Templeport squad.

Templeport team-manager Fintan Reilly ahead of Sunday’s JFC final

KEVIN ÓG CARNEY

Templeport team-manager Fintan Reilly doesn’t do over the top and ahead of this Sunday’s JFC final, his analysis of his team’s successful campaign to date is very reasoned, very measured.
The Saints have marched into this weekend’s decider with quite a swagger but Reilly reckons his side are far from the full package:
“We’ve done the basics well but there’s a fair bit of room for improvement,” the Redhills’ native explains.
“There’s a lot of talent in the squad and they’ve shown that at different times in different matches but Sunday will be a time for them to produce their best football consistently over the hour.
“They’ve done very well to get this year but I just hope for their own sake that, against Cornafean on Sunday, they do themselves justice.
“There’s always the fear, every day you go out, that your players won’t find their best form. You just don’t know how individual players will react on the big day.”
Templeport were pitted in a so-called group of death which saw them lock horns with Ballymachugh, Shannon Gaels and, ironically, Cornafean.
To the surprise of many observers of the ACFL, Reilly’s cutting crew experienced a stuttering start on their odyssey to this year’s blue riband junior final.
Losing to the Reds first time out in Killeshandra wasn’t what the doctor ordered as it put Templeport immediately under pressure, Reilly concedes.
“They won that game by a point but we didn’t play well. We didn’t move the ball well in Killeshandra and for some reason weren’t in the right frame of mind and just didn’t put it together in the way we were in the league.
“We didn’t want to have to go through the back door but we found ourselves in a winner-take-all game with last year’s beaten finalists Ballymachugh who had been doing very well in the league.
“Beating them gave the lads a big boost in confidence and we’ve really never looked back since.”
Templeport’s advance out of the group (behind Cornafean) lent itself to meetings with Munterconnacht and Knockbride with, as things turned out, the latter game the Saints’ more difficult assignment in Reilly’s estimation.
For a six week period, Reilly’s charges were put under the championship microscope. On just one occasion – against the Reds – things went belly-up. As most pundits predicted at the start of the year, Templeport had safely navigated their way into the semi-finals.
A comfortable 3-14 to 0-11 victory over Mountnugent in the last four of the competition ensued; the Saints leading for the full 60 minutes-plus as Mountnugent’s back broke under the force of a triple whammy in the space of 90 odd seconds which saw them ship two goals and go down to 14 men entering the final quarter.
This Sunday’s tilt is almost certain to be a whole different affair than that which tested Templeport last time out and no one is more aware of that vista than Reilly, a JFC winner (2004) and IFC winner (2008) with his native Redhills:
“Cornafean have already beaten us in the championship and even though there wasn’t a whole pile in it that day, they’ll be favourites for Sunday and rightly so. “They’ve put up some big scores this year and have a lot going for themselves all around the field so we’re under no illusions about the battle that lies ahead of us.”
Templeport have been doing well on two fronts this year with their journey to the championship final dovetailing with a run in the league which has steered them to within one win (their only remaining tie is against Corlough) of securing promotion to division two of the ACFL.
Together with his selectors Mark McGovern and Damien McKenna, the Templeport boss is hopeful that the Saints can reprise their ACFL win in Bawnboy last March when the biggest prize of all in junior football beckons this Sunday.
“There won’t be much in it either way. It just might come down to which team shows the greater hunger on the day.”
Words to the wise.