Novel pairing in Munster Club SFC decider

YOU’D have to do some digging to come up with a Munster Club SFC final between Kerins O’Rahillys and Newcastle West on Saturday night week.

Neither would have been considered at the outset of the competition with the usual talk of another Cork-Kerry showdown, but events have transpired to make it a Kerry-Limerick decider instead.

Vanquished semi-finalists, Clonmel Commercials and Eire Og, Ennis, join Cork champions Nemo Rangers in allowing themselves a kick up the backside for not performing on the day/night, when it mattered most in terms of provincial glory.

The trend started with Clonmel’s stunning victory over Nemo in the quarter-finals, but the Tipperary champions couldn’t build on it and lost out to Newcastle West, going down by 1-16 to 1-11 after extra-time in Thurles.

It’s one of the fascination of sports as to how a team fails in its attempts to reach the same heights as in their previous appearance.

Cork footballers were a case in point in 2020, shocking Kerry in the Munster semi-final against Kerry with Mark Keane’s last-gasp goal, but then slipping to defeat by Tipperary in the final.

Clonmel’s management stressed the need for caution in the immediate aftermath of the Nemo game, but Newcastle West provided a different challenge and Commercials couldn’t come up with the answers.

The bookies had installed Clonmel as champions to lift the Munster title but now that dubious distinction has fallen on the shoulders of Kerins O’Rahillys from Tralee, who scraped a 1-9 to 1-8 victory over Eire Og in the other semi-final.

O’Rahillys are a strange outfit, good enough to make last season’s Kerry final, where they lost to Austin Stacks, who, in turn, were relegated this season while O’Rahillys couldn’t win a game in the championship, beaten by the eventual winners, East Kerry, Dingle and Spa.

They qualified as Kerry representatives because of a divisional side winning the county and by winning a separate club competition with a 0-15 to 0-14 win over Templenoe in the final. Now they find themselves on the cusp of a first Munster title.

It’s only their second final, having reached the 2009 version against Clare’s Kilmurry-Ibrickane, but were shocked in a 0-7 to 0-6 upset, having defeated Cork champions Clonakilty in the quarter-final.

Now, O’Rahillys are back there again, if via the scenic route, but that will have no bearing though mightily relieved to have escaped the Eire Og clutches, particularly with the first-half dismissal of talisman David Moran for a second yellow card.

By that stage another key performer, Tommy Walsh, had grabbed an early goal from a Jack Savage delivery and despite being numerically handicapped, O’Rahillys managed to hang on as Eire Og wondered how they hadn’t delivered.

Savage is an interesting story because he’s Dubai-based and flies home for games as he did last weekend and will do so once for the final while another duo, Cormac Coffey and Gavin O’Brien, do the same from the US.

Newcastle West qualified for their first final in 35 years and become the first Limerick club since Drom-Broadford in 2008 to reach a Munster decider and a repeat 0-6 to 0-5 score line would fit quite smugly for the Magpies.

Thomond College, a forerunner of UL, were the first Limerick winners way back in 1977 and it’s an opportunity for county players, Iain Corbett and Olan Sheehan, to make amends for the Munster final loss to Kerry during the summer.

The Leinster and Connacht finals are on Sunday with Dublin champions Kilmacud Crokes the hottest of favourites to deny The Downs from Westmeath and it’s ditto for Galway’s Moycullen against Sligo’s Tourlestrane out west.

Kimacud are also in the hurling final against Ballyhale Shamrocks from Kilkenny, but have only one dual player, Brian Sheehy, who starts for the hurlers and is usually sprung from the bench for the footballers.

The Leinster Council’s decision to reverse the order for the double-header at least gives him a chance of playing his best in the hurling final, though what condition he’ll be in for the football remains to be seen.

The Dublin champions remain the 6/5 favourites to succeed Kilcoo from Down as All-Ireland champions with the Leinster winners taking on either O’Rahillys or Newcastle West in the All-Ireland semi-final.