Super League Talking Points: Champions Demons continue to struggle as Ballincollig win the weekend
Shariff Black goes for the slam dunk. Picture: Jim Coughlan
It was a tough week for Demons as they lost at home to Killester and away to UCD. The defending champions have started 1-3 with their sole win coming at the hands of Neptune on the opening night. New signing Jarvis Doles arrived mid-week and is still settling into his role with the team.
Defending a title is never easy, and Demons are struggling with that early season form the year after winning the title. Everyone has them circled on the schedule as a chance to test themselves against the champions, and so far, Demons have struggled to match that hunger.
It’s not easy for a team who are searching for their identity and blooding new talent this year. Whether we see Kyle Hosford return to give some of that veteran experience, we’ll see, but I think there’s a lot more to come from Demons. With a cup match away to Limerick Celtics just around the corner, the time for Demons to kick into gear is now.
Neptune remain winless after losing to both Eanna and Limerick Celtics this weekend. The Eanna loss at home, was like many of their others, as Eanna raced ahead in the first half and never looked back. That wasn’t a particularly bad loss as Eanna have been excellent since Week 1 where they lost to UCD, but were missing their most critical player, Stefan Desnica.
On Monday, Neptune finally played a tight game but lost away to Limerick Celtics 75-73. The losses are compounded by Celtics getting their 2nd win, and St Vincent’s impressing at home against Killorglin for their 2nd win. Neptune are now one game behind Demons and two behind the rest of the pack. Sligo up next in Neptune is a big game and the pressure to get a first win is mounting.
Coming into the season, there was an expectation that Belfast Star would be right back into contention for silverware and that looks to be the case after five games. Going to Kerry for a double header against Killorglin and Tralee is never easy but they navigated the two ties relatively easily winning both by double digits.
Star have the magic sauce of having two Americans who can score yet are willing contributors to the team. I’ve said before that Rapolas Buivydas is almost the perfect Irish Super League player. He thrives in physicality and yet also has skill and intelligence. He’s averaging 17.6 points and 8.4 rebounds a game, and at 23 years of age, the question must be whether he’s outgrowing the Irish league.
If he was 2 inches taller there wouldn’t even be a question. For now, Star get to enjoy his talents and with a deep cast of both willing and capable contributors around him, it’s hard to see Star losing many games this year.
Depth has always been a big advantage in Ireland, with lots of teams struggling to go beyond 7 or maybe 8 contributors. This is fine most weeks, but an injury to a key player is usually devastating.
Brunell missing Edel Thornton would have been catastrophic in the past, but the past two seasons have helped the Cork side develop more depth and that paid off in their win over Wildcats on Saturday. Maddie Cluse scoring 32 helps, but it was their collective defense against Waterford that stood out.
They harassed Alyssa Frescas all game forcing her to shoot just 1/10 from three, part of Wildcats horrid 1/20 from three. Sarah Hickey continues to dominate as she leads the league in rebounding at 14.5 per game and is 4th in scoring with 20.8. Wildcats like in previous seasons need that extra depth to support her.
I’m not panicking yet for them as they are still integrating new parts, and Wildcats know better than anyone, after last year’s shock playoff exit in round one, that the regular season only counts for so much.
I’m sure St Paul’s feel that they deserve more credit than they currently get, and they are probably right. Last year’s beaten finalists have started the new season brilliantly and are joint top with Killester 4-0. Including last year’s final, Killarney have won 11 of their last 14 games in the topflight and their challenge will have to be taken seriously.
They allow the second fewest points per game so far this year, Maisie Burnham and Tara Cousins are a nice duo and there is plenty of support around them too. They have Liffey Celtics next which they will expect to win, and it may be the clash with Killester at the end of November that really tells us where this team is.
For Killester their start to the year has been very impressive. They struggled more than expected against Fr Mathews while missing Mimi Clarke, but I think Killester are slightly better than they were last year which is ominous considering they are chasing three in a row.
Sam Haiby knows the league, young players like Leilani Turner have another year under their belts and critically I think Audrey Roden is an upgrade as their second American. The road to silverware certainly runs through Killester.
The new season has been a disaster so far for Liffey Celtics as they lie bottom with Fr Mathews on 0-4. They are averaging the 3rd fewest points ahead of just Cavan and Portlaoise, which was an issue last year too.
The big issue is that Liffey aren’t stopping anyway yet either as they concede the most points of any team so far. That may be misleading as they’ve played four of the top teams so far, but things won’t get easier as they have Brunell next. There is far too much quality for Liffey to be in a relegation battle, but they need to start gelling if they are to resemble anything like the team we’ve seen over the past few years.
After a disappointing start to the year, including a home loss to Vincents, Ballincollig have shot to form with a brilliant weekend. They started slowly against UCD but came from 17 down to win comfortably 86-71. They then backed that up with a road win 90-68 in the IWA over a Killester team without Paul Dick.
Ballincollig have veterans and good professionals and will be a tough team to beat throughout the year. I expect them to finish in the top 6 and to have a major impact come the business end of the year.
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