St. James’ men on the brink of football history

Date Published: {J}

 Dara Bradley

IN 1994 forward-looking members of Renmore and Mervue GAA clubs amalgamated to become St. James’ with the aim of bringing senior football to the east side of the city.

That same year, Lisnaskea Emmetts – St. James’ opponents in the All-Ireland intermediate Club football final at Croke Park this weekend – claimed their 20th Fermanagh senior (yes, senior) county championship title.

Regardless of what happens on Saturday (7.15pm) under floodlights, both sets of players will make history by becoming the first adult team from their respective clubs to play a national final at GAA headquarters.

Both teams are in unchartered waters but amazingly this weekend Lisnaskea will become the first club side ever to represent Fermanagh at Croke Park, while St. James’ will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of Moycullen’s success in 2008 to become only the second ever Galway club to win the competition outright at this grade. The stakes are high.

After hitting new heights by overcoming Kerry and Munster champions Gneeveguilla in Mallow last Sunday week against all odds, the focus of the St. James’ backroom team over the past 12 days must surely have been on bringing this squad of players back down to earth.

Then the priority must have been practicing improving their scoring rate. Shockingly, St. James’ kicked 17 wides in total on their last outing, and while the wide count is an encouraging reflection of the possession and territorial dominance, they may not get away with that strike rate on Saturday.

Backs, forwards and midfielders all chalked up wides and even the hero of the day Eoin Concannon – who landed 0-6, half of the city side’s total – wasn’t immune to the shakiness in front of goal. St. James’ also lacked a bit of cuteness when they were hanging on to a one-point advantage against Gneeveguilla.

True, they admirably showed buckets of commitment, courage and doggedness when reduced to 14-men and to bounce back in extra-time, but with just seconds of normal remaining St. James’ conceded a silly free within scoring range when the more sensible option, albeit the more cynical one, would have been to foul further out the field, outside of the danger zone.

Also, the Mervue/Renmore outfit’s attempts to play ‘keep-ball’ in that second-half would have been punished by a hungrier team than Gneeveguilla. They might not get away with it again.

On the plus side, St. James’ have grown in stature, confidence and maturity since their last championship defeat (in the 2008 county intermediate final) and they have enough balance and quality players in the team – and critically the right attitude – to keep that unbeaten run going this weekend.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.