''It's going to take the game of our lives'' warns Kelly

STEPHEN GLENNON

CAPTAIN Mark Kelly believes St. James’ must play the game of their lives if they are to emerge victorious from their clash against Lisnaskea Emmetts of Fermanagh in the All-Ireland club intermediate football final at Croke Park on Saturday evening.

Kelly is understandably wary of the Fermanagh champions, who enjoyed a 1-12 to 1-5 win over Ballymore Eustace of Kildare in their semi-final victory. With players of the calibre of the Little brothers – Mark and Andy – and fellow Fermanagh senior Daniel Kille, he says St. James’ must enter this historic tie with their eyes wide open.

“Against the Kildare side, they (Lisnaskea) seemed to move the ball very quick. There was no messing around. They are very mobile everywhere, with corner backs running up the field, wing-backs running up the field, and everything. So, Croke Park will suit them. They will be tough. It won’t be easy,” warns Kelly.

Highlighting that Lisnaskea have rampaged through their respective championship campaigns, he notes: “They don’t seem to have had many hard games. They beat Ballymore by nine points and I was actually talking to their captain last Thursday – we were up in Croke Park – and he said it (the semi-final) was over at half-time really. So, we are up against it. These boys, they are actually a senior team. They just had a bad year (in 2009) and they went down (to intermediate).”

Indeed, Lisnaskea would seem to have the pedigree, having won 20 senior football championships in all in their illustrious industry – their last was in 1994. “So, this is a building block for them to go back and challenge for the senior championship this year again,” says the Mervue native. “In contrast, we are new to the senior game, but, for us, that is just another challenge.”

Of course, with the likes of Galway duo Paul Conroy and Eoin Concannon in the Mervue/Renmore side’s ranks, St. James’ are not without their big name stars. “Yeah, they (Conroy and Concannon) have plenty of experience, but they are still only 21 or 22.”

That may be so, but the young guns who have come up through the underage ranks – the city outfit won county minor ‘A’ championships in 2006, 2007 and 2009 – have been maturing into quality footballers in recent years. Kelly agrees, praising, in particular, the positive manner in which the younger players responded to the crushing county intermediate final defeat of 2009. He says it has all but made them.

“Don’t get me wrong, Leitir Móir fully deserved to win it,” says Kelly. “We thought we would do it that day, although people have said since that it might have been a year or two early for us (to make the step up to senior) as a group of lads. I think, looking back, they are right because it is not until the lads get to 21 or 22 that they start really maturing and getting physically stronger.

“We just said at the start of the year, let’s really give this a right go from the word ‘go’. In fairness, we had been doing that for the last couple of years but we just got the bit of luck this year. I think the Carna Caiseal games really made us as a team because we had to battle hard to scrape through the first two games. And then in the third game, we played a bit more to form.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.