Killanin aiming to round off great year with provincial glory

KILLANIN will bid to become the sixth Galway team to capture the Connacht intermediate club football crown when they face St. Croan’s of Roscommon in the provincial decider at Tuam Stadium on Sunday (2pm).

Since the competition started back in 2004, Caherlistrane (2005), Moycullen (2007), St. Michael’s (2008), Leitir Mór (2009) and St. James’ (2010) have all won this particular piece of silverware. It will not be lost on Killanin also that, in doing so, each of the previous winners have held their own at senior level, with Moycullen – their county final opponents – only dropping back to intermediate in 2013 after being hit by emigration and retirements.

Interestingly, three of those club wins were over Roscommon opposition, with Caherlistrane defeating Boyle; St. Michael’s accounting for Kilbride; and St. James’ overcoming Strokestown in their respective deciders. Indeed, the record of Galway clubs in this competition has been impeccable, appearing in five of the previous 10 finals and winning all five.

In contrast, Roscommon teams have appeared in six finals and won just one – Western Gaels claiming the title in the championship’s inaugural year of 2004 Westerns Gaels defeated Calry/St. Joseph’s – who Killanin walloped 5-17 to 0-6 in their recent semi-final – on the scoreline of 1-10 to 0-7 ten years ago. However, Killanin would not want to be using their facile win over the Sligo champions as the yardstick heading into this decider.

Killanin manager Pat Quealey agrees. “Very much so. We had gone down to see them (Calry/St. Joseph’s) play in the county final and that gave us a chance to do a good bit of research into them. “We got a very good start and they found it very hard to recover from that,” says the Killanin boss, whose side boasts a clean bill of health heading into Sunday’s final.

In it, they will face a St. Croan’s outfit which defeated 2008 Connacht intermediate finalists Kilbride (1-13 to 1-7) and St. Dominic’s (1-11 to 0-10) in their county quarter-final and semi-final before overpowering last year’s beaten county finalists Tulsk in the decider (2-14 to 0-7).

They carried this form into Connacht where they impressively put Keith Higgins’ Ballyhaunis to the sword by 1-14 to 0-5. It was another energetic display from Croan’s, who are managed by former Roscommon footballer David Casey. Notably, the Ballintubber/Ballymoe side prevented Ballyhaunis from scoring from the 21st minute until the end of the game.

Full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.