Cnoc Mhuire aim for All-Ireland glory

Preview

Kevin Egan

It’s quite the remarkable statistic that coming into this All-Ireland final, Connacht champions St. Nathy’s had their second-highest margin of victory in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mount St. Michael’s (Cork), while Cnoc Mhuire of Granard had their biggest win in six games when they outclassed McLarnon Cup winners Aquinas Grammar (Belfast) by 1-21 to 0-7.

Playing their semi-finals on top of the ground conditions certainly helped – St. Nathy’s played on astroturf in UL while the playing surface at St. Patrick’s GFC in Donagh, Fermanagh, was absolutely pristine for the meeting of the Leinster and Ulster champions.

St. Nathy’s had eight scorers, and 16 out of their 19 scores came from open play. Cnoc Mhuire had nine scorers, 16 out of 17 scores came from open play. Both sides thrived with the wind at their backs, but notably, both sides also outscored their opponents when playing into that fresh Spring breeze.

Then there are the similarities in terms of profile, with both schools pulling from two sides of a county border – St. Nathy’s have a couple of Sligo starters to go with their even split between Roscommon and Mayo players - and both schools having a sprinkling of provincial minor championship winners in their ranks, with Longford in 2024 and Roscommon in 2025.

So the question remains; where are the areas of difference that might separate the teams and determine which of these schools will ultimately lift the Paddy Drummond Cup?

On the face of it, the presence of two star players at midfield is another similarity, but for all Oran Frain’s excellent all-round display in Limerick where he kicked two points, covered every blade (?) of artificial grass and was at the heart of most of the Ballaghaderreen school’s best attacks, his natural match up will be with Dylan Ledwith of Abbeylara, a more defensive player who will arguably be happy just to spoil that particular pairing.

The heavyweight clash, in every sense, will be the battle between Odhran Madden and Seán Keating.

Keating’s ability to exert his power and thrive in the skies has enabled Frain to play with plenty of freedom, not to mention allowing the St. Nathy’s management to pick an entire half-forward line comprised of players very adept at creating and finishing scores.

Cnoc Mhuire have taken a different approach, with a strong focus on controlling the kickout and defending from the front, embodied by the graft and battling qualities of team captain Liam Greene, who has been moved from his more usual role in the half-backs to a new deployment at centre forward.

In a nutshell, the Granard side have laid out their team in a manner that prioritises getting the lion’s share of contested aerial ball into their hands, St. Nathy’s will feel that they have a scoring threat from all over the top half of pitch.

When it comes to defensive play, the Cnoc Mhuire management of John Coyne, Morgan Farrell and Vincent Nally make no secret of their zonal approach, covering from three or four metres outside the arc and back, essentially daring the opposition to try and kick or run the ball into a contest rather than trying to force the issue outfield, or to designate many players as direct man-on-man markers.

Don’t be surprised to see Mullahoran’s Aaron Plunkett sent after Dean Casey, the centre-forward and key player on that successful Roscommon minor group, but for the remainder of the defence to concentrate on holding their shape, restricting the amount of space and effectively goading Casey, Frain and Buckley into trying to pick out eye-of-a-needle passes into traffic.

Aquinas Grammar experimented with the option of overshooting that cover, deploying midfielder Pádhraig O’Hare as a drifting corner forward.

The big man did get his fingers to one long ball, only to touch it narrowly the wrong side of the post. The trial was abandoned when Cnoc Mhuire took over at midfield and O’Hare had to go back into the trenches, but while the Granard back division is high on tenacity, there are a few smaller bodies in there and if the option opens up with Ryan O’Sullivan one-on-one at any stage, the potential payoff on an early ball gamble is high. O’Sullivan is the marquee forward in that St. Nathy’s inside line, a goalscorer in each of the last three games and a mercurial talisman that may warrant taking Mel Mulligan out from his usual full back berth.

At the other end of the field, the challenge for St. Nathy’s will be curtailing the cohesion and interplay of the Cnoc Mhuire inside forward line, comprising three Granard club members (Ben Blessington, Cian O’Donnell, Brendan Martin Burns), all three of which have played at minor level for Longford.

Each of the three kicked at least one two-pointer and at least two scores from play last time out, frequently involving one or two of the trio pulling right out to the sideline to open up channels towards goal, or to subsequently cut in, pick up lay-offs and shoot from range.

It was natural, it was effective, and it had all the hallmarks of a group of players that know each other inside out from a very young age.

In what should be a fascinating battle between two sides that have gathered momentum and look to be peaking at the right time, these crucial points of separation could make all the difference.