Long Senior Football Club Championship Lay Off To Come To An End

With so much hurling played in the last few weeks and months, one could be forgiven for forgetting that football is also played in Waterford, and this weekend four of the six games in round two of this year’s Senior Football Championship are down for decision in both the winners and losers sections following the first round of games played all of 12 weeks ago now.

Two games have gone by the wayside, that of The Nire and Stradbally in the winners section following the first round of games and Clashmore and Rathgormack in the losers section have also fallen by the wayside because of players involved with the Waterford team in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling semi final in two weeks time.

The first game of the weekend sees Ardmore take on Portlaw in Lemybrien on Thursday evening.

In their respective first round games Ardmore lost 1-19 to 1-9 against a strong Stradbally side at the same venue as this game is played, while Portlaw fared somewhat better, even if they too lost, when they were beaten 2-6 to 0-7 again at the Lemybrien venue back in the first weekend of May.

The two sides have already met this year in the County Senior Football league where Portlaw had a 1-11 to 1-10 win at the Ardmore venue back in the middle of June.

The two sides go into this game on the back of wins in their most recent County Senior Football League games, when Portlaw beat An Rinn 4-8 to 1-9 at Portlaw back on the 9^th of July while five days later Ardmore pulled off their only competitive win in the league when they beat Stradbally in Stradbally on a 1-16 to 0-17 score line.

While many might well argue that this could well be a drab game, the opposite could well prove to be the case, as both recently reached the semi finals of the Phelan Cup, where Portlaw lost out to Stradbally 1-11 to 2-5 and Ardmore lost out to Kilrossanty on a 2-11 to 0-13 score line.

Ardmore’s greater experience should see them through to the next phase of the competition, leaving Portlaw to battle against relegation, but you right off Portlaw at your pearl.

Brickey’s and Gaultier meet at the same venue on Saturday evening again in the losers section.

In their respective first round game Gaultier lost out 3-8 to 1-11 against a Kilrossanty side than many are fancying their chances to make inroads this year, while Brickey’s lost out to neighbours An Rinn 1-13 to 0-10.

Both sides had contrasting form in the County Leagues with Brickey’s finishing second from bottom in their group while Gaultier in the opposite group lost out on a place in the semi finals finishing level on points with The Nire who had a better score difference and won the head to head between the two.

Gaultier get the nod to advance in this game, but expect it to be a close fought battle.

There is two games down for decision at Fraher Field on Sunday evening, both in the winners section of the competition, with the winners advancing to the semi finals of the competition.

Ballinameela and Kilrossanty do battle at 6-30 which is followed ninety minutes later with the clash between Ballinacourty and An Rinn which has to be the tie of the weekend.

Kilrossanty are going great guns this year, reaching the final of the Phelan Cup and are in the last four of the County Senior Football League.

They have had just one competitive loss all year that being a 1-12 to 0-11 defeat to great rivals Stradbally in the League. There can be no questioning of their ability and on any given day can more than be a match to any side, including the Big Three within the county over the past decade and a half.

Ballinameela had a win over Portlaw in the first round of the championship and finished in a mid table position in the league, while they lost out to Ardmore in the quarter final stages of the league.

You would expect Kilrossanty to have too much for Ballinameela in this game, but as we have seen in recent years, Ballinameela on their day can be a match for most sides.

An Rinn are an improving team in recent year and this year seems to be no different as they had a good Comortus Peil competition this year once more, a competition played between the clubs in the Gaeltacht areas around Ireland, some of which have very strong football clubs.

Ballinacourty are a side that are there or there about in recent years and when they have won the Conway Cup they have represented the county with great pride. They along with the likes of Stradbally and The Nire will be the sides most fancied to win this year’s title.

But when it comes to this game, in recent years because in part to the lack of championship games in the county both sides have lost players for the summer as they go to America to work and to play. It appears that players have made the journey across the ocean again this year and it remains to be seen how depleted sides will be. From listening to commentaries of Waterford games in the last few weeks on WLR, from what Kieran O’Connor has to say Ballinacourty will be short players for this game.

This is a game that we can expect to go to the wire, and maybe extra time should not be ruled out when these two play. With full strength sides, you would be expecting Ballinacourty to win, but if An Rinn this weekend can put out a full strength team or a near full strength side, then it would be no surprise to see then advance to the semi finals, and if this happens it will mean one thing, that at least one of the big three will not reach the semi finals of this year’s championship.