Thursday, February 26, 2009

Men's Leinster weekend preview

Mills cup semi-finals take top-billing on the local scene this weekend with Pembroke, Monkstown, Corinthian and YMCA vying for a place in the St Patrick's Day final.


All four will be coming off the back of a Saturday match and how they use their respective squads could be a key factor.

Pembroke are unlikely to take the option of maintaining Tim Lewis and Ronan Gormley in their side and sacrifice the pair for a league game later this term, under the 14-game ruling. Their long trip to Mossley on Saturday could be still in their legs, though, especially with the early 12pm start.

Monkstown, too, have a short time between games. Their league game with Kilkenny tips off at 3.30pm on Saturday, pushed back slightly due to their second team's Irish Junior Cup against YMCA.

YM indeed have given precedence to their seconds on Saturday by placing them on first at Claremont Road with Fingal visiting later in the afternoon. Stephen Barry is out for the weekend while Fingal are waiting on the fitness of Conor Connolly who picked up an injury in the warm-up for the ISC tie with Cookstown.

They follow up with Sunday's cup game with Corinthian - the second of the double-header at Grange Road. The reds could have Andrew Cronje back in time. His ankle-injury has healed slightly quicker than expected. Other than that, the squad is at full strength.

In division two, Clontarf can go a step closer to sealing promotion with a win at resurgent Dublin University. The Bulls need just eight more points from the last six games after results went their way in week eleven.

Bray will hope to maintain second with a win in Naas while at least one of Suttonians and Skerries will lose ground in the playoff chase at Sutton Park. Weston, meanwhile, go to Sportslink to face Navan.

Division One (Saturday): Monkstown v Kilkenny, 3.30pm, Rathdown; YMCA v Fingal, 3.15pm, Claremont Road

Mills Cup (Sunday) - semi-finals: Pembroke v Monkstown. 12pm, Grange Rd; Corinthian v YMCA, 2pm, Grange Road

Men's Division Two (Saturday): Dublin University v Clontarf, 2:45pm, Santry; Naas vs Bray, 1.15pm, Caragh Road; Navan v Weston, 2.30pm, Sportslink; Suttonians v Skerries, 1pm, Sutton Park School

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neville Davin Cup

Clontarf V Avoca- Sunday 4pm Start

Anonymous said...

findo think rovers are playing the glens tommorro in irish senior cup as well any chance of a preview

Anonymous said...

predictions for div 2 lads

trinty 2-4 clontarf
navan 0-4 weston
nass 0-8 bray
sutton 3-1 skerries

any one else?

Anonymous said...

Not so sure about the Sutton v Skerries scoreline. Even with the home draw Sutton are not as strong as they where earlier in the season. Richie broke a finger last week against Weston and wouldn't be certain to start.
I think a 2-2 draw might be on the cards there.
Won't make any predictions for Navan - Weston match, don't believe in jinxing myself.
I think Clontarf are the best team in Div 2 by a long way but Trinity are mercurial and might upset them at home. I think this could be 3-2 to Trinity.
Naas-Bray, can only agree with that.
Weston are playing Navan on Sunday in the Neville Davin at 1.30 in Lucan.

Anonymous said...

navan 2 - weston 0.

Anonymous said...

Trinity 1 - 2 Clontarf

Anonymous said...

Great to see the Navan lads get a result after all they have suffered over the last few weeks!