Thursday, March 17

AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship Final**

Castlebar Mitchels (Mayo) v Ballyboden St Endas (Dublin), Croke Park, 4pm

Today's AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship Final will not be won by the team that wants it most.

That’s because there is little chance of either Castlebar Mitchels or Ballyboden St. Endas having more grit and character than the other. They have gotten this far because they have both displayed bucketfuls of those qualities.

If Castlebar show the same resolve that earned them a one-point win over Crossmaglen Rangers in their semi-final, and Ballyboden show the same never-say-die attitude that saw them come from behind to beat Clonmel Commericals after extra-time in theirs, then the contest of wills be an equally matched one.

This All-Ireland title will instead be decided by whichever team can best complement that character with quality. On the biggest days of all it is that little bit of extra experience and craft that makes the difference.

Castlebar supporters will hope that their team’s experience of losing the 2014 All-Ireland Final to St. Vincent’s can give them the edge today.

That sentiment is shared by the Castlebar players themselves. Wing-back Patrick Durcan believes the lessons learned from failing the ultimate exam two years ago has them better prepared for today’s test.

"Two years ago I don't think we performed to our full potential,” said Durcan.

“We thought we had a lot more in us. Thankfully, we've got the chance now this coming Paddy's Day, and we definitely need to up our performance. On a team basis, I don't think we performed. Our game management wasn't good.

“We were giving away a lot of unforced errors that hadn't previously happened for us to the level that it did in the Final. That's disappointing, but we've had tough games now, particularly with Crossmaglen and Corofin, so we're definitely well tested now going into this final."

Former Mayo footballer and joint-manager Pat Holmes was the Castlebar manager when they were beaten 4-12 to 2-11 by St. Vincent’s in that 2014 decider.

He stepped down after that loss and has been impressed by how the team has develop under the stewardship of Declan Shaw and Declan O’Reilly this year.

Forwards like Danny Kirby and Neil Douglas have matured nicely in the last two years, and they’re just a better all-round side than they were two years ago.

"They don't have weak links in the team,” said Holmes. “They're not dependant on a Jamie Clarke like Crossmaglen. They have quality right throughout the pitch, some people might say they don't have any big stars, but a lot of their players are of extremely high quality.

"Ballyboden came through unexpectedly in a lot of ways. They were favourites to beat Clonmel Commercials, but didn't play all that well in the semi-final. Declan Shaw and Declan O'Reilly will not take them in any way for granted. To come out of the Dublin club championship is fairly significant.

"Mitchels came through Mayo and were effectively favourites before a ball was kicked and they handled that very well. I think Castlebar will have their homework done and I think Castlebar will win.”

It’s true that Ballyboden’s march to today’s Final has been a little less convincing than Castlebar’s if statistics were the only metric you judged them by. They have won their last four matches by an average of just three points, whereas Castlebar’s average buffer has been six.

Both teams are defensively very stingy – Ballyboden conceded an average of just 10 points over the course of those four matches while Castlebar shipped 11.

But the Mayo champions have definitely shown a sharper edge in attack by scoring an average of 17 points per match over the course of the last four compared to Ballyboden’s 11, and have scored more than twice as many goals.

Delve beyond the bare statistics though, and it is easy to make a case why Ballyboden are just as likely to win this match today as Castlebar are.

After all, they have already beaten the star-studded St. Vincent’s team that were too good for Castlebar two years ago, which has to count for something.

They will believe too that if they can bring this contest down to the wire then they will find a way of winning it, because that is what they have done throughout their Dublin, Leinster, and All-Ireland campaigns to date.

And whenever they have ground out hard-fought wins, it has been largely thanks to the impact a very strong bench has made.

Ballyboden’s talisman Conal Keaney certainly believes that former inter-county hurling colleagues like Shane Durkin and Simon Lambert can make a big impact if required.

“People might only see someone like Shane Durkin or Simmo (Simon Lambert) come on for the last five or 10 minutes, but the experience those lads have, they're invaluable to bring in and any of the players we're bringing off the bench would play in any other team, if not inter-county,” said Keaney.

“It's nice to know it's there but it won't matter a damn on St Patrick's Day, we still have to go and win the game and hopefully we won't need to be bringing on those subs to rescue us.”

PATHS TO THE FINAL

CASTLEBAR MITCHELS

AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Club Football Semi-Final

Castlebar Mitchels 0-13 Crossmaglen (Armagh) 0-12

AIB GAA Connacht Senior Club Football Final

Castlebar Mitchels 2-10 Corofin (Galway) 0-11

AIB GAA Connacht Senior Club Football Semi-Final

Castlebar Mitchels 3-08 Clann na nGael (Roscommon) 0-13

Mayo Senior Club Football Final

Castlebar Mitchells 4-10 Breaffy 0-09

**

BALLYBODEN ST ENDAS

AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Club Football Semi-Final

Ballyboden St. Endas 0-15 Clonmel Commercials (Tipperary) 0-10 (AET)

AIB GAA Leinster Senior Club Football Final

Ballyboden St. Endas 2-09 Portlaoise (Laois) 1-11

AIB GAA Leinster Senior Club Football Semi-Final

Ballyboden St. Endas 1-11 St. Lomans (Westmeath) 0-09

AIB GAA Leinster Senior Club Football Quarter-Final

Ballyboden St. Endas 1-08 St. Patricks (Louth) 0-07

Dublin Senior Club Football Final

Ballyboden St. Endas 2-08 St. Vincents 0-10

Preview: John Harrington