Denn look to uphold favourites' tag

JFC final preview

Kevin Óg Carney

The ultimate attraction about sport is the unknown and ahead of today's 2020 JFC final (6pm) at Kingspan Breffni, the spectre of an upset looms large.

Croke Park, last weekend, saw the once invincible Metropolitans suddenly morph into the unconvincing. Now every underdog in the country will believe they can do a ‘Mayo’ on their opponent.

“We’re probably being seen by most people in the county as favourites but it’s all about which team performs on the day; that’s the long and short of it,” says current Denn team-manager Stephen Baxter ahead of his side's clash with a Templeport side unfancied in some quarters.

Baxter ought to know what makes the difference between winning and losing blue riband junior finals in Cavan. After all, over the last seven years he has been the losing manager of his native Ballymachugh on two occasions (to Arva and Cornafean in 2014 and 2016 respectively) while also triumphing in 2017 with the ‘hughs.

“Sometimes a team gets a lucky break in a final and goes on from there,” Baxter explains. “We missed a goal against Cornafean and not long after they went up the field and got a goal. We had belief in ourselves that we could do it that day but it was Cornafean who turned up on the day, not us unfortunately.”

Those closest to the Denn set-up this year are quietly confident that their favourites can justify the turf accountants’ odds and do the business against Templeport. Baxter admits though that, in a worst case scenario, “complacency could set in and we don’t perform.”

“I suppose complacency is a worry. Templeport could be a banana skin but there’ll always be a banana skin there for any team that doesn’t respect their opponents.”

Baxter is hopeful that he and his think-tank of Jerome Kiernan, Kenneth Rothwell and Raymond Smith will have a full deck to play with come Saturday evening. Given the relatively limited preparation the Denn management team have been afforded due to Covid-19 principally, Baxter admits that “it’s hard to know what’s going to happen in the final.”

The Denn supremo says he has no reason to expect the maroon and whites not to maintain their pristine championship form of last year and really test Templeport’s mettle. He is cognisant of the fact though that the Saints are unbeaten in the 2020 championship. That said, he insists all belonging to the favourite’s camp “couldn’t be in a happier position” approaching this weekend’s decider.

Like Templeport, the 2020 JFC final favourites are likely to show some ring rust at HQ this Saturday and Baxter admits the fact that his team has had only a couple of challenge games before Covid-19 struck and only a couple of league games between mid-March and mid-July means that it would be unrealistic to expect the Crosskeys-based crew to show electrifying form this weekend.

“We’re prepared as best we can and I’ve been happy with the way everyone has bought into our training schedule and winning the games we have in the championship definitely bred confidence.

“The help I’ve had from the club itself but especially from my selectors has been invaluable. We’ve reached the final ‘cause we’ve had a good, combined team either side of the white line. I’m certain that we’ve done everything we can to be prepared for whatever challenge Templeport presents us with in the final. Physically, I think our lads are in good shape but Saturday’s game will tell us more.”

The highly experienced Denn manager opines that both teams are going into the unknown this Saturday. “We haven’t met on the field so we don’t know each other. It’s hard to know what exactly to expect of them but I know they’ll be very hard to beat given their form last year and this year.”

What sort of duel can we expect?

“Neither team looks to play with a defensive mindset. Anyway I think the days of defensive football from intercounty to club level are gone for the most part.

“Templeport have been scoring a lot. They have a serious forward line and they must be the top scorers in the championship. So it should be an open, high-scoring game. There’s definitely a lot of scoring talent on both teams but little things can change matches, like a freak goal or a black card. Worse still if a team didn’t keep their discipline and had someone sent off; that can be crucial.

“Neither Templeport or us would be known as being overly-physical and being dirty doesn’t get a team anywhere ‘cause officialdom nowadays make sure that sort of approach doesn’t pay. Hatchet men aren’t tolerated anymore and there’s no hatchet men on either the Denn team or the Templeport team.”

Like his Templeport counterpart, Baxter’s rating of his opponent smacks of sincerity and genuineness but, like Farrell, the Ballymachugh clubman rates his charges very highly.

Baxter reminds us that Templeport’s success in the 2015 JFC shows that “they have been over the course before and have succeeded before. The Saints know how to do it, Baxter adds while reminding all and sundry that Denn haven’t made the winner’s enclosure in championship parlance for a couple of decades now.

Doubtless, the mind games will continue ‘till the throw-in (6pm).