Tigers hopeful Donaghy will star alongside Auguste
Wilder Auguste is facing a delayed one-match ban over an incident which took place three games ago but the Tralee club lodged an appeal last evening and he will be free to play this weekend pending the outcome of the hearing.
Now Falvey is hoping that Kieran Donaghy will bring his gear to UL Arena too, even though his GAA suspension runs out tomorrow at midnight, and makes him eligible for the top of the table NFL clash with Donegal on Sunday.
“I will be there shouting them on from the sideline on Saturday,” he said. “That’s all I can promise them.”
But Coach Falvey is hoping he may bring his gear with him again as they chase the final leg of the treble having already secured the national cup and the conference titles.
Since the cup final Tigers have been without the big two up front but they have come to terms with that.
“We have two very good Americans,” Dave Falvey said, “Against Killarney August Wilder hit a game high of 49 points and Dave Fanning had 31. I mean in some games a whole team would not score that many points.”
They will provide an interesting match-up for Terry Kennedy’s Americans when they face up to Merry Monk Ballina in the first semi-final.
“We are looking good right now,” Kennedy said. “Robert Taylor appeared in both the cup and SuperLeague finals with Limerick last season so he won’t be short on experience.”
UCC Demons and DART Killester meet in the second semi-final with the promise of a thriller.
“This year we have peaked at precisely the right time,” Demons’ coach, Pat Price insisted. “Last year we peaked too early. It is a credit to the kids the way they have worked this year and this is the opportunity to reap their just reward for all that effort. They are very hungry.”
The homegrown players have been superb in recent games with a string of them on double figures each weekend.
“Demons won’t be easy,” Killester coach, Mark Keenan, admitted. “They have been playing very well in recent games but we have had a great season too.”
Their 15-5 record underscores that fact and while there was a minor scare when Craig Walls went over on an ankle, he trained this week and it is virtually certain they will be at full strength.
Isaac Westbrooks is back while Paddy Kelly, Damien Sealy and Johnny Grennell have a wealth of experience between them.
“We are really looking forward to the weekend and hopefully we will acquit ourselves well. When we played against Demons in Cork we were terrible but we were without Damien Sealy, Jerome and Keith Anderson so hopefully with a full squad we can take them,” said Keenan.
Demons’ overall balance has been their biggest asset, as their versatility in scoring options and inside-outside combinations have exposed many sides in the past two months. Defensively, they have been led by Benito Flores, David Murphy and Tim O’Halloran who have handcuffed major scoring threats and relish big-game assignments. The women’s superleague final will get Sunday’s programme under way and it was inevitable that UL Aughinish and DCU Mercy would eventually battle it out for a major trophy.
Mark Ingle’s side will want to erase the memories of their shock defeat by Glanmire in last year’s final but UL also have demons to lay to rest following what was also a shock defeat by the Glanmire side in this cup final.
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