This article is from page 121 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 121 JPG
COUNTY finals are unpredictable beasts of things.
They often go to script with the favourites winning out. Then again scripts are frequently shredded and then thrown over the rusting hulk of Cusack Park’s shed terrace and left to float down river and out of town.
You only have to go back 12 months. The Townies were talking domina- tion before their head-on collision with a Lissycasey team that simply weren’t going to be beaten in county finals two years in a row.
The Townies had beaten bluebloods
Doonbeg and St Senan’s Kilkee to get there – two teams with 11 county titles between them over the previous 20 years. Lissycasey had nothing – the victory could be marked down.
History now tells us that something very different panned out….
And, a different story will unfold between Kilmurry Ibrickane and Liscannor. 2007 is a good starting point though.
All because, Kilmurry mightn’t be talking domination publicly, but their form has been such this year that domination fits them like old cus- tom-made and handcrafted Black- thorn football boots.
Liscannor may have beaten the bluebloods of Lissycasey, Eire Og and Doonbeg, but it’s Kilmurry Ibrickane’s county final. That’s what 90 per cent of the football population will tell you this week.
After all, Liscannor were 8-1 to win the championship before they kicked a ball against Doonbeg in the semi-final.
Word is that Liscannor folk, who are no strangers to big punts thanks to generations of coursing dogs in John Scales’ Field, mowed in with their money before the Doonbeg game. And, they won’t be laying off the bet before Sunday’s final.
No, Liscannor’s script has a fairy- tale ending! It’s why Liscannor and surrounds will be emptied of its pop- ulation on Sunday.
The barony of Ibrickane will be de- populated too.
Both are expecting – Liscannor are ready to welcome Jack back to McHugh’s; Kilmurry are primed to roll the green and red carpet out in the Quilty Tavern.
The county final script on its own will tell us if Jack Daly takes a left turn at Inagh for Quilty or goes straight ahead for Liscannor.
Maybe Liscannor will hit the form they showed in the last six minutes of
the Cusack Cup final in 2006 when they scored five points on the bounce to beat Lissycasey by two.
Maybe they won’t.
Maybe Kilmurry will repeat their county semi-final form against Kil- oro
Maybe they won’t.
The ‘What Ifs’ are the great- est things about county final week countdown.
The countdown begins here.