Monaleen have no fear of Nemo
Claughaun qualified for the 1970 final against UCC, but it was never played, while Newcastle West were beaten in the 1988 final by Nemo Rangers.
Sunday’s victory over Clonmel Commercials hasn’t happened by accident, according to Monaleen captain Muiris Gavin.
“We have been working towards this end for a while, and now that we have made it, we intend to give it a right go.
“There is an incredible amount of work being done in the club from under age up, and it’s vital that your senior team is going well in order to keep the momentum going.
“Nemo will pose no fear for us. We’ll respect them for what they are, the champions, but if you are going to learn, you have to learn off the best, and they don’t come any bigger than Nemo.
“Nobody will give us any hope against them, but I can assure you every player in our dressingroom believes we can win it. We wouldn’t be involved otherwise.”
Looking back on their semi-final victory, Gavin said it didn’t look on in the first half as Clonmel dictated matters in most areas.
“However, we were creating the chances but kicked some very bad wides. We talked about it at the break and came out fighting for the second half.
“The one thing this crop of players have is fierce self believe. No matter how bad things are going, we always believe we can turn it around.
“In the second half everything went right for us. The scores began to flow and in the end we were convincing winners. It’s an historic day for the club, but no one remembers beaten finalists.
“We now have to plan for what is going to be the biggest day of our lives. It will be our first Munster final, and we intend to make it a memorable one.”
Coach Ger Lawlor said the victory over Clonmel was one for total commitment by all of those involved, and is a great day for the club.
“There was some tension going into the game and it showed in the first half, but they lads really got stuck in on the change over and played brilliantly.
“I couldn’t have asked for more from them.
“We made a couple changes which worked extremely well for us. David McInerney did well when introduced. He’s big and strong and we needed that against Clonmel.
“Once again our defence covered itself in glory, particularly David McCauley who covered acres of ground.”
Asked about the upcoming final with the defending champions, Lawlor said he’ll begin to thing about that game around the middle of the week.
“We certainly could not afford to give Nemo a four point start like we did Clonmel and expect to catch them.
“It’s something we’ll work on in training in the coming days. Monaleen will go into the final as no hopers and that will suit us, but we’ll have a right crack off Nemo I can tell you that. They cannot keep going for ever.”
A victory for Monaleen over Nemo would put down a marker for next year’s Munster SFC clash between Cork and Limerick. With Derek Kavanagh and Colin Corkery on the injured list, and extremely doubtful for the Club final, the Limerick champions won’t get a better chance of pulling off a shock result.
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