Premier JFC final: St Nick's in new territory as they take on 'exceptional' Buttevant

There’s great excitement around Blackpool as St Nick’s gear up for the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier JFC final tomorrow.

The city team face a huge challenge as they take on Buttevant at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (4.30pm).

The teams last met in July 2024 in their opening group game on an evening when Buttevant romped to a 21-point victory.

The side in black and white have improved since then though. This year, they gained promotion from Division 6 of the league.

St Nick’s only defeats in 2025 have come against Kildorrery in the opening league outing and Canovee in the league final.

“It has to be honest, we were in a relegation battle last year,” St Nick’s selector Kevin Wall says when asked if getting to the final is a surprise.

“We could have been back down Junior A, that’s obviously not where we wanted to be. We got together as a group at the start of this year, both from an administrative committee level and also from a players perspective.

“There was a rallying call to kind of say the last few years haven’t been good enough for a club of the stature of St Nick’s.

“Our main aim was to just qualify out of the group. That’s what we felt was a realistic objective at the beginning of the year.” 

The return of the Downey brothers, Robert and Eoin, for St Nick’s second group game in August was a timely boost, but Wall is keen to point out that it has been a collective effort.

“We all know that Robert and Eoin are elite athletes,” he said.

“But the point we would like to make is that we went through the regular Division 6 campaign winning six games, drawing two and losing just one. We will be a grade higher in the league next year which will be massive.

“Robert and Eoin didn’t play in any of those games. The work has been going on throughout the year. Obviously, they were tied in with Cork and they didn’t return to us until August. They are huge additions to the dressing room and bring huge enthusiasm.

“At the end of the day, a lot of the foundation work was done earlier this year. We feel we have a strong squad helped by the U21s getting to the county B final last season.” 

St Nick’s are appearing in their first adult county football final tomorrow since 1983. It has been a long time coming for them and a welcome boost from the struggles of battling relegation.

They were in the top-tier of the football championship as recently as 2019.

“We are in bonus territory. You want to go into this final and give it your best performance. We are under no illusions. Buttevant are strong favourites and rightly so. They are an exceptional team.

“They have racked up some big tallies. We know that we will be up against it. There’s a great buzz around the place. A degree of expectation, but we aren’t stupid, Buttevant beat us by 21 points last year.

“We need to produce our best performance to have any chance. We are complete underdogs, we get that, but it’s a two-horse race. There’s always a chance that we can upset the apple cart.” Wall ended.