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All-Ireland club SFC semi-final: All You Need To Know

Updated / Saturday, 4 Jan 2025 16:59
Cuala will be looking to get through to their first All-Ireland football final
Cuala will be looking to get through to their first All-Ireland football final

SUNDAY 5 JANUARY

Cuala v Coolera/Strandhill, Kingspan Breffni, 1.30pm
Dr Crokes v Errigal Ciarán, O'Moore Park, 3.30pm - POSTPONED

ONLINE

Live blogs on the Cuala game on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app.

TV

Live coverage on TG4 from 1pm.

RADIO

Live updates on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1

WEATHER

Sunday will bring further falls of rain, sleet and some further significant snowfall accumulations for a time. It'll gradually become drier from the west later in the day as the area of low pressure moves away eastwards. Feeling very cold with highest temperatures of 2 to 7 degrees and with the added wind chill from fresh and gusty northerly winds.

With 'disruptive' weather promised over the weekend, the threat of postponement hangs in the air - and one semi-final has already suffered. In a statement on Friday afternoon, the GAA said "Due to the current weather forecast, the GAA will monitor the pitches over the weekend. Any further changes will be notified as soon as possible."

See latest of weather situation here.

Cuala two steps from joining very exclusive list

It's 45 years since aristocratic Cork city outfit St Finbarr's wrote their name into history, achieving a distinction which remains, for now, unique.

The Barr's, already boasting two All-Ireland club hurling titles (1975, 78) and a host of dual players, most famously Jimmy Barry Murphy, beat Ballinasloe's St Grellan's in the 1979-80 All-Ireland football decider to become the first team to win both hurling and football club titles.

The All-Ireland club championships were only a decade old at that stage and weren't afforded the same hoopla. County finals in Cork in the 70s typically attracted way in excess of the crowds that attended the All-Ireland final at the beginning of the following year. The win over Ballinasloe took place in the relatively humble surrounds of Sean Treacy Park in West Tipperary.

In 1981, Finbarr's took things a step further by reaching both All-Ireland finals in the same year - which, aside from anything else, rendered a double-header an impossibility. An insurgent outfit from Kilkenny, Ballyhale Shamrocks, only founded as an amalgamated entity seven years earlier, prevented the double by beating them in the hurling final, with chaps called Fennelly accounting for all their scores.

The Barr's did recover to beat Meath's Walterstown the same month to win back-to-back football titles and would add a third in 1987.

Since then, no club has managed the All-Ireland hurling and football club combo, but the Barr's could have company soon.

Cuala, All-Ireland hurling champions in 2017 and 2018, edged out Ardee in HQ in December to become the 11th Dublin club to win the Leinster football title.

In keeping with the tenor of their campaign as a whole, the provincial decider was a nailbiter. Austin O'Malley's side appeared to be cantering to victory until late goals from Ryan Rooney and Sean Callaghan levelled the game down the stretch. A late free from Luke Keating saw them squeeze over the line, preserving the capital's stranglehold on the Leinster club crown.

Their galactico Con O'Callaghan landed 0-04 in the Leinster final, and stands as Cuala's answer to Finbarr's JBM, having been the gilded star-man on their great hurling team of the late 2010s.

The Dalkey club went so far as to rent a direct DART to Killester for their supporters for the county final against Kilmacud Crokes and then a direct train to Newbridge for the Leinster quarter-final win over Naas.

But, as singer-songwriter Lisa O'Neill has noted in the past, there's no train line in Cavan, or at least none that's still operational. A convoy of buses or SUVs will have to do.

Coolera/Strandhill going where no Sligo club has in four decades

Sligo clubs have been strangers to this stage of the competition since the early-to-mid 1980s, with Galway, Mayo and Roscommon clubs divvying up the Connacht title between them.

The St Mary's team of the late 70s/ early 80s had been the only Sligo outfit to win the Connacht title, the town side including Mayo defender and future Sligo manager Peter Forde and seventies inter-county hero Barnes Murphy.

They failed, however, to make it past the All-Ireland semi-final in three attempts, losing the 1983-84 semi to the regal Nemo Rangers.

Coolera/Strandhill ended a 41-year gap for Sligo

Sligo clubs have struggled to make a ripple at provincial level in the intervening decades, only reaching a handful of finals. Curry and Eastern Harps were beaten by Caltra and Corofin respectively in the 2000s. Tourlestrane, utterly dominant in Sligo for most of the past decade, reached just one Connacht final, losing to Maigh Cuilinn in 2022.

After winning a first Sligo title in 18 years in 2023, Coolera/Strandhill initially followed in this undistinguished tradition, going 40 minutes without registering a score in a seven point loss to St Brigid's last winter.

2024 was a radically different story.

Their fourth Sligo title, and their first back-to-back, was claimed in slightly contentious circumstances, with shades of Clive Thomas in the drawn decider. The scores tied at 1-06 to 0-09, St Malaoise Gaels worked a free short and Joseph Keaney pointed, however the ref had already blown the full-time whistle a split second earlier.

Captain Peter Laffey was the hero in the replay, landing two late points in a game where scores came dropping slow, 0-09 to 0-08 in the finish.

They turned over Ballina on penalties in a landmark win in the Connacht semi-final, converting five from five. They still entered the provincial decider as definite underdogs against a Padraig Pearses side who'd dumped out Corofin in the semi-final.

Trailing by five early in the second half, a late burst of points saw them force extra-time, during which Ross Doherty flicked home a goal to put them in the driving seat. In an unbearably tense finale, they clung on to win by a point.

Manager John McPartland, corner forward on Sligo's 2007 Connacht winning side, was mobbed in the aftermath as the subs invaded Markievicz Park.

Errigal Ciarán clash with Dr Crokes postponed

Darragh Canavan embraces father Peter after Errigal Ciarán's Ulster title win

At noon on Saturday, the not wholly unexpected news came through from the GAA that Errigal's clash with Dr Crokes in Portlaoise had fallen foul to the weather.

The GAA, perhaps with last season's shambolic semi-final between Glen and Kilmacud Crokes in mind - played in fog so thick players couldn't see parts of the pitch - made the call early.

The game has been re-fixed for 11 January with details to be confirmed.

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