Munster Club Final: Current Austin Stacks Team To Move Up Alongside Greats

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Austin Stacks, will have to do without highly impressive defender this year, Ronan Shanahan. Photo by Dermot Crean.

Austin Stacks, will have to do without highly impressive defender this year, Ronan Shanahan. Photo by Dermot Crean.

Gavin O’Connor says Austin Stacks will capture their first Munster Club Championship title in 38 years on Sunday…

AUSTIN STACKS can almost feel their hands on that Munster Cup.

Sixty more minutes of football to capture a trophy they have only won once before.

The side of ’76 was littered with bona fide legends of the game. Names such as Sheehy, O’Keeffe, Long and Power. The most storied of all the great Rock teams down the years.

Continued below…

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Just an hour of football for the class of 2014 to be moved up alongside those dusty old photographs in the Stacks clubhouse in Connolly Park – 60 more minutes from immortality.

The weight of history hangs heavy, something Stephen Stack has downplayed all year. Ever since the lead up to the county final he has urged for his players to shelter themselves from the hype.

With ten bus loads of fans heading for Cork this Sunday and ‘the street of champions’ awash with black and amber for over a month, the players being oblivious to the hype is as about as likely as someone avoiding what happened in the final episode of Love/Hate on Facebook.

The ball will be thrown in Sunday on the eve of the darkest month of the year. It has been a long campaign for the Stacks, so they can be thankful they have been relatively lucky with injuries.

Only Darragh O’Brien, who missed the Ballincollig game,  and Ronan Shanahan, who has been one of The Rock’s star defenders this year will sadly miss a chance of playing in a Munster Final.

The younger of the Shanahan brothers absence in particular is a loss for the Stacks. He has been excellent all year, in particular in the first 20 minutes against Ballincollig when his side was under sustained pressure from the Cork champions, Shanahan made a number of vital interceptions.

Looking at the match, Stacks are 1/2 favorites and you’d expect it’s for two main reasons; this is a Kerry v Waterford match-up and the looming threat of All-Star Kieran Donaghy.

Shane Carroll's, free taking maybe extremely important if The Stacks are going to beat The Nire. Photo by Oscar Brophy.

Shane Carroll’s, free taking maybe extremely important if The Stacks are going to beat The Nire. Photo by Oscar Brophy.

What Donaghy does for Kerry may be straight forward, but what he brings to the table for Stacks is anything but.

If The Rock have been feeling the heat in any area, ‘The Star’ has been moved there to put out the fire.

Against Ballincollig, he played most of the match at centre back, his great frame blockading  the Cork side’s attacks.

It’s almost like the Stacks management wait to see how the game is panning out and move Donaghy to wherever he might do the most damage or where he can solve a problem. I think we can expect the same on Sunday.

Austin Stacks opponents are a side jam-packed with inter-county experience. Eight of the side are involved with either the Deise senior hurlers or footballers, so we can expect them to be fit and well organised. In modern Gaelic football those attributes are enough to challenge any side.

Looking at the forecast, the weather looks good, but either way I expect this to be a tight game.

The last thing The Nire will want to do is open things up. The Stacks have a strong defence so I don’t expect them to cough up too much.

On the other hand, their forwards have not exactly shot the lights out this year so could well be stifled by a resolute Nire defence.

I don’t expect this match to be a great spectacle which may come down to who gives away the most frees, this year.

The Rock have proved adept at winning plenty of them.

Verdict – Stacks by 4 points 

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