McElvaney Waste & Recycling Intermediate Football Championship Final

Donaghmoyne v Rockcorry, Sunday, 4.00, Clontibret

 

The IFC Final sees Donaghmoyne bid for a first title in 20 years against first-time finalists – and last year’s junior champions – Rockcorry.

A first IFC success since 1996 would see Donaghmoyne join Carrickmacross, Inniskeen and Monaghan Harps at the top of the IFC roll of honour on four wins each, while this is new territory for Rockcorry, although their recent championship pedigree includes the 2015 Monaghan and Ulster JFC titles.

Rockcorry have lost just one of their last 12 championship games within the county. Mickey Morgan’s side reached the IFC semi-finals in 2014 and even though they were relegated later that year, they bounced straight back. Rock have taken the direct route to today’s final, with comfortable wins over Emyvale and Currin getting them to another semi-final, where they came from five points down in the early stages of the second half to knock out Tyholland. Donaghmoyne saw a preliminary-round win over Corduff followed by a dramatic loss to Inniskeen, but they regrouped to see off Aughnamullen and Currin, before getting their own back on Inniskeen last time out.

Rockcorry have an impressive average winning margin of seven points so far in the championship (18.33 to 11.33); scoring 4-43 and conceding 2-28. Donaghmoyne have scored 6-70 in five matches – an average of 17.6 points – while conceding 4-49, or 12.2 points per game.

These teams have had contrasting fortunes in the league, with Donaghmoyne qualifying for the semi-finals and Rockcorry becoming caught up in a relegation battle, which currently sees them sit second from bottom. Their only meeting so far came in round one back in March, when Donaghmoyne had a four-point win, while Rock conceded the return fixture in June.

Rockcorry’s team for their semi-final showed two changes from last year’s JFC Final Replay, with Andrew McPhillips and Aaron McGorman replacing Johnny Reilly and Stephen McGuirk. They had four players feature for Monaghan in the early stages of 2016, namely goalkeeper Jamie Smith, full-back Niall McKeown, midfielder Mark Thornton and attacker Fergal McGeough.

McKeown anchors the Rockcorry defence with the help of Keith Daly and Conor McGeough, while Thornton joins team captain Mark Daly in a strong midfield pairing – with both capable of getting on the scoresheet. McGeough leads the scoring charts up front, with support from the likes of Noel Carroll (who hit important goals in the last two IFC games) and Mark McGuirk, while Lorcan Smyth is capable of lining out as a back or a forward.

Donaghmoyne have introduced many of their successful minors, who won Division One doubles in 2014 and 2015, leading to a high turnover of personnel, with eight changes in total from this final two years ago.

County Under-21 Mikey Murnaghan is joined by Christopher Deery and the experienced Bernard Kelly in defence, where the pacy Stephen Finnegan is a key player in linking to the attack. Frank Markey and Niall Keenan have been ever-present at midfield, while a number of players have contributed in the forward line, not least county minor David Garland, who is the IFC’s top scorer, despite starting the championship as a substitute. Fellow free-taker Ronan McDonald has also been a regular on the scoresheet, with hard-working captain Pádraig Donaghy and target man Shane McElroy other important players.

The last five IFC Finals have been decided by an average margin of just over two points ahead of today’s clash.

 

Ulster Club Senior Football Championship Preliminary Round

Scotstown v Kilcoo, Sunday, 2.30, Clones

 

Meanwhile, Scotstown face Down five-in-a-row champions Kilcoo in the Ulster Club SFC preliminary round game at Clones.

Scotstown went all the way to the final in 2015 and they are now going into their third provincial campaign under newly-installed Cavan manager Mattie McGleenan, while 2012 finalists Kilcoo continued their dominance of the Down championship by cruising to victory in last month’s final against Clonduff.

Paul McIver’s Kilcoo have a number of players with county experience, including Connor Laverty, Darragh O’Hanlon, Paul Devlin, the Branagans and the Johnston brothers, Ryan and Jerome, who both recently returned from injury lay-offs, only for the latter to once again be ruled out with a broken foot. Scotstown are not lacking in that regard through the likes of Darren and Kieran Hughes, Rory Beggan and Shane Carey, with Dónal Morgan, James Turley and Orin Heaphey other key players. They are likely to again be without Conor McCarthy, however, due to injury for what should be a tight encounter.

 

Inniskeen will take the favourites’ tag into their delayed Ulster Club Junior Hurling Championship tie away to Cootehill on Sunday.

The ladies footballers of Donaghmoyne and Truagh are all also in Ulster club action on Sunday. Donaghmoyne continue their title defence at home to Clann Éireann of Lurgan, while Truagh are away to Shane O’Neills, Camlough.