Shane McCabe will be crucial to Belcoo’s chances
This Sunday sees the biggest day of the year for Fermanagh club football as Belcoo and Roslea do battle for the New York Cup.
On paper the teams look quite similar. The age profile is near enough the same with a generous experience of older heads and some exciting young guns on both teams. But in truth paper can be quite misleading.
The teams are coming from totally different histories. Roslea has the experience here. Sean Quigley at 21 is playing in his fourth final. Stephen Maguire – with a glittering county career which included mesmerising displays in Ballybofey, terrorising Francie Bellew in Croker and showing nerves of steel in front of 70,000 to tie an All Ireland semi final with a free kick – will compete in his first.
Make no mistake this final will see a battled hardened championship team in the shape of Roslea take on a team hoping to make history by becoming the first side from their club to take the cup home. It makes for an intriguing battle.
I have to hold the hands up and claim an interest in this tie. When the dawn broke on 2013 I was the Belcoo manager. Personal circumstance led me to step down after the first league game as my son was undergoing treatment for cancer. To be honest since then I have missed being involved in the GAA but have been delighted to see Belcoo reach this final.
They face a serious challenge in Roslea however. Without doubt the best team in the county over the past five years they are a credit to their club. Hard working, disciplined and efficient they are the very epitome of a successful modern team.
For Belcoo the whole experience of a championship final will be new. The build up in the village all this week, the parade before the game and the butterflies in the stomach like which they have never felt before. But the reality is that the it is just a game of football. The posts, the ball, the grass are all the same and this is something that Roslea know only too well.
And that is why the first 10 to 15 minutes will be crucial. Belcoo will need to start to strong. They cannot afford for too many of their players to freeze but looking at their team they have plenty of strong personalities to make sure that in the white heat of battle people keep their head.
Roslea on the other hand will know what to expect. Nothing will be new to them and they will look to make their experience show and with their dazzling inside line if they can dominate possession around the middle it is hard to see them defeated.
And that is where this game will be won or lost. The break ball and the middle of the field will prove vital. Belcoo will have to force turnovers while Roslea will be looking to create the space to hit the Quigley brothers inside. Whomever succeeds will have the winning of the game in their hand.
On the refereeing front I am delighted to see Noel Davis get the final. The Teemore man is one of the best officials in the county and while he like to see a good physical encounter he is not one for letting pulling and dragging occur so both teams should be warned that any attempt to be cynical will be punished.
All in all it should be a terrific encounter. Roslea are favourites, a point that their own players have acknowledged but they also know the danger Belcoo possess.
Looking at the match ups this should be a real cracker of a final and all Fermanagh fans should get out and see what is the best day of the year for football within the county. I can’t wait until Sunday.