St Senan’s aiming to make it third time lucky

FOR once, a Kerry football team will be lacking in experience when it comes to winning a Munster final, with Sunday’s Munster Club SFC decider between an Gaeltacht and St. Senan’s featuring two clubs chasing their first title.

St. Senan’s are well ahead in the experience stakes - this being their third final appearance.

However, the Kerry champions have only been competing at the top level for the last 10 years, and won county titles in 2001 and 2003.

St. Senan’s, on the other hand, have been playing senior football in Clare since the 1900s. However, this is only their fourth season competing in the provincial Club championship.

The Kilkee side lost the 1987 final to Castlehaven and 1992 to O’Donovan Rossa and, according to team official Kieran Marrinan, a third defeat would be very difficult to accept.

“It’s hard to believe we are in the final again”, said Kieran. “It was the furthest thing from our minds when we set about planning for the county championship last March.

“People in Clare had been saying we were on the way down and would be playing intermediate football in a couple of years time. But we proved them wrong. Playing the county championship on a league basis gave us three matches in our group which was hugely beneficial.

“We eventually ended up playing eight games to win the Clare title and Sunday’s final will be our 11th. The experience gained by some of our younger players has brought them on by leaps and bounds.

“When you add in the five players who were involved in the 1992 final, among them wing-back Johnny Enright, we have a team with a very nice blend of youth and experience.

“This will be Johnny’s fifth appearance in a Munster final and so far a winners medal has eluded him. We would dearly love him to win one before he finally calls it a day. To achieve that we must improve greatly on our semi-final performance against Cahir,” admits Marrinan.

“Inconsistency is another problem for us. If we are to have any chance of beating An Ghaeltacht we must play for the full 60 minutes. If we do I would be fairly confident of getting a result.

“One of our great strengths is our midfield pairing of the Russell brothers, David and Denis. They have been outstanding all season, but Sunday will be the acid test for them. They’ll come face to face with Darragh Ó Sé, and they also have the option of playing his brother Tomás out there”.

St. Senan’s can take some solace from An Ghaeltacht’s semi-final clash with Castlehaven. For three quarters of that game 40 year-old Niall Cahalane ran the show for the Cork champions from midfield and it was only when he tired and Tomás Ó Sé was switched out there that the Kerry champions pulled away to win.

“There is little fear of David and Denis Russell running out of steam on Sunday,”said Kieran Marrinan. “They are workaholics and can keep going forever. If they get a grip at midfield we have excellent forwards in the Keane brothers, Ger and Miceál, and Brian Smyth who can score.

“The one thing we won’t be lacking is commitment. Finals don’t come too often for us, having failed on two previous occasions, we have no intention of making it a hat-trick”.