Moycullen men on brink of national glory

Date Published: 22-Jan-2009

A WIN for An Chearnóg Nua Moycullen in this weekend’s Senior National Cup Final could transform the basketball club – not only would victory represent its first ever national title at this grade but it could also be used as a springboard to launch the club into the upper echelons of the game in Ireland.

The word emanating from the Moycullen camp this week is that club officials are seriously considering entering the Superleague next year – should they be admitted by the game’s governing body Basketball Ireland – and a win on Saturday would certainly bolster their chances of making the step-up to playing the likes of basketball heavyweights Neptunes, Blue Demons, Tralee Tigers and Killester in the upcoming season.

The Superleague carrot danglingin front of them is only an aside, however, and the main motivation for the clash against Team Garvey’s Castleisland at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin on Saturday (1.30pm) will be to ‘get one over’ on their fiercest rivals of recent years and bring home their first piece of senior national silverware in the club’s history.

The fact that Castleisland re also gunning for their first ever senior national title should spur Moycullen on to deny them – the Galway side will also want to banish the ghosts of two previous national final defeats.

Moycullen were hammered by Vincent’s in the 2005/2006 league final; were a little unfortunate to lose out to Tolka Rovers in the2007/2008 league final and…