Familiar Look to County Senior Football Final

It might have taken five months to happen, but the twelve teams that started out in the quest to win this year’s county senior football championship have become two, and baring the need for a replay, something that cannot and should not be ruled out, we should know who this year’s County Senior Football Champions are by about half past three on Sunday evening.

Regular readers to what I have to say about Gaelic Games in Waterford will know what I have had to say about this year’s Senior Football Championship. To sum up, there is no way it should have taken seven months to reach this stage of the competition, and someone along the way will have to hold their hands up and say things went horribly wrong this year, and to give assurances that the same will not happen again in 2018 or any year beyond that. Just like in Dáil Éireann during the week, someone will have to be held accountable, and admit things not just went wrong, but horribly wrong.

The days of the tail wagging its dog has to be got rid of and its time that the dog began to wag its tail.

In saying all this, I for one welcomed the new look championship in 2017 when it was announced a change would be made for this year, and would like to see something similar happen in hurling, and maybe with a reduction in the amount of teams competing in both competitions going into the future.

It is no great surprise to see Stradbally and The Nire reach this year’s County Final. They over the past few years have proven to be the two best sides in the county, each winning the championship in the last two years.

This Sunday’s final excluding replays will be the ninth time that the two sides have met at this stage of the competition, with results between the two sides in County Finals well and truly going in favour of Stradbally, winning six of the previous eight games between the two sides, but they will need no telling that it was The Nire in 2006 that stopped them from winning an unique five titles in a row when they won 1-5 to 0-3, and it was The Nire that won the last County Final between the two sides, winning 0-11 to 1-6 back in 2014.

A win for Stradbally in this game would be talked about for a long time in the Cove Village and its environs for a long time as it would draw them level with Dungarvan on 19 titles as the most successful clubs when it comes to County Final wins within the County, four ahead of their nearest rivals Kilrossanty, while a win for The Nire would put them level with Rathgormack on 9 titles since they won their first back in 1993, but more importantly for them it will be only the second time that they have put back to back titles together since they beat Dungarvan and Gaultier in 1993 and 1994.

The sides have already met in the championship this year, playing each other in the second round of the competition, a game held over until after the All-Ireland Final. Both games as you would expect went all out for the win in this game, even though whichever side would lose the game would fancy their chances of getting to the semi finals via the scenic route. It was Stradbally that won the game, meaning that The Nire had to wait till the hurling championship was complete before playing again, while Stradbally had to wait till last weekend for their next competitive game when they beat Kilrossanty in the second of the semi finals at Fraher Field.

That scenic route for The Nire has in the last three weeks have seen then receive a walk over from Gaultier, beat Rathgormack, Ballinacourty and Clashmore before staging a comeback that the writers of the Roy of the Rovers comic would find hard to beat last Sunday against An Rinn in the semi finals.

Had this game been played on time for the winners to advance to participate in the Munster Club Championship, I would have had a sneaky feeling that the current champions would have put back to back titles together.

The last few weeks have seen the ground get very wet and heavy and The Nire playing so many games in such a short space of time is bound to have taken it from their legs, and they also have lost Jamie Barron with an injury and last week played without long standing corner back Justin Walsh, again reported to have missed out with an injury.

They have lost a lot of the team that won last year’s final for this game for different reasons. The players that have come in have to their credit played well to date, but they have not played a side like Stradbally in the latter days of the calendar year so far this year, and as we know only too well, there is nobody like Stradbally to grind out a win often in difficult conditions.

Like The Nire Stradbally have lost some players that were established first choice players from their starting set up in the last year or two. And just like The Nire they have some very experienced players who have been around now some time and who are no strangers to winning the big games. Of the experience on both sides, you can’t but feel that Stradbally might marginally have the more experienced players, especially to come off the bench in the closing stages of the game it its close and there for the winning.

Earlier this year I predicted that The Nire would win back to back titles this year, but a lot of water has flown under the bridge since doing so.

Every player likes to get a lot of games each year, but I for one cant but think that they would like to have then spaced out a little more than The Nire have had them recently, but not as much as they had them spaced between Round One and Round Two and then again Round Three recently.

For me, if there is to be a winner this weekend, it’s going to be Stradbally, by a small margin. The only pity is that whichever side does take the Conway Cup home with them does not get the chance to play in the Munster Championship because whichever one would have, i feel would have given the competition a good go this year.

Past Clashes between the two in County Finals

1987	Stradbally	1-9	The Nire	1-5
2002	Stradbally	0-12	The Nire	0-10
2004	Stradbally	2-8	The Nire	1-4
2005	Stradbally	1-8	The Nire	1-4
2006	The Nire	1-5	Stradbally	0-3
2009	Stradbally	2-5	The Nire	0-9
2012	Stradbally	1-8	The Nire	0-10
2014	The Nire	0-11	Stradbally	0-6

 

Stradbally are currently second in the Roll of Honour table with 18 County Senior Football titles, one behind Dungarvan. The 18 titles were won in – 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1987, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015.

The Nire currently have eight County Final’s won, and are fifth in the Roll of Honour table and will go level with Rathgormack with a win on Sunday. They have won their eight titles in 1993, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2016.

 

Path’s to this year’s County Final.

Stradbally:

Round 1	Stradbally	1-19	Ardmore	1-9	6 May
Round 2	Stradbally	2-15	The Nire	2-11	10 September
Semi Final	Stradbally	0-13	Kilrossanty	0-11	26 November

 

The Nire:

Round 1	The Nire	0-9	Clashmore	0-8	5 May
Round 2	The Nire	2-11	Stradbally	2-15	10 September
Round 3	The Nire	Received walk over	Gaultier	Conceded	8 November
Round 4	The Nire	0-18	Rathgormack	1-8	12 November
Round 5	The Nire	2-6	Ballinacourty	0-8	16 November
Round 6	The Nire	2-15	Clashmore	1-7	21 November
Semi Final	The Nire	3-8	An Rinn	2-10	26 November