All-Ireland club semi-final: Glen and Kilmacud reunite, one year after 16th man riot

It’s the rematch everyone wanted to see.

On Sunday, Kilmacud-Crokes and Glen will write the latest chapter in a burgeoning club rivalry that has already generated enough drama, controversy and emotion to fill a book.

Glenn didn’t want a book to be written about what happened 12 months ago. It was the biggest day in the club’s history. It also turned out to be definitely the worst.

There was, of course, the sting of losing by two points to Kilmacud in the All-Ireland final, but that pain quickly subsided as we learned at Croke Park that the Dublin side had defended their goal with 16 players in the dying seconds. It turned into anger.

Anyone close to the Glen will tell you that Kilmacud were the better team that day, but the 2023 All-Ireland club final will forever be remembered as a hugely controversial conclusion that dominated GAA headlines for weeks afterwards. There is no doubt that it will be remembered.

Of course, it then became a very real possibility that Glenn would be given a chance for revenge in the form of a rematch, but only the Derry champion ended his pursuit, and it was confirmed that Kilmacud would be crowned champion for a third time.

When Glen confirmed their decision to withdraw from a process that could end with a rematch of the final, they concluded their statement by saying, “Here we go again.”

They meant it. Under the guidance of manager Malachy O’Rourke, who had been linked with the Derry job even before Mickey Harte took over, the Magherra club completed a hat-trick of Derry titles and retained the Ulster crown to secure Sunday’s long-awaited victory. Prepared for a rematch.

Chasing revenge may be top of mind for Glen’s players, but they certainly didn’t say much in the build-up.

“To be honest, this is history for us,” Glen defender Michael Warnock said shortly after defeating Scotstown in last month’s Ulster final.

“We met and decided we didn’t have enough for the day and decided to park.

“That was our motivation this year. If we had focused on Kilmacud, we wouldn’t have made it out of Derry.

“Look, that’s what we’re facing. It’s going to be a great story for the media considering what happened last year, but we’re just going to focus on ourselves.”

As Warnock said, if the Glen can put an end to the agony of reaching their first All-Ireland final, it will be a very good result for them.

The Derry championship is fiercely contested, but once again Glenn was too good to beat rival Slavtneal on his way to the final before defeating Magherafelt.

In Ulster they beat Cargin, Naomh Conaill and an up-and-coming Scotstown side who shocked 2022 All-Ireland champions Kilcoo in the quarter-finals.

Glen looks as sharp and fit as ever. While the likes of Conor Glass and Ethan Doherty have carried their form at county level into another grueling club campaign, Wattie Graham’s have a number of players at their peak.

Eunan Mulholland was outstanding in the Ulster final, Emmett Bradley, who opted out of the Derry panel in 2023, will be a giant in midfield alongside Glass, and Ciaran McFaul, who will miss the 2022 season. achieved excellent results.

So the question arises – is Glenn even stronger than he was 12 months ago?

“I think every year we step up,” said Enda Gormley, Derry’s 1993 All-Ireland winner. He played for Maghera for more than 20 years and is one of several players who helped bring together the Glen’s golden generation through his many years of coaching. club.

“When we won our first county title two years ago we were unlucky in the Ulster semi-final, but last year we reached the All-Ireland final.

“They have a lot of experience and a handful of players have county experience and high level county and underage football experience.

“Every year they’ve gotten used to each other and they’ve started to believe in each other more. I’d like to see them be a better team and I think Kilmacud would probably say that too.”

Gormley has a point. It would be hard to argue with the argument that Kilmacud is even better.

Perhaps irritated by questions about the asterisk attached to their recent All-Ireland win, the Dublin giants have been trending upward as the season progresses.

Of course, they faced a strange scare and needed a penalty to see off Raheny in the Dublin semi-final. However, since then they have won the county final by eight points, won the three regional matches by 11 points, five points and seven points, becoming the first club to score a Leinster hat-trick.

Perhaps spookily for Glen, Galway star Shane Walsh (who moved to Kilmacud in 2022) had a record of 2-15 in his three games for Leinster, while Paul Mannion won his seventh in Dublin last year. He won an All-Ireland title and shined in a deeper role.

The Glen’s defense faces an almighty task as captain and reigning club player of the year Shane Cunningham and Dara Marin also pose a major threat from the forward areas.

It’s also worth noting that Kilmacud’s latest Dublin and Leinster titles were won without key players who played this year, including Michael Mullin, Cillian O’Shea and Conor Casey.

So what must Glenn do to get revenge on Kilmacud and book another fun day in Croke Park?

“Possession,” Gormley suggests.

“It sounds terrible, but you can’t score without the ball. It’s about keeping the ball and getting into the scoring area as quickly as possible.

“And taking advantage of opportunities. That’s probably one thing we have to improve on. In the earlier rounds in Ulster, we didn’t take advantage of opportunities.”

“The Ulster final was better but we need to step it up another notch and stop giving away cheap frees. “They’re obviously going to score a lot but it’s important to limit that. is”

“We are underdogs and I can understand why, but we are only slightly behind and we will have a serious chance.

“It requires a great performance and we know that. Anything less than a really strong performance is not enough.”

The winner of Sunday’s semi-final in Newry will face either St Brigid’s (Roscommon and Connacht) or Castlehaven (Cork and Munster) in the Croke Park final on January 21st.

St Brigid’s and Castlehaven will meet in the first semi-final in Thurles in the early hours of Sunday morning (13:45 GMT).