Leinster Club IFC Semi-final – Ballylinan v Allenwood (Kildare)
In O’Moore Park at 1.30pm
Ballylinan’s Leinster club adventure continues this afternoon when they welcome Kildare champions Allenwood to O’Moore Park.
It’s Ballylinan’s first appearance in O’Moore Park since September of last year as their relegation to the intermediate grade ensured they got accustomed once again with championship fare in the club grounds of the county.
They beat Crettyard in Annanough, Ballyroan-Abbey in Crettyard and Mountmellick in Stradbally to set up a rematch with Crettyard in the final, which was switched at the last minute to the Centre of Excellence because O’Moore Park was unplayable.
That Laois final win was their first championship triumph in 50 years and they’ve since beaten Mullinavat of Kilkenny and Barndarrig from Wicklow to leave themselves just one hour away from a provincial final.
Their earlier Leinster club games have been played in their nominated ‘home’ venues of Stradbally and the Centre of Excellence, as the Leinster Council no longer permit clubs to play in their actual home grounds.
The Kildare side should be a step up on what the Kilkenny and Wicklow representative had to offer – with Ballylinan recording wins of 10 and 18 points respectively.
It continues a trend this year of Padraig Clancy’s men putting up big scores, their 1-20 in the Laois final the highest in history in an intermediate decider. In all it was a Laois campaign where they averaged almost 19 points a game.
Gary Walsh is their obvious marksman and has been in top form while Ryan Brady is the find of the season and the Farrells, Seamus Lacey and Pauraic McEvoy provide serious and experience around the field also.
Kildare legend Johnny Doyle is Allenwood’s marquee figure and is incredibly still playing midfield at 45 years of age.
His cousin Darragh Malone at centre-back and Kildare dual player Johnny Byrne at centre-forward offer considerable quality too. Recent Kildare U-20 star Eoin Bagnall offers a threat inside.
Though they only won one of their three group games and advanced to the knockout stages on the head-to-head rule, they impressed with knockout wins over Caragh and then Monasterevin before turning the tables on a Castledermot side that had beaten them in the group stages.
Ballylinan are favourites with the bookies and we fancy them to advance too with the prize on offer a Leinster final outing in Parnell Park or Navan against Scoil Ui Chonaill (Dublin) or Rathkenny (Meath)
Laois U-20 ‘A’ FC Semi-final – Ballyroan-Abbey v Portlaoise
In Annanough at 4pm
The young footballers of Ballyroan-Abbey and Portlaoise have developed an intense rivalry at underage level over the past number of years and the latest chapter will be played out this evening in the U-20 semi-final in Annanough.
For the most part, Ballyroan-Abbey have had the upper hand, winning the corresponding minor final three years ago by 2-9 to 0-6, the corresponding U-15 final in 2018 and the U-14 decider in 2017, albeit Portlaoise win the Feile final between the sides earlier that year.
For good measure, Ballyroan-Abbey also beat Portlaoise in the U-20 final two years ago and in last year’s semi-final. In what is a fine crop of players, they are going for a three-in-a-row at this grade.
The Town are enduring something of a famine at this grade, without success since 2013 – and that has been their only title in the past 16 seasons, something that is hard to fathom when you consider they won nine out of 11 from 1997 to 2007.
But this is a decent team with Conor Raggett, Conor Brown, Colin McEvoy, Ben Dempsey, Josh Hogan and Ben Reddin all playing some part in the recent senior county final.
Kieran O’Donnell also has senior experience while DJ White, Michael Culleton, Tadhg O’Dwyer and Jamie Preston all impressed with the Portlaoise intermediate team that reached the semi-final of that championship.
Colin Conroy, who has been capped at underage level with the Republic of Ireland and has played League of Ireland soccer with Treaty Utd in Limerick, is also a quality addition to this team.
They were comfortable winners over Emo-Courtwood in their first outing and then had five points to spare over St Joseph’s, a result that ensured they topped the group.
Ballyroan-Abbey have endured a trickier route to this stage of the championship, losing to Graiguecullen in the first round before responding with wins over Crettyard-Spink and Stradbally Parish Gaels.
The Stradbally side could well have beaten Ballyroan-Abbey last Sunday morning – and duly knocked them out – but Ballyroan survived. They’ve also had to contend with a manic fixture list with more than half their team having also been involved with the Abbeyleix U-20 hurlers that reached their final.
Last Sunday’s game against Stradbally was – for many – their seventh championship game in 17 days.
They have a side packed with fine players. Davin McEvoy, Conor McWey, Shaun Fitzpatrick and Killian Byrne all played senior this year while Sam Quinn, Alan McWey, Pauric Rafter, Odhran Delaney, Ben McDonald and Darren Mulhall are impressive operators too.
Portlaoise most certainly owe Ballyroan-Abbey one for all the defeats in previous big games and they’ve been close at U-20 in the past two years.
But Ballyroan-Abbey might just have enough to shade it.
Laois U-20 ‘A’ FC Semi-final – Graiguecullen v St Joseph’s
In Stradbally at 6pm
The second semi-final sees another good Laois GAA rival play out – the meeting of Graiguecullen and St Joseph’s in Stradbally at 6pm.
Indeed it’s interesting that all four of this year’s U-20 semi-finalists are club teams with no parish or amalgamated sides making the last four.
Graigue, who were minor champions in 2021, topped their group but their form was mixed – with a good win over champions Ballyroan-Abbey followed with a loss away to Stradbally Parish Gaels. They then got a walkover from Crettyard-Spink, a result that allowed them top their group.
Of all the remaining sides in this championship, it’s Graigue that have the most established senior players – with Sean McGrath, Kian Lawler, Mikey Horohan, Aaron Dorgan, Jack Byrne and Conor Kelly all having featured in their senior semi-final loss to Portlaoise.
Goalkeeper Lee Byrne, recent county minors Sean McGrath, Jamilio Salvador and Conor Harte are all nice players too.
For St Joseph’s this game represents a great chance for them to get to another county final.
Their famous senior triumph is a standout but they also won this year’s U-15 ‘A’ championship and were narrowly beaten in the minor final.
Oisin Hooney, Jamie O’Brien, Cormac Murphy and Sean Brennan all featured for the seniors while the likes of Jeremy Kelly, Jack Gorman and Micheal Fleming were on their Junior ‘A’ team and Callum Hogg, Darragh Farrell, Eoin Johnson, Sam Lynch and Tadhg Dinneen were on this year’s minor team.
Joseph’s did what they had to in beating Emo-Courtwood and Portarlington but lost by five points to Portlaoise.
The feeling is that Graigue’s group was that stronger and they should have a really good chance of reaching this final.
SEE ALSO – Check out all the previous episodes of the LaoisToday QuizCast here
