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Cill na Martra target Comórtas run this weekend

May 31st, 2019 1:00 PM

By Southern Star Team

Daniel Ó Duinnin is a doubt for this weekend with a knee injury.

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Momentum behind Muskerry men as they travel to West Kerry this weekend

THESE are good times for Cill na Martra football. 

They won the 2018 county intermediate title. In their first game in the 2019 premier intermediate championship in April they beat Eire Óg by 1-9 to 0-8. They followed that up with a win over another premier intermediate team, Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh, in the Muskerry Gaeltacht section of Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta and they will now represent the division in the finals in Kerry this weekend.

Two years ago Cill na Martra lost to An Ghaeltact from West Kerry in the final – but this year they have momentum behind them.

This year’s competition is being held in the West Kerry Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne between Friday (May 31st) and Monday (June 3rd). Cill na Martra are in action on Saturday evening at 4.30pm when they face the winner of Bhulf Tón from Meath versus Oileáin Árann from Galway.

Getting through to Sunday is the target, explains Cill na Martra boss Kevin O’Sullivan.

‘It’s great exposure. If we get to Sunday, and we’d love to get to the semi-finals, the game will be live on TG4. The final is live on TG4 on Monday,’ he says, before explaining the importance of Comórtas to the club.

‘It’s one of the main competitions for us during the year apart from the championship,’ he says.

‘We build our year around it in one sense. We’ll play the first round of the county championship in April and the Comórtas is a handy competition for us to focus on for the few months that we’d be without any championship action.

‘It’s very hard for clubs to get motivated at this time of the year but this competition keeps lads going for another few months. After this weekend we’ll take a break and taper off again. It fits in nicely because it’s a long time from April to August/September with no championship games.’

To get to this stage Cill na Martra came through Muskerry. Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh’s Cork PIFC round one game with Naomh Abán doubled up as a championship and Comórtas game. 

Béal Átha’n won and then Cill na Martra beat them by 1-12 to 0-11 in the final with Damien Ó hUrdail scoring a late goal and Micheál Ó Deasúna kicking six points.

Cill na Martra have a few injury concerns this weekend. Tadhg Ó Corcora is struggling with a hamstring injury, forward Dan Ó Duinnin has been out since the PIFC 

game against Éire Óg after getting a knock on his knee and full back Anthony Ó Cuana has been out injured since February.

‘We have good momentum from last year and we’re looking forward to the weekend,’ O’Sullivan adds.

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