Senior Football Championship down to the last four in Waterford

The county senior football championship has reached its penultimate round of games this weekend, with both semi finals pencilled in for the Fraher Field venue with the final taking place a week tonight (Friday) which what must be a first for Waterford, and maybe even a first for Munster and maybe beyond.

With the big three all having reached this stage of the competition, one from The Nire (holders), Stradbally and Ballinacourty are guaranteed a place in next weeks final, as the first of the semi finals between The Nire and Stradbally is a repeat of last years final, while in the second semi final Kilrossanty will be hoping to create a shock as they take on neighbours Ballinacourty tomorrow (Saturday) evening.

Earlier this week it was noted on a bookies website they had made The Nire favourites to win the first semi final, but their making the holders favourites must be done by the toss of a coin because it is almost impossible to make one of the two sides involved favourites over the other as each clash between the two is seldom if ever a 50/50 affair.

In their respective quarter final clash last weekend it was the current champions that looked more impressive and this may in a way have made the bookies make up their find as to which of the two deserve to be tagged as favourites.

They were always the better side in their win over 2014 Intermediate Champions Brickeys at Fraher Field while at the same venue twenty four hours earlier, Stradbally got off to a tonic start with Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh hitting a goal inside two minutes and raced into a 1-5 to 0-0 lead after just a quarter of an hour, but the Round Tower Club side kicked four points in a row before the break to cut their lead at the end of the first quarter by half.

The third quarter of that game proved to be a drab affair as neither side scored in the first ten minutes of the half before Shane Ahearne split the posts. Stradbally however failed to press on and it was Ardmore that for the next while proved to be the better of the two sides as David Gartland and Thomas Power landed points for Ardmore before Kenny Murphy put through Conor O’Shea with a good chance but he failed to control the ball as he would have liked and the chance was lost to go level with Ballinacourty.

Ardmore who were in a relegation play off with Ballinameela twelve months ago moved to within two of Stradbally with ten minutes remaining when David Garland pointed, but this was as good as it got for Ardmore as the experienced heads in the Stradbally team came to the core in the closing minutes as John Hearne, Eoin O’Brien and Stephen Cunningham landed scores to help their side to a 1-9 to 0-7 victory.

The 2014 champions ensured that their quest for first back to back titles going back to 1993 and 1994 remained on track when they beat Brickeys 0-16 to 1-6.

The current champions had this game in effect wrapped up by the break at which time they held a 0-10 to 0-3 advantage on the scoreboard.

The Nire went into this game almost two months after their last championship outing, having received a bye from De La Salle in their last game in the group stages and having got a bye to the second of the play off games after Clashmore, Ballinacourty and The Nire all finished on eight points in the group they also received a bye as Ballinacourty who won the first play off game with Clashmore to see who would finish second and third in the group, conceded to the champions.

The game with Brickeys last weekend will have done The Nire good heading into this weekends game as it would have knocked away any cobwebs that had set in.

Both of these sides are expected to field very experienced sides. Its worth noting that last weekend, Stradbally had Tony Grey back after a long injury lay off while The Nire were still missing Liam Lawlor with an Injury.

The second semi final see Ballinacourty and Kilrossanty do battle on Saturday evening in a game that is expected to attract a large local support to the Fraher Field venue.

Both of these sides had impressive wins last weekend as Kilrossanty accounted for Clashmore on a 2-10 to 0-5 win at Fraher Field while Ballinacourty had a comprehensive 4-18 to 0-9 win over Gaultier at Carrickbeg.

An interesting feature of Ballinacourty’s win last weekend was that all six forwards that started against Gaultier – Michael O’Halloran, Evan Collins, Patrick Hurney, Shane O’Donovan, Gary Hurney and Mark Ferncombe got their names on the score sheet with Michael O’Halloran, Shane O’Donovan, Evan Collins and Mark Ferncombe sharing the green flags.

Kilrossanty for their part also impressed in their win over Clashmore who for a long time headed group one of the group stages of the championship before finishing third, finishing on eight points alongside The Nire and Stradbally.

At the break Kilrossanty who looked to very fit were 1-6 to 0-2 in front against Clashmore who started without both Brian O’Halloran and Sean Fleming, the goal coming on nineteen minutes from Paul Whyte who found himself unmarked in front of goal, beating Declan Hickey from close range for give his side a 1-6 to 0-1 advantage.

Brian O’Halloran did come in for Gavin Dower at the break resulting in Clashmore starting better than they had faired in the first half, but the game was effectively ended as a contest twelve minutes into the second half as Joey Veale rounded his opponent and laid the ball off to Pa Cunningham and he made no mistake in hitting a second Kilrossanty goal.

So who will advance to next weeks County Final.

Both semi finals could well prove to be close fought affairs. For the second semi final clash, the forwards on both sides involved in this weeks game were on fire last weekend.

As pointed out already the six starting forwards for Ballinacourty all scored last weekend while five of the starting six forwards for Kilrossanty got their name on the score sheet. Against stronger backs this weekend it would be a big ask to ask that eleven of the starting twelve forwards to score this weekend but if they were to it could result in an excellent game.

Kilrossanty go into the game with a seasoned looked their side, even if some of their side is still very young. Ballinacourty for their part each year are bringing on new players from their Minor and Under 21 teams and are taking up the chance to shine playing at a higher grade.

The 2013 champions have what appears to be the stronger side and with ability such as that of Mark Ferncombe, the Hurney’s, Michael O’Halloran and Shane O’Donovan amongst others, they would be expected to come out on top.

The other game is much tougher to call.

In the big battles between the two since the turn of the century Stradbally have tended to come out on top more often but last year when Stradbally went into the county final as the favourites, The Nire playing some excellent football pulled off a terrific result and went on to reach the Munster Final a few weeks later.

Can they do it again?

I for one would not put it passed them, but the loss of Liam Lawlor in recent games is a big one while Tony Grey inclusion for Stradbally is a major plus.

Down the years a second meeting has often been needed to find a winner when these two meet and I would not be surprised if one was needed here, unless both sides have agreed in advance to play extra time if needed.

For me, I opting for Ballinacourty in the second semi final and going for a draw in the first game which could lead to all sorts of problems for the county board as the County Final is fixed for next Friday evening with the winners out less than 48 hours later in the Munster Championship, which begs the question, why were games not played all during the summer. Why are the majority of players left twiddling their thumbs void of meaningful games for weeks and months on end and come this time of the year are cramming games in in quick succession. More about that later maybe.