Football

Cuala can out-Foxx Coolera-Strandhill in battle of first-time provincial champs

AIB All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final: Coolera-Strandhill (Sligo) v Cuala (Dublin) (Saturday. Kingspan Breffni, 5pm)

The Coolera Strandhill team celebrate after the AIB Connacht GAA Senior Club Football Championship final match between Coolera-Strandhill and Pádraig Pearses at Markievicz Park GAA Stadium in Sligo. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
The Coolera Strandhill team celebrate after the AIB Connacht GAA Senior Club Football Championship final match between Coolera-Strandhill and Pádraig Pearses at Markievicz Park GAA Stadium in Sligo. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile (Tyler Miller / SPORTSFILE)

AN online message of support from famous American actor/singer Jamie Foxx may have caught the clicks but Coolera-Strandhill have more important ‘outside’ help in their quest to shock Cuala.

Indeed as the back-to-back Sligo champs take on their Dublin counterparts, the underdogs will include a former Dublin footballer in their ranks. The 37-year-old Ross O’Carroll at centre half-back will have double reason to want to beat Cuala, given that they defeated his former club Kilmacud Croke’s in the Dublin decider.

There’s also an Ulster influence on and off the pitch. Full back Sean Taylor is a native of nearby Ballyshannon in Donegal but travels much further to play for his adopted club. Based in London, in a youth development strength and conditioning role for Harlequins rugby club, he has made regular flights to help the Sligo side’s success so far.

Brothers Adrian and John McParland are part of the management team, and sons of John Sr, a Belcoo native, who was the boss when the club ended an almost century-long wait to win their second Sligo SFC crown in 2005.

Having stunned both Ballina of Mayo and Roscommon’s Padraig Pearses in the Connacht championship, Coolera-Strandhill are aiming to become the first Sligo club to reach an All-Ireland SFC final.

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Cuala are also first-timers on this stage, as first-time Dublin football champs, but coming out of that county automatically makes them strong favourites. Dublin defender, Michael Fitzsimons holder of a record nine Celtic Crosses, will be joined by county colleagues Peader O Cofaigh Byrne and Con O’Callaghan, the latter sure to be a key man in attack for Cuala.

Coolera-Strandhill goalkeeper Keelan Harte is likely to be a busy man, however this game pans out. Cuala will want to work him hard, press high, and pin him back, while his own team’s tactics involve him pushing upfield as an ‘extra man’ to set up and even take scores.

A win for the Sligo side would be the Hollywood script story, but a record-equalling 17th final appearance by a Dublin club is a more likely conclusion.