St Loman’s face difficult Port of call next Sunday

St Loman’s, Mullingar fans, mentors and players will not like to be reminded about their last match in the Leinster club senior football championship, writes Gerry Buckley.

But here’s the reminder! On December 17, 2017 in Portlaoise the build-up to Christmas, when none of us had never heard of Covid, could not have been shaping up better as Luke Dempsey’s charges appeared to be almost coasting to a first Leinster crown (and only the Lake County’s second) when late disaster struck against Moorefield. The Kildare champions, previously one of Dempsey’s many success stories, infamously snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Accordingly, it was a devastated horde of blue and white-clad supporters who trundled home in near-despair.

With Mullingar Shamrocks and Garrycastle edging out the Delvin Road outfit in the Westmeath deciders in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and the aforementioned Covid (which we are all utterly sick of mentioning!) causing the cancellation of the 2020 provincial championships, it will be a fortnight short of four years when the St Loman’s men get the opportunity to somewhat banish the Moorefield nightmare from their systems and, better again, at the same venue.

All roads lead to MW Hire O’Moore Park for a 2pm throw-in next Sunday against this year’s O’Moore County representatives, Portarlington. Ironically, the purple and green-clad outfit also completed a Laois two in-a-row recently and will be mustard keen to get a crack at Leinster, their recent 4-9 to 0-6 demolition of long-time Laois kingpins Portlaoise (12 out of 13 titles garnered between 2007 and 2019) suggesting loud and clear that they are a formidable side. Indeed, reports suggest that their first-half display was right out of the top drawer, an 11-point lead at the interval all but securing the Jack Delaney Cup with a half an hour to spare.

Bizarrely, Portarlington only claimed their first Laois senior title in 20 years in mid-August when they hammered Graiguecullen in the delayed 2020 final (ever heard of Covid?), and 13 weeks later they added another (their 14th in total). St Loman’s opponents next Sunday completed the entire championship campaign without conceding a goal. Indeed, they have only let one in across the last two seasons.

That may suggest they’re a defensive team, but seemingly an impressive counter-attacking style tore Portlaoise asunder. Inter-county star Colm Murphy finished with 2-2 and effectively wrapped up the win with his first goal just before half-time, leaving his team 2-7 to 0-2 up at that stage. Ronan Coffey was superb too, and the centre-forward had a hand in their first six scores of the game as they strode 1-5 to 0-2 clear, laying the platform for success.

David Murphy, Colm’s older brother, and Adam Ryan struck goals too, while wing-back Patrick O'Sullivan was ‘man of the match’, bursting forward at one stage early in the second-half to engineer a penalty which Coffey surprisingly failed to dispatch.

In a near-replica of Declan Kelly’s troops Lake County campaign, Martin Murphy’s Portarlington somewhat stuttered their way through to the knockout stages, but suddenly burst into life and conjured up their very best form when it mattered.

Reports indicate that they have serious ambitions of going all the way in the province. However, it’s surely safe to assume that St Loman’s have a similar target. A fascinating contest is in prospect when two Offaly men pit their managerial wits against each other on the line next Sunday.

St Loman’s, Mullingar have shown great resilience in chalking up a second successive Westmeath title, on both occasions needing a last-gasp converted free under intense pressure from the incomparable John Heslin to stay in contention against Tyrrellspass and Garrycastle in the 2020 and 2021 finals respectively.

The former UCD maestro is sure to be the target of intense scrutiny on Sunday, but St Loman’s are far from a one-man outfit. Indeed, the many choices among the press corps for ‘man of the match’ in their replay defeat of Gary Dolan’s men is a clear indication of how well-balanced the Lake County champions are. Having said that, it will take their best display of the year to topple the Laois men, who will undoubtedly be buoyed by local support.

After enduring a 50-year famine in the race for the Flanagan Cup, St Loman’s only ventured into provincial fare as recently as 2013. However, they have a very solid record in the competition during that period, as follows:

27/10/2013, Cusack Park, St Loman’s, Mullingar 1-11, Old Leighlin (Carlow) 1-10

10/11/2013, Cusack Park, St Vincent’s (Dublin) 0-11, St Loman’s, Mullingar 0-9

8/11/2015, Aughrim, St Loman’s, Mullingar 2-10, Rathnew (Wicklow) 1-6

22/11/2015, Cusack Park, Ballyboden St Enda’s (Dublin) 1-11, St Loman’s, Mullingar 0-9

13/11/2016, Longford, St Columba’s, Mullinalaghta (Longford) 0-14, St Loman’s, Mullingar 1-9

11/11/2017, Longford, St Loman’s Mullingar 1-12 St Columba’s, Mullinalaghta (Longford) 1-11

26/11/2017, TEG Cusack Park, St Loman’s, Mullingar 0-13, Simonstown Gaels (Meath) 1-8

17/12/2017, Portlaoise, Moorefield (Kildare) 1-14 St Loman’s, Mullingar 2-10 (final)

Overall, Westmeath and Laois teams have met on 14 occasions to date in Leinster, the Lake County representatives winning three, the O’Moore County men seven, with four draws, including a memorable three-game saga between Moate and St Joseph’s in 1975/76.

Ironically, the first and last of the 14 matches were in finals, as follows:

2/4/1972, Carlow, Portlaoise 2-11, Athlone 2-9 (final)

30/11/1975, Cusack Park, St Joseph’s 0-9, Moate 0-9 (draw)

14/12/1975, Portlaoise, St Joseph’s 0-8, Moate 1-5 (replay)

4/1/1976, Tullamore, St Joseph’s 1-10, Moate 2-6 (second replay)

28/11/1976, Tullamore, Portlaoise 3-5, Moate 1-5

23/11/1980, Portlaoise, The Downs 1-7, O’Dempsey’s 1-4

22/11/1981, Portarlington, Portlaoise 1-10, St Malachy’s 1-10 (draw)

6/12/1981, Castletown-Geoghegan, Portlaoise 1-8, St Malachy’s 0-8

14/11/1998, Athlone, Stradbally 1-8, Athlone 0-10

7/11/1999, Athlone, Portlaoise 1-10, Athlone 0-7

27/10/2002, Cusack Park, Garrycastle 1-7, Portlaoise 0-8

12/11/2006, Cusack Park, Tyrrellspass 1-7, Arles-Killeen 0-10 (draw)

18/11/2006, Portlaoise, Tyrrellspass 0-7, Arles-Killeen 0-5 (replay)

6/12/2009, Tullamore, Portlaoise 1-9, Garrycastle 1-5 (final)