Dunmore MacHales looking for a first-ever provincial championship win
It is almost 18 years since Dunmore MacHales played their one and only game in the Connacht Intermediate club championship. The North Galway side won the 2004 Galway Intermediate Championship after a heart-stopping 1-9 to 0-11 county final win over Caherlistrane. The provincial semi-finals, however, were not played until January 2005 when Dunmore lost out to eventual Connacht champions Western Gaels from Roscommon 1-9 to 1-7. The MacHales’ were without their county final hero Michael Donnellan for that match in Frenchpark and a little over 12 months later, he would star for Salthill Knocknacarra in winning a Senior All Ireland club title in Croke Park.
Dunmore MacHales were, of course, the club that instigated the formation of the All Ireland Club Championships in 1971 but on the two occasions since then that Dunmore won County Senior Championships, they failed to win a match in the provincial championship. Firstly in 1973, they lost out to Mayo side Knockmore 1-9 to 2-4 in the Connacht semi-final and in 1983, after beating Clonbur 2-6 to 0-8 in the county final, the MacHales lost 0-7 to 0-6 to Sligo side St Mary’s in the Connacht semi-final in Markiewicz Park. So, it will be a case of Dunmore breaking their duck at provincial level on Saturday when they take on Sligo Intermediate champions St Molaise Gaels.
Having lost last year’s Intermediate final to Leitir Mór, Dunmore MacHales were on a mission this season to finally end their 15-year wait for a return to the senior ranks and group stage wins over Williamstown, St Gabriels and Kilconly set up a quarter-final meeting with neighbours Kilkerrin Clonberne. Gary Delaney’s men duly won by 1-11 to 1-7 and a 2-11 to 0-13 win over Corofin in the semi-final set up a rematch with Kilconly in the decider. Despite dominating large periods of the county final, the MacHales were left sweating late on when Kilconly scored a late goal to narrow a four-point lead to the minimum and they had an upright at the town goal in Tuam Stadium to thank for preventing extra time. The final scoreline of 0-8 to 1-3 meant that in Dunmore’s six intermediate championship matches in Galway they scored an average of 15.5 points and conceded an average of 9.66 points. Their joint top scorers were free-taker Padraig Costello and forward Jake Slattery. Their opponents on Sunday, St Molaise Gaels from Sligo were known as Grange/Cliffoney until 2003 and they blitzed their way through their Intermediate championship. After their four group games were won, St Molaise Gaels had a scoring difference of +44, they won the county semi-final by 12 points and the final by 15 points, so their scoring average is 22 points and their concession average is just over 10 points per game. The pre-match odds of Dunmore being 1/3 favourites seems somewhat misplaced.
