Mooncoin v St Patrick’s Ballyragget
Nowlan Park: Sunday, 12.30pm
Mooncoin are the defending champions and they are back in Nowlan Park with 13 of last year’s winning squad. That is a big advantage for any team.
A workmanlike performance in retaining the southern title, with wins over a young Ballyhale team and a hard working Rower-Inistioge outfit, has them in line to retain their county title. The championship run for the southerners has been ideal with a game every fortnight.
This Mooncoin team are physically very strong, with Cormac Daly, Eamon Hennebry, Danny Purcell, and Mark Fitzgerald all well capable of mixing it in the physical stakes and imposing themselves on the game. Danny Purcell has been the chief scorer from frees and play, and when Purcell is on his game he is practically unmarkable. In the southern final, he hit 1-3 of Mooncoin’s total of 1-9 in very poor conditions.
St Patrick’s Ballyragget’s season is well documented at junior and under-21 level with games in either grade every weekend since October. They have known only success in the past two months. It is a fairytale time for the northern club.
Ballyragget have been great value for money in the northern championship with exciting wins over Clara, Dicksboro, and Barrow Rangers. The spirit and teamwork in the squad has been exemplary and winning matches every weekend has given them great momentum. The northern champions concede very little with a strong half back line of Brian Mulhall, Geoff Brennan, and Robert Healy. Mooncoin possess a similar weapon with David Kearns, Eamon Hennebry, and Seán Kearns outstanding on their defensive half back line, Hennebry’s ability to hit long range frees making him a potent weapon in the southerners’ armoury.
This appears to be a very evenly-matched battle. Many people will fancy Ballyragget because they are the team and the club in the limelight at the moment.
The sort of run they are experiencing at present is very hard to stop. But Mooncoin came to Nowlan Park last year and beat a highly-fancied Erin’s Own team, and they have 10 of that team starting again on Sunday. Hennebry and Fitzgerald in the middle third of the field are a handful for anyone, and getting a grip in this area will be crucial for both teams.
In the scoring stakes, Danny Purcell is the main man for Mooncoin and Joe Brennan for Ballyragget, expect both men to be tightly marked. The contributions of the other forwards from both teams will decide the issue.
St Patrick’s Ballyragget should have a greater spread of scores than Mooncoin, but if they are to win they will have to avoid that 10-minute switch-off in the second half that has made them finish nervously in most of their games.
