Conor Meany: If Ballincollig feel doubt down the stretch Warriors can harness emotion
Latrell Jossel of Ballincollig and Jordan Perkins of Garvey's Tralee Warriors pictured at the Domino's National Cup Finals Media Day ahead of the Domino's MSL National Cup final, which takes place at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday at 8pm and is live on TG4. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
This weekend’s Super League Cup finals see two fascinating rivalries come to the boil again, between clubs who have built a strong history against each other in recent years. Killester and Liffey Celtics is the more obvious rivalry as we see a repeat of last year’s final, which the Kildare side managed to win. Liffey and Killester have been two of the country’s top sides over the past several seasons and go into the weekend knowing each other inside out.
The men’s game is also built on big moments over the past couple of seasons. Two years ago, Keelan Cairns hit the most memorable buzzer beater in recent cup history to eliminate Tralee at the semi-final stage in Neptune Stadium. The image of Cairns scoring in front of the Tralee bench is undoubtedly burnt into the minds of the Warriors faithful. Like our women’s finalists, both teams have won a league in recent years and have had consistently hard battles against each other. It’s fascinating to see what the next chapter will be like.
It will be interesting to see whether bad memories are a big motivation for both Killester and Ballincollig in particular. Both teams are so similar in many ways this year. They’ve been the best teams in their respective leagues and yet are coming into the final off an unexpected league defeat and with question marks over recent performances. Both also have bad memories of their last cup final in the Arena. Killester lost to Liffey last year 65-53 in a performance they will want to forget. The scoreline doesn’t even do Liffey justice as they won by 12 despite losing the final quarter 15-2. Liffey harassed Sam Haiby to a 5/22 shooting performance and Killester came undone. Haiby is back and remains the best player in the country, so Killester will want to right what they consider a wrong from last year. Similarly, Ballincollig didn’t perform to their standards in their last cup final in 2024, losing to Demons. Can the Village get their first ever cup title?
Read More
Pressure is a fascinating thing with cup finals. Being the favourites isn’t always helpful, as you must deal with the expectation. When the chaos ensues, as it always does in the Arena, sometimes it’s easier being the underdog who grows in confidence at a glimmer of hope in a tight game. Killester are favourites in the women’s final, but I don’t think they will carry much of a burden given they have won so many trophies over recent years. Ballincollig are more likely to feel that pressure, especially chasing their first cup title. They are the favourites, and in their three losses in the league this year, they’ve let them slip from winning positions. If it’s a battle down the stretch and doubt comes into Ballincollig’s mind, Tralee have a chance.
Cup finals are always emotional. Players get tested in a unique way and it’s always interesting to see how teams respond to that. I think emotion could be a major factor in the men’s final. Tralee live off emotion and when things go right for them, it goes right! Daniel Jokubaitis is a catalyst for so much of that positive emotion when he plays well — a well-timed three from Joko is worth far more than three points, as we saw in the semi-final. But emotion isn’t always positive for Tralee and if they don’t get that level right, they can get frustrated. John Dowling will need to get the pitch right for his young team and allow them to go express themselves and hopefully bring out the positive energy.
For Ballincollig, they are about as laid back a team as you can find, almost to a fault. So far in the cup they’ve raised their level when needed and I think they will need to harness positive emotion to go take the big prize, rather than wait for it to come to them. They have the ability, but can they get that aggression right?
How Liffey guard Sam Haiby is massive. Is Haiby still hurt, after missing the teams' recent league game? We will see. I think the women’s finalists match up well and could cancel each other out in many ways. Sorcha Tiernan vs Michelle Clarke and Katie Williamson vs Hannah Thornton are two great Irish match-ups. I think the x-factor for Liffey needs to be Áine O’Connor. Aine’s so experienced and a strong player. She needs to cancel out Ieva Bagdanaviciene’s production as much as possible for Liffey to defend their title. Liffey’s Americans are producing more since Destinee Brusch was brought in, and they need to do that this weekend. I think Bagdanaviciene and Haiby give Killester a brilliant platform to build from, but Liffey are the team most suited to beating them and have won on the big occasion. Killester’s recent league finals and last year’s cup finals were all blowouts, let’s hope for a tight game on Sunday.
The men’s game is fascinating because both teams’ pros directly match up. Latavious Mitchell has impressed all year and the rebounding battle between himself and Iggy Hunte is going to be a massive factor. Latrell Jossell has consistently grabbed headlines for Ballincollig and is an explosive shooter, but Jordan Perkins has grown as the year has gone on and is perfectly suited to this Tralee team.
Then at the three, Josh Steel and Daniel Jokubaitis can impact the game, both scoring and in other ways. As is so often the case, this game is likely to be decided by the Irish players. Ballincollig have the experience on the Irish side, but those players didn’t have a great final two years ago. Tralee have youth on their side, but you equally don’t know how those players will react under the brightest lights. I think Adrian O’Sullivan may be the x-factor, but I think we are set for a dramatic night on Saturday.
