Semple hosts Football finals double bill
By Michael Dundon
The clash of Moyle Rovers and Ardfinnan in this year’s County Senior Football final on Sunday next at Semple Stadium marks a return to the days when the South division teams dominated the scene after a period of years when they were challenged by Loughmore-Castleiney in particular, with the North division amalgamation Thomas MacDonaghs, and Aherlow also coming into the picture.
Not many would have predicted this pairing for the final with holders, Clonmel Commercials, and Loughmore-Castleiney generally regarded as “the big two”, but in the semi-finals, Moyle Rovers pipped Commercials with an injury time Sean Carey goal, and Ardfinnan absorbed a huge late challenge from Loughmore-Castleiney to qualify for the decider.
Of the two, Moyle Rovers have been the more successful in recent years but it is still nine years since their last title-win in 2009. Their golden era was in the nineties when they annexed five titles between 1995 and 2000, including a hat-trick from 98-2000, but they have never been too far off the pace and were beaten in the 2015 final by Clonmel Commercials. They are chasing their eighth title.
“We’ve been waiting a long time to win one. This team started together seven or eight years ago and have lost a couple of finals so we have worked really hard to try and break that line and win one and that is what we are aiming to do on Sunday,” said skipper Alan Campbell.
Eight times champions Ardfinnan were a dominant force in the sixties, the era of Babs Keating, Pete and Patsy Savage and company, and their last appearance in a final was in 2005 when they lost to Cahir. An under 21 title a few years back signaled a return to better days but progress has been slow and it took the arrival of former Tipp manager and Kerry footballer John Evans to transform them into a championship challenging outfit this year.
“If you go back to the first game of the championship against Clonmel Commercials we lost by 24 points and we were dead on our feet that day,” admitted captain Jonathan Ryan.
“We’ve turned it around. The summer break actually benefitted us, while we thought it might be a negative, we used it to our advantage. We got in John Evans, got numbers back training, people got interested again and we just kicked on from there,” added Ryan whose side defeated Eire Og Annacarty and Aherlow Gaels to progress from the group, before beating neighbours Ballyporeen in the quarter final and then edged out Loughmore-Castleiney in the semi-final in a hard-fought 0-9 to 0-8 victory.
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