to the peak of their powers. 'It will be a very tough game for us. We are a team with a lot of young players and they have loads of experience. Wolfe Tones have been knocking around the top for a while now, but we haven"t been to a semi-final for 17 or 18 years,' said Summerhill manager Paraic Lyons. 'We addressed the free taking problem to some degree that we had when we played Wolfe Tiones in the group stages. On that day we didn"t take scores at important times, but I hope our lads will have learned from that game. If they have learned then we might get a result. 'I"m confident that if we play well then we will give Wolfe Tones plenty to think about,' concluded Lyons. After seeing his side win so much Wolfe Tones manager Tony Kearney is under no illusions about the challenge his side face when they take on Summerhill. He admires the youthful exuberance of the South Meath men and knows that the group stage win over them will count for little on Sunday. 'We are looking forward to the game now. We are confident of getting the right result, but we are certainly not over-confident. It will be a 50-50 game. Summerhill are physically very strong all over the field and they have a lot of talented players,' said Kearney. 'I know we beat them in the group stages, but the margin of victory was a bit false on that occasion. They beat us in the Feis Cup and we both had strong teams out so we know it will be tough. 'We haven"t been playing that well this year. We are hitting purple patches within the hour, but we are not being consistent. We are letting teams back into games and we shouldn"t be. A team like Summerhill will punish us if we do that again. 'We know that they will be prepared very well by the management that they have and they are very good players. We are quietly confident, but we know it will not be easy,' concluded Kearney.