Rathgormack and Ballinacourty Clash in First Senior Football County Final

There is something special about this year’s County Senior Football Final in Waterford. For a start it does not involve either Stradbally or The Nire, the two sides that have proven most successful in the county in the last twenty years. Every year since Ballinacourty beat Ardmore in the 2007 decider at Fraher Field one or the other both on a few occasions have done battle for the Conway Cup.

Ballinacourty, the third most successful side in senior football in the Déise County in those last twenty years are involved, meaning that with Stradbally and The Nire not involved it means that for the second year running following on from Kilrossanty’s appearance in last year’s final it means that once more that we have a side from what some might call the next best sides in the county involved, something that can only be good for the game in Waterford.

Rathgormack have reached this year’s County Final as Ballinacourty’s opponents, the first time they have reached the final since losing out to Stradbally back in 2001, and will be looking to win a first title since 1999 when they beat the same opposition as they lost to two years later.

But under no circumstances should Rathgormack’s appearance in this year’s final should be seen as a surprise, far from it indeed.

Rathgormack were full value for their six point win over Stradbally in the first of the semi finals, and in truth could and should have won by a bigger margin than they did on the night.

In that semi final win Rathgormack was a delight to watch. Football at times can be very hard on neutrals to watch as coaches get players behind the ball at all times and hope that they maybe can manufacture a couple of scoreable frees at the other end and win the game that way.

Rathgormack against Stradbally ran and ran and ran more at them and it paid off for them with the likes of Billy Power, Jason Curry and Conor Murray kicking some good scores for them over the course of the hour.

Rathgormack played in Group A where they finished in second place beating Clashmore and Ardmore in their opening two fixtures before losing out to The Nire in their last group game, but finishing in second place, and with the best of the second placed teams they advanced as the fourth team to automatically play in the quarter finals.

In the quarter finals they played Gaultier where they won by two points which set up a semi final against Stradbally.

Ballinacourty won Group C with maximum points from their three games in the round robin section, beating Brickey Rangers and An Rinn before getting a walk over from Gaultier in their final game in the group section of the competition.

In the quarter finals they were drawn against last year’s runners up Kilrossanty, a game that many felt Kilrossanty had a good chance of advancing from, but despite playing nearly three quarters of an hour with a numerical disadvantage Ballinacourty did enough to force extra time and to win the game in the added twenty minutes.

In their semi final win over The Nire they started without Patrick Hurney who was suspended as a result of his sending off in their win over Kilrossanty and also without Shane Briggs from the start but he did come on late in that game. Both are hugely experienced players and would normally walk onto any side in the county and even beyond, but Peter Queally’s charges had more than enough as a backup to fill in for both players. Here Ballinacourty worked very hard against the reigning champions and were full value for their passage to this weekend’s County Final.

If we were to write the names of those expected to feature in Sunday’s final side by side on a piece of paper, it might look to most that Ballinacourty were the better or more balanced side.

Right throughout their team there is a mixture of youth and experience. There is players that have won senior football medals in the past in the team, whether it was as a starting player or as a sub on the day. They have some good young players that have come through from very successful underage sides, some of whom could well be involved in their first senior football final with the club, but may well have featured in last year’s hurling final loss to Ballygunner and will be looking to use the experience gained in that game to their benefit in this game, even if it is in different sports.

But the same could well be said of Rathgormack. They have some experience players, players that have played alongside players they will be up against this weekend on different Waterford teams. And just like Ballinacourty they have players that will be coming off some very successful underage teams.

For the betterment of Football in the county, the game needs the likes of Rathgormack contesting this year’s county final and Kilrossanty contesting last year’s final. The game needs more clubs, the likes of Ardmore, Clashmore, Gaultier, An Rinn etc to be involved in County Finals on a regular basis, and not just contesting them, the games needs these and indeed other clubs beating the likes of Stradbally, The Nire and Ballinacourty in the finals. The more clubs that we have able to challenge for and win titles the better the game will get in Waterford.

Both Ballinacourty and Rathgormack will go into the game believing that they can win this game. Many of the players on both sides will be very familiar with each other, having played with and against each other down the years on different teams.

Whichever of these two sides advance to represent Waterford in the Munster Club Championship will do so with pride and will carry a realistic chance of having a good run in the competition. Who knows, they might even go on to be the first Waterford side to win the competition.

So which side will win? Will the Conway Cup final a home across the bridge as they say in Dungarvan, or will it head to the east of the county.

The head and the heart is saying two different things. The head obviously tells me to go for the more experienced at this level anyhow – Ballinacourty side, but the heart like many others would love to see Rathgormack win and break the dominance of the big three in the county.

Listening to both I am a tendency to think that Ballinacourty will win, but to be honest, I don’t really mind who wins on Sunday. I want to see Football as the winner. All too often in the recent past the County Final has not got played till November, often in the wet and slop in Fraher Field, resulting in the fact it was difficult for most sides to play football as it should be.

Full marks must go to the Officer Board of the County Board in getting this year’s final played just past the mid way point in October. The surface in Fraher Field has been good in the last few weeks and no doubt the ground staff will be doing all in their power to ensure it is once more for Sunday’s final. Hopefully their work in getting the final played earlier this year than in other years will result in one of the biggest gatherings for the final in recent years. Something is telling me that we will see a fine crowd inside Fraher Field well before the throw in on Sunday afternoon.  

 

 

Paths to the Final

Ballinacourty           1-16    Brickey Rangers      0-4

Ballinacourty           2-12    An Rinn                    1-8

Ballinacourty                       Gaultier                    Conceded by Gaultier

Ballinacourty           4-6      Kilrossanty               3-5

Ballinacourty           0-16    The Nire                    1-9

 

Rathgormack           3-8      Clashmore                0-4

Rathgormack           7-15    Ardmore                   1-11

Rathgormack           1-10    The Nire                    2-9

Rathgormack           2-12    Gaultier                    1-13

Rathgormack           0-14    Stradbally                 0-8