Ballylinan’s successful story takes centre stage

By: Tomás Moore

THE real success story from this group to date is the qualification of Ballylinan into the quarter-finals of the championship.
When the group was announced Emo and Timahoe were expected to lead the charge but these two sides have since fallen to Ballylinan. Kieran Kelly and Richie Ryan had been associated with the Kildare border side’s ambitions but so far a team effort and will to win has been the secret to their success.
In the opening round of the championship they got the better of a Billy Sheehan and Paul Lawlor led Emo side and their second win has come courtesy of a comfortable win over Timahoe. The interesting thing that came out of the clash with the Round Tower side was the tally scored by Liam Kealy.
Players will find it very hard to better 3-2 in championship football and he will now be employed as a target man for the side. The Liam Miley trained side play neighbours Crettyard in the final game and no doubt Kealy will be a marked man that day.
This could be a deciding game in the championship as Crettyard are on three points and a draw or a win will also put them through to the business end of the championship. Sammy Kelly seems to have got his charges in the right order this year and they served up a bruising encounter against Emo.
They will rue the suspensions likely to be handed down to Niall Wheeler and Ciarán Hosey. But, as was the case when they won the Leinster intermediate title in 2005, they can always rely on Cristoir Maher for scores.
Even though Crettyard are in pole position to land the second place in the group, Emo will realise that they can keep their season alive if they can dispatch of a Brendan Quigley and Padraig Clancy led Timahoe charge.
Timahoe, who have a serious pedigree in Laois football, were poor against Ballylinan and they seemed to use the wrong tactics by employing Quigley as a centre-half back and Clancy was used as a centre-half-forward. This didn’t work and it let David Brennan and DJ Kealy grab a hold of the midfield sector in the game against Ballylinan.
If Timahoe are to put pride back into their season they need to use the Clancy and Quigley mid-field partnership and Eoin Culleton has to be put back into the goalkeeping position.
Emo will go into that game as raging hot favourites but they too will be without Paul Lawlor and Niall Wheeler for the remaining game unless they can successfully lodge an appeal to the authorities in Laois GAA. They will need good displays from Darren Strong and the return of Mick Lawlor will help them greatly. Lawlor was suspended for the game with Crettyard and the playermanager will be required now.
With the final spot between Emo and Crettyard it should be an interesting final weekend. Ballylinan should have enough firepower to win the local derby with Crettyard while Emo should be strong enough to hold Timahoe.
The smart money might go on Emo as you’d expect them to overcome Timahoe at this stage but the county board confirmed at their last meeting the groups would go down to scoring difference and they’ll need to record a comfortable win in case Crettyard over come Ballylinan.

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