AIB All-Ireland Club JHC quarter-final: Fullen Gaels (Britain) v Craobh Rua Camlocha (Armagh) (tomorrow, Pairc na hEireann, Birmingham, 1.30pm)
ARMAGH’S Craobh Rua will be breaking new ground when they take on Manchester side Fullen Gaels in Sunday’s All-Ireland Club championship quarter-final.
It is the first time the Camlough side has travelled across the water, but with an All-Ireland semi-final against the Munster champions at stake, manager Paul Cunningham insists his side are going to Birmingham to win.
“We’ll be confident, there is no doubt about that, we are not going over there for a day out,” said Cunningham.
“It is new territory for us going across the water and I suppose there aren’t too many teams that have got used to it, so it is quite a novel well to go to a match.
“We trained a couple of times between Christmas and the new year and we were probably lucky that there was nothing else for the lads to do. Preparations has been good and thankfully we have no injuries. Covid maybe slowed people down going out over Christmas and I am glad it hasn’t affected any of the players.”
Craobh Rua have been a tough team to stop since that Ulster opening ambush on Donegal’s senior side St Eunan’s where two Jarly Og Burns goals set the bar for the south Armagh men to reach.
And despite picking up the Ulster title last month by beating Carrickmacross in Pairc Esler, their manager is confident there is more to come from his men.
“As I said before I thought our performance against Carrickmacross was not our best of the season and I would say it was a seven out of 10 performance but it was enough to win,” Cunningham said.
“I thought our performance against St Eunan’s was probably our best in a long time. I suppose if we put a performance on anywhere in between that then we will be very hard to beat I am sure Fullen Gaels will have their homework done too. There is no shortage of videos and stuff of us and I know they had reps at the final in Newry and they’ll fancy their chances against us.
“We know a fair bit about them and we have done our homework. We have two former players living over there so they were at the British final, so we have a bit of scouting done. Some of their boys are good decent hurlers.”
Indeed, Paddy Duggan, the Power lads David and Sean and Ronan McKillop are top hurlers for the Manchester side and will take some stopping, but Craobh have an abundance of top markers. Oisin O’Hare, Michael Garvey and Stephen O’Keefe are just some of those that have put in excellent man-marking performances this season and they’ll likely have similar jobs on Sunday.
Captain Mick Doran is a great tenacious defender too and Daithi McCloy and Patrick Garvey are slick with the stick among the defenders, while Bryan McKevitt is a special talent. Fionnan Burns is a massive player for Craobh and his engine drives the team on, the evergreen Fiachra Bradley pulls the strings with whatever game-time he gets, Ryan Lewis is a powerhouse up front, Conor McKevitt hard to handle too and Tiarnan O’Hare is hard worker as well as a dead-ball specialist.
Caolan Rowntree will be hoping to keep his goalkeeping spot after two fine performances while Sean Watters and Ronan Casey are lads who give everything for the team.
“It probably makes it difficult for most teams,” admitted Cunningham.
“If you were to ask us who is our danger men, I wouldn’t be admitting to anyone because it could be any different player on the day. And whoever is in their zone will be able to cause you trouble.”
The kit van left on Thursday night on the ferry and the players will leave Camlough today before noon to catch a flight to Birmingham.
“I suppose it is unknown territory, heading away the day before a match,” Cunningham said.
“It will be different but they all know the plan. There is not much time in England for them to get distracted as such. We fly out on Saturday lunchtime and we will be at the hotel at 8pm on Saturday night and swimming pool will be open and do what we want and relax for a while. On Sunday then we are away to the match and fly home on Sunday night.”
