Tough encounter on cards but write-off Allenwood at your peril in All-Ireland semi-final

If Allenwood’s 2023 story had ended with a thrilling and unexpected county championship win and an early provincial exit, it would have still been a fairytale year.

That may seem disrespectful to say now as they stand as Leinster intermediate champions and one game away from an All-Ireland final. They are a team with a force of will that has taken them so much further than ever previously thought possible.

They will face St Patrick's Cullyhanna on January 6, who made history of their own by becoming the first Armagh side to claim the Ulster Intermediate title. That aside, St Pat’s are a daunting prospect at this level following relegation from Senior last year and have self-admitted that they feel they are a step above this level of football.

However, they face an Allenwood side that you should write off at your peril. After a superb extra time win over Westmeath champions St Malachy’s, Allenwood dismantled Laois’ Ballylinan and Dublin’s Scoil Ui Chonaill as they claimed the Leinster title. Not to mention the last-minute winner from Jack O’Brien that won them their county title.

Allenwood looked open against Scoil Ui Chonaill in the opening half of their Leinster final, but some tactical tweaks and the introduction of Mark Delaney worked wonders. Not least because of Delaney’s goal 30 seconds after entering the field. Allenwood conceded just 1-1 in the second half of their provincial decider, with the goal coming from a penalty.

The Kildare champions will have had a significant rest time between Leinster final and All-Ireland semi and hopefully that facilitates Mark Delaney being ready from the off for this huge game.

However, as good as the tweaks were from the Allenwood management, a better start must be made against the Armagh side.
St Pat’s may not have earned a reputation as big scorers in their provincial Championship, but they will be far more likely to punish the space that Scoil Ui Chonaill were afforded. This St Pat’s side contains one of the most exciting forwards in the country in the form of Aidan Nugent and plenty more top class front-men alongside him.

As obvious as it may seem, Allenwood’s free-scoring will be crucial for them in this game, as it has been all year. Their county final score-line of 0-11 is comfortably their lowest since they notched 1-15 against Monasterevan in the round prior.

Since then, Allenwood have hit 1-17 against St Malachy’s; 2-17 against Ballylinan and 4-12 against Scoil Ui Chonaill. All incredible tallies and you feel another contribution of that nature from those tricky forwards will be needed again as they face a team that are at the level of St Pat’s.

St Patrick's Cullyhanna have put up a couple of big scores too, but those have mainly been contained within one-sided trouncings. This is despite their county stars all being attack-minded, their low-scoring could perhaps be accounted for due to the rigid nature of Ulster football.

St Pat’s took home the Armagh Intermediate title with a 22-point margin of victory over St Paul’s of Lurgan, beating them 4-21 to 1-08.

After relegation from senior football last year following an exodus of players due to emigration, the Armagh intermediate champs have seen many of their star men return and with it has their fortunes.

Their other big scoreline was in their Ulster semi-final dismantling of Liatroim as they hammered the Down side 0-17 to 0-6.
The now Ulster champions have been in part led by their three Armagh inter-county stars in the form of the county’s joint-captain and electric forward Aidan Nugent, as well as Jason Duffy and wing-forward Ross McQuillan.

Nugent kicked seven frees, including the winning score, against Pomeroy Plunketts in his team’s Ulster quarter-final win over the Tyrone men, as they edged it 0-11 to 0-10.

It was another tense affair when it came to the Ulster final as the Cullyhanna men faced Cavan’s Intermediate kings Ballyhaise.

To get a better feel for the Armagh side during these big games, the Leinster Leader asked one of the counties foremost GAA media outlets and someone who has seen plenty of St Pat’s this year, Shaun Casey from The Sideline Eye.

“In Armagh their style was fairly gung-ho, they were putting up big scores because they could go for it and were so superior.

But when it comes to Ulster, it has been a bit more cagey,” Casey said. “They are coming up against better teams and other than their big win in the semi-final, they have tried to be more possession-based in those Pomeroy and Ballyhaise games.”

The Pomeroy Plunketts win by a singular point was largely accounted for by the Tyrone side’s style of play as the Armagh champions came up against a team more than willing to put 15 men behind the ball for 60 minutes.

St Pat’s would also edge their provincial decider against Ballyhaise by a single point, as they came out on top 1-10 to 0-12 in Clones.

When asked about the Ulster final, Casey said, “Ballyhaise weren’t overly defensive, they were going for it, kicking the ball in fast. But when Cullyhanna got the ball, they tried to slow things down to get control, which worked because Ballyhaise had time to get men back behind the ball.”

Despite their provincial Championship win, the Armagh side are still trying to find the balance between blowing away every team in their county and managing these tighter games against different types of opposition.

These close encounters and vulnerabilities are a great sign for the Kildare outfit. St Pat’s haven’t blown anyone away thus far, that wasn’t a significantly weaker team, and Alllenwood have plenty of ability to put up a big score.

This game has all the ingredients for a classic. Allenwood come in as the free-scoring mavericks of this year’s Championship and present perhaps an entirely new proposition to what their All-Ireland semi-final opponents will have faced until now.
Allenwood have hit a minimum of 20 points in all of their Leinster Championship fixtures.

St Patrick's Cullyhanna will enter this final as the team with more inter-county stars, a nationally recognised forward and much more recent senior pedigree.

However, the Armagh men are yet to dazzle, but have they simply been stifled by the stodgy and defensive nature of the Ulster Championship until now? And if so, can they click into a different gear now that they will likely be afforded more space?
Time will tell and on January 6, Allenwood’s incredible season gets another chapter as they take on even more fierce opposition, but it would take a silly man to ever write off this team.