Garrycastle lose Harte but not hope ahead of final

GAELIC GAMES CLUB NEWS:KILMACUD CROKES aren't the only ones stripped of their so-called finer talents going into Sunday's Leinster club football semi-finals. The Dublin champions have a number of well-documented absentees – including Paul Griffin, Darren Magee, Rory O'Carroll and now Niall Corkery – but their Westmeath opponents Garrycastle will be without some big names themselves.

Defender and team captain Doran Harte will definitely miss Sunday’s game in Parnell Park with a dislocated shoulder, and top midfielder Seánie O’Donoghue, who missed their quarter-final win over Mattock Rangers, remains doubtful with an ankle injury.

That should at least balance things up – not that there was ever likely to be much between the teams.

Garrycastle are looking to make the Leinster final for the second successive year, and actually beat the 2009 Dublin champions, Ballyboden St Enda’s, at this stage last year. They lost to Portlaoise in the Leinster final, thus extending the unfortunate scenario whereby no Westmeath club has ever won the Leinster football title.

“Losing the Leinster final last year was a big disappointment,” says Garrycastle manager Anthony Cunningham, who’s in his second year with the Athlone club, although still better known in some circles as the former Galway All-Ireland winning hurler, and current Galway under-21 hurling manager.

“Really the disappointment last year was that we didn’t perform nearly as well as we felt we should have in the final. It’s been a long road back. We’ve come through a lot of matches and we are still hungry, and delighted to have the chance to make up for last year so soon.”

Of course they’ll have to get back into the final first – and even with Kilmacud’s notable list of absentees, Cunningham is in no way underestimating their challenge. In fact, Kilmacud have already done Garrycastle something of a favour by defeating reigning champions Portlaoise in their quarter-final, but with home advantage in Parnell Park, they will start as strong favourites.

“I think Kilmacud have such a big panel that missing players doesn’t matter as much to them. They’ve brought in players and they’ve all done very well, and been very effective. They have great experience as well, so we know they’re going to be very hard to stop. We’re just delighted to be back at this stage, definitely.”

Despite his strong hurling background, Cunningham is building a strong reputation in football, and having previously worked with the St Brigid’s football side in Roscommon, helping them to a Connacht title in 2006, he’s now guided Garrycastle to the last two Westmeath titles – their 2010 victory being only the fifth such title in the short history of the Athlone club, founded as recently as 1981.

Sunday promises to be tight, especially given the absentees on both sides, although Harte’s loss to Garrycastle is perhaps the most irreplaceable: “It happened in the last minute of the quarter-final. He fell awkwardly, and popped his shoulder. He required a minor operation and will have to see the specialist again this week. He’s a big loss because Doran is a huge player for the club, huge interest in the team and a big inspiration.

“We’d still be a little hopeful about Seánie O’Donoghue. He still has ankle ligament damage. But we’d be hopeful he’ll play some role. David O’Shaughnessy came on towards the end the last day, because he just wasn’t fully fit to start. We’ll have to see how the rest of the week goes but hopefully he’ll be okay this time.”