Galway intermediate football champions Dunmore MacHales play Sligo winners St Molaise Gaels in the Connacht Championship in Tuam Stadium on Saturday (12pm ).
Dunmore MacHales will be eager to go on a run in the Connacht series as they will feel they have a squad capable of going deep into this competition. The long-term focus for Dunmore MacHales is to consolidate their position as a senior team for 2023 and beyond, success at the Connacht stage this year will only benefit the development of their younger players to do just that. Dunmore also have the advantage of familiar territory as they played most of their games this season in Tuam Stadiumand will carry a large following of passionate Dunmore supporters with them.
However, they are coming up against a strong St Molaise Gaels who won their respective championship at a canter.
The Sligo side steamrolled their way through the group stage as they easily disposed of Geevagh, Eastern Harps, St Patrick’s and Ballymote Round Towers. At the semi-final and final stages they overcame Bunninadden and Easkey by respective margins of 12 and 15 points which is a huge victory for that stage of the championship.
They are driven by a large cohort of young players at the fore of the playing squad. Many of these players, who will be on show next Saturday, just lost an U21A final to Ballymote/Bunninadden last Sunday. Whether this will impact the freshness of the squad come Saturday afternoon remains to be seen.
One player St Molaise Gaels will be keeping a very close eye on is Dunmore MacHales’ Matthew Reddington who is in excellent form. Reddington is the heartbeat of this Dunmore team and showed all his quality in a man of the match performance versus Kilconly in the county final.
Meanwhile, Dunmore’s focus will be on stopping St Molaise Gael’s sharpshooter Luke Towey, who is the Sligo side’s main man up front.
However, the Shafts should have enough firepower to win this contest if they supply their inside forwards Padraig Costello and Brendan Carr with enough ball to do damage on the scoreboard.
There were four fixtures played last weekend in the senior and intermediate relegation play-offs. Both Moycullen and Headford were relegated to junior level for 2023. Headford were extremely unfortunate following their two-point win over Williamstown. It left both sides on four points in the standings, but Williamstown had a superior scoring difference. A margin of victory of four points would have levelled the side's scoring difference and kept Headford at intermediate level on head to head. St Gabriel’s victory over Moycullen by 6-15 to 2-03 confirmed their annual escape and left them top of the standings on score difference.
In the senior relegation games last Saturday afternoon, Oughterard hammered St James’ 4-10 to 0-10, while Monivea-Abbey defeated An Cheathru Rua 2-11 to 1-12. These results confirmed An Cheathru Rua’s relegation to intermediate for 2023 and more or less confirmed Oughterard’s senior status for next season, barring an enormous defeat to An Cheathru Rua on Sunday.
It ensures a massive dogfight in Tuam Stadium at 1pm as Monivea-Abbey and St James’ clash in a do or die battle on Sunday. A draw or win will ensure Monivea-Abbey's status, while St James’ need a victory.
