SFC set to burst into life as knock-out stages arrive
Preview
After a hectic group stage of 24 matches, the field in the Senior Championship has been reduced from 12 to eight and the real action will get underway this weekend.
From last weekend’s six matches, just one – Cavan Gaels v Killygarry - had any bearing on which teams advanced to the next stage, with placings on the table up for grabs in the others.
The ninth renewal of the championship in its current guise has produced the most one-sided matches and the least jeopardy on the final day – by beating Ramor, Gowna will play Cavan Gaels rather than Mullahoran, for example, which is not a particular reward – and it may be something the county board chooses to look at over the winter months.
Last year, attendances fell during the group stages of the championships; prior to last weekend’s matches, gate receipts were up 17% this season but, against that, ticket prices have risen by 20%, so it’s fair to say that at best, things have held steady in terms of bums on seats.
That’s a debate for another day but there is no doubt that things will be ratcheted up significantly from here on in. Across the three grades, there were 76 matches played in the group stages, after which 14 of the 38 teams were eliminated. There are just 10 matches remaining across the board.
Half of the 24 who made the knock-out stages had a win rate of 50% or lower in the group stage, reinforcing the sense that the structure in Cavan is extremely forgiving and things don’t really get going properly till the knock-out stages. Bolstering that is the fact that four of those teams who were unbeaten in the group – Belturbet and Shannon Gaels in the Junior Championship and Bailieborough and Cootehill in the Intermediate – were eliminated in the quarter-finals of those competitions at the weekend, which should serve as a warning shot to the top four in the Senior Championship table.
That quartet – Crosserlough, Gowna, Kingscourt and Mullahoran – take on Arva, Cavan Gaels, Ballyhaise and Ramor United respectively. Arva, the Gaels and Ballyhaise have all been beaten twice, with the later two having already fallen to this weekend’s opponents.
Yet, there is still intrigue around this weekend’s games. Crosserlough will be strongly fancied to get the better of Arva based on all known form but last year’s Intermediate champions are a resilient group who bounced back from losses to Ramor and Ballyhaise to handle Castlerahan at the weekend.
Gowna and Cavan Gaels is arguably the tie of the round. This town v country clash often produces fireworks. The sides drew in round three last year and in the 2022 quarter-final, Gowna winning the replay well on that occasion en route to the title.
Under Armagh man Declan McCoy, the Gaels have been rejuvenated this year, with the Shehu brothers in particularly good form, but Gowna, injury problems notwithstanding, will be expected to negotiate this one, buoyed as they will be from an excellent win over Ramor. The Virginia men, for their part, probably don’t know where they are at. They retained their league title but after an opening-round draw against Mullahoran, they learned little in two cake-walks against Arva and Laragh and they were alarmingly off the pace against Gowna on Sunday in Lavey.
Most concerning for the Ramor think tank may be the fact that Gowna were without three certain starters in defence in Cillian and Cormac Brady and captain Ryan McGahern as well as key attacker Oisin Pierson while Ramor were almost at full strength.
Ramor drew with Mullahoran last year, too, so there is clearly not a huge amount between them. The Dreadnoughts are making strides but draws – they also drew with Gowna – are a finite currency. They need to take a ‘big three’ scalp and will be dangerous – but Ramor get a cautious vote.
Kingscourt had 10 points to spare when they met Ballyhaise a few weeks ago in Mullagh but that match was closer than the scoreline would suggest. While the likes of Eoin Clarke and Michael Brady are going well around the middle, the reported loss of Evan Crowe to a season-ending injury greatly hinders their chances and the Stars, who drew with Crosserlough without the services of Jordan Morris, are deserved favourites to advance. Interestingly, counting the two quarter-finals which went to extra time in 2020 (when there were no replays) as draws, 11 of the last 40 SFC quarter-finals have finished in stalemate; another draw somewhere is quite possible, with replays provisionally pencilled in for the following weekend.