All-Ireland Junior Championship semi-final

Blackhill (Monaghan) v Rathgarogue-Cushinstown

Saturday, Newbridge, 1.30pm

IT’S only natural that the people of Blackhill were occupied by the usual Christmas festivities in the last few weeks, but their senior club manager Aidan McCabe senses that the hype is building ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland Junior Championship semi-final against Rathgarogue-Cushinstown.

Blackhill are bidding to become the first ever team to represent Monaghan on All-Ireland Junior final day, but ultimately they are doing this for themselves and their supporters.

They exorcised the demons of Ulster final defeat in 2016 when they overcame Buncrana in the middle of November, and while they were understandably a little flat against the British champions Thomas McCurtain’s in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, they did enough to book their place in the semis.

Aidan McCabe says the weekend in London was possibly more memorable than the game itself, which Blackhill won by 2-9 to 0-8, and he thinks the fans can’t wait for Saturday’s semi-final against Wexford opponents Rathgarogue-Cushinstown.

“Things do ebb and flow a bit in terms of hype because of the gap since our last match. The game in London was a fantastic experience for out club – a small rural club in Monaghan getting to an All-Ireland quarter-final.

“Ex Pats got to meet each other and there were people staying the weekend, and neighbouring clubs were very supportive. Then Christmas arrived and people’s lives took over but you can feel things starting to build in the last week or two and it should be another great experience for everyone.

When asked whether Blackhill took inspiration from Kilcoo and Slaughtneil’s fantastic performances at the weekend, McCabe gave a measured response.

“You can’t read too much into what others do. Magheracloone are playing in the All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final at the same time as us, and we hope they get a big day out as well, but you have to keep your feet on the crowd. We know the final will be in Croke Park but we’ve barely spoken about it as you can’t worry about what’s down the road as you’ll take your eye off the ball.”

McCabe’s forensic examination of his opponents before matches hasn’t gone unnoticed, and he even attended the All-British final to get a first-hand look at their possible All-Ireland quarter-final opponents. It hasn’t been easy to find out information about Wexford side Rathgarogue-Cushinstown (the page to the right of you might be helpful…), but he’s knows they’ll be no pushovers.

“They’re a long way away geographically, even the team they beat in the Leinster final, Clann Na Gael in Meath, it might’ve been easier to find out info about them

“They’ seem to be a very solid team with big physical players. They’re a solid intermediate hurling team and most of the footballers are dual players. That’d be a good standard in Wexford and that would stand to them. If we aren’t at full throttle they have plenty of men who’ll hurt us and we’re aware of that.”

Blackhill have an outstanding defensive record, limiting their opponents to less than 10 scores on five occasions in their current championship run. Their front six works well together, and it’d be remiss of us not to add that Donal Courtney (a defender), and Michael Geehan (a deadly forward) are set to pick up awards at tomorrow’s annual Gaelic Life awards just down the road in Monaghan town. A five-week lay-off has helped clear up any niggles, but McCabe says the team will need to produce an improved performance after stuttering to victory in the quarter-final.

“The goal in any game is to win, but you want to perform as well and we probably didn’t click into a high gear until the last three or four minutes where we kicked a goal and a point, we wouldn’t be too happy with that, I don’t want to give too many cliches but genuinely we know that if we perform like that, we’re going to make it very difficult for ourselves, we’re planning to make sure that that doesn’t happen”.

It’s been a different sort of Christmas for the team, but they aren’t complaining.

“On a different year it’d be the start of the season so it’s strange in that respect to be doing championship training in December and early January, but what’s seldom is wonderful and we’ll take it.”