Brigid’s look likely to retain crown as Fahey Cup race begins

by Kevin Egan

As if being All-Ireland club finalists with a young panel that should only improve wasn’t enough, there was no mistaking the signal that St Brigid’s sent out in their league final win over Roscommon Gaels recently.

With Mark Dowd at the helm of the Gaels, optimism had been bubbling in the county town and there was a strong sense that they had made up some of the gap that St Brigid’s exposed so clinically in last year’s semi-final. It felt as if Anthony Cunningham’s players went out to emphatically shatter that positivity, and by half-time, their work was done.

Like many teams, St Brigid’s will hope to welcome players back into the fold as the year goes on, most notably Ben O’Carroll up front. However with John Cunningham going from impact sub to scoring wing-forward, Bobby Nugent adding the physicality needed to be more of a force at adult level and Conor Hand also stepping up strongly since the end of the 2023 campaign, they’ll have more than enough firepower to push them through a moderate group - almost certainly as group winners with a 100% record.

Naturally, Brigid’s sights will be set on much loftier targets than simply getting out of their group, but if there are any areas of concern for management, they aren’t immediately apparent. Depth is certainly not a problem and their defence is rock solid, as ever. Like 2023, there is a battle underway for the goalkeeper’s jersey with Evan Gallagher and Cormac Sheehy both getting playing time and Eddie Nolan’s absence from midfield means that they’ve been forced to change things up on the kickout front, but these are minor details that shouldn’t pose a huge threat.

Boyle’s status as county finalists last October, particularly given the closeness of that final, marks them out as second favourites, and there is certainly a sense that it’s getting near to the ‘now or never’ time for the Abbey Park men.

Enda Smith turns 30 next month, Donie has a few years along with it, and even if he’s less likely to be a 60 minute player these days, Seán Purcell will be hugely missed from the dressing room whenever he steps away. There are plenty of young stars at the other end of their careers, but the depth isn’t there to the same extent, the clubs is not competing at a high level at underage and so replacing players of that calibre will be almost impossible.

The problems for Boyle are much more immediate. Cian McKeon is still away while Daire Cregg, Luke Glennon and David Flanagan are also missing for the start of the season. If they were in an easier group, that wouldn’t be an issue, as they would still come through and would be a transformed side when McKeon and Cregg in particular return. But a brighter tomorrow is only of use if you survive today, and in what is undoubtedly the group of death, Boyle will have to be very careful.

And so to the other two main contenders, and the protagonists in Friday night’s eagerly awaited game at Johnstown (throw-in 8pm). For no particular reason we’ll start with the home side, who on paper, have a decent amount of ground to make up after losing their way since Liam Kearns’ departure as manager.

If that was any other club, we’d say that this year was about rebuilding, maybe getting to a semi-final and ideally being competitive in that fixture.

But they used to say that Cork hurlers could emerge like mushrooms, almost overnight, and the same could be said of Clann na nGael football down the years. It’s not like they’re starting with nothing either, given that Feargal Lennon is back and playing regularly, Ultan Harney will be there this summer and a team with Harney, Alan McManus and Oisín Lennon as kickout targets, perhaps with Oisín O’Flaherty also in the mix, won’t be short of primary possession. David McManus has been deployed at the edge of the square and with any number of sniping corner-forwards to choose from around him, Pat Fallon has all the ingredients there to put together a very capable side.

In this columnist’s opinion, however, if St Brigid’s are to be beaten in a knockout game this year, then Pádraig Pearses are probably the team most likely to do it.

It’s not that Pearses are settled, or that they’re the meanest defensive team, or that they’re the sharpest attack. One could argue that relative to the three teams profiled above, they have more areas to address than any of them.

Whatever about their floor though, their ceiling is very high. They’re not going to win anything without at least one if not two forwards kicking on to the level where they are considered for selection for the Roscommon seniors next year, but that’s not such a huge leap when you consider that Lorcán Daly, Declan Kenny, Jack Tumulty, Daniel Farrell, Paul Carey and Eoin Colleran are all in the mix.

David Murray’s injury is a blow, but Conor Lohan, Conor Harley, Caelim Keogh, Conor Ryan, these are some of the brightest prospects in the county and whatever about Frank Canning’s role as the overseer of the whole operation, the extra year with an excellent coach in Ross Munnelly is sure to see several of that younger cohort take further steps forward.

Outside of those, it’s much harder to see a challenge materialise from anywhere. Roscommon Gaels will be the obvious choice, even after their league final collapse, as they too have a lot of good players to come back in and Mark Dowd will continue to get a tune out of them, but it’s hard to see them beating any of the teams above.

St Faithleach’s remain very dangerous on any given day, albeit they’ve really struggled to bring impact players through from underage for some time now, while it will be interesting to see how Michael Glaveys might fare if they could get a team on the field with Cathal Heneghan, Darragh Heneghan, Conor Hussey, Shane O’Malley, Caoileann Fitzmaurice, Dylan Ruane and Andy Glennon all available. There hasn’t really been a time since their run to Croke Park that they’ve got their best team on the field, and anything close to it – even 80% of their best – would be a force to be reckoned with, albeit with a place in the last four probably the limit of their capability.

We’d probably say the same about St Dominic’s, except their draw has been exceptionally difficult. Keith Doyle is coming into a rich vein of form, Jamie Tiernan showed a real spark up front in the O’Gara Cup final and a central defensive axis of Jack Lohan and Eoin McCormack is right up there with the best in the county, all of which would be real positives except for the fact that they probably need three points from their games against Clann, Pearses and Boyle to come out of the group. Even with a strong second team backing them up, that’s hard to see.

Group draws haven’t been kind to St Dominic’s since they’ve gone up to senior, but if they can find a way to survive this year and stay in the Fahey Cup race for 2025, that might be the time when they can start making strides forward.

For now, there is a chasing pack that can dream of glory, and one of that pack was almost certainly eliminated from the hunt in the league final. But will the chase be successful for any of the others, or will St Brigid’s stay out in front? Maybe not by much, but in all likelihood, the reigning Connacht club champions will get their chance to defend that title too.