BY SEÁN HOLLAND
CILL na Martra boss John Evans is playing down the favourite tag going into Saturday’s All-Ireland intermediate football semi-final against Roscommon’s Castlerea St Kevins in Portlaoise (1.45pm).
The bookmakers have the Muskerry side as hot favourites going into this clash but Evans was quick to reiterate that things aren’t always as straightforward in the intermediate grade.
‘You can be over and back like a ping-pong ball on something like that. Really, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. Look at Milltown-Castlemaine, they were four-to-one on against us, and look how that went,’ Evans noted.
‘The reality is that anyone in the last four can beat anyone. If it was a senior team it would be a different story because senior football is so structured and more defined. When it’s intermediate, anybody can have a good day, anybody can have an off-day and any team can beat one another.
‘There’s huge respect between all the provinces when you get to a stage like this and whatever the bookies put us down as it has absolutely no consequence to us, we have a job to do. It’s a pie in the sky, we’ve Castlerea St Kevins ahead of us and that’s the fence we have to jump.’
It was a quieter festive period than usual for the Cill na Martra men, but with the carrot of an All-Ireland final dangling in front of them, Evans explains that they were more than willing to put their shoulders to the wheel.
‘We’ve had four weeks since the Munster final, so we tapered our training schedule over the Christmas period to accommodate the lads as best we could,’ he explained.
‘In fairness to the lads though, even with the terrible weather and the different festivities going on over the period, they stuck to their guns on what we had planned out and they all turned up to training and put in a mighty effort. In the end, we got through it alright. I won’t say it was the most enjoyable Christmas we’ve ever had but at the end of the day, the prize there, it’s just so big, you have to make huge sacrifices,’ explained Evans.
The Kerryman spent three years as manager of the Roscommon inter-county football team from 2012-2015, even managing one of the opposing players he’ll face on Saturday. With his time spent there, he didn’t hear or see much of Castlerea St Kevins but having the advantage of the streaming sites for video analysis has made life a lot easier.
‘The only connection or memory of Castlerea St Kevins was Darren McDermott, he would have been on the county team that time with me. He’s a very talented footballer and will be one of their dangermen,’ Evans noted.
‘We’ve had a chance to look back at a few of their games. They’re a very good side from what we’ve seen. That’s the advantage these days with streaming services like Clubber. It makes my life a lot easier compared to my time with Laune Rangers 25 years ago. You can get a good sense now of what you’re going to face. The same goes the other way too. They’ll have studied us in depth and they’ll look for ways to stop us. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander as they say.’
Having come through a tough Connacht campaign, Evans is wary of the challenge that his side faces, remarking on the passion for football he had seen in his time with the Rossies.
‘One thing I would take from my time there is that any club in the county of Roscommon is hugely passionate about their football. Hurling isn’t that strong up there so all the time it’s football, football, football,’ he explained.
‘For Castlerea St Kevins to beat the Mayo champions and the Galway champions, that’s a fair indication of how good they are. It’s a prime example of the footballing pedigree they have in that county. We’re expecting nothing short of a really tough battle on Saturday.’
