 So we're continuing our preview of this weekend's Ulster Junior Football Championship final and I'm delighted to say from Shannonside FM and a man that knows a lot about football in the cabin area, Damien O'Donnell, who joins us. Good to see you Damien. Yeah, you too, Ocean. Great to be on. Yeah, great to be on. It's great to be talking football a week before Christmas, isn't it? I tell you what, I do tell people to ask me, I describe myself as GA0 and how do you describe yourself? Well, my Christmas dinner is spent talking about football, so that's where we go all year round. Well, listen, up here, Damien, when I start to talk about football at the Christmas dinner, I'd be told to shut up very, very quickly. Maybe the one day of the year we're not allowed to talk about football in my house, but anyway, with an Ulster final to look forward to this weekend, tell us a bit about Dan. Tell us a wee bit about the club from County Cabin. Who are they? What are they? Yeah, so Dan is, they're located in a village called Croskies. The pitch will be in Croskies, about 10, 15 minutes outside of Caventown and the Balladiums, those side. They're a side that had a meteoric rise and kind of fall. They came up from Intermediate in the late 90s up to senior level. In 2008, 2009, they contested a senior final or two finals against Cavengales. We're beaten on both occasions by a really strong Cavengales team. But then kind of started to gradually fall back. And then the end of the, I think it was around 2017, they got relegated down to Intermediate or maybe 18 into Intermediate, then straight down from Intermediate into junior. Now, they would have been expected at that stage to bounce straight back up again. They had a couple of underage teams that were coming through. They had had really good quality forwards on them. And people would have said, look at them and win that junior and they'll push right back up again. But they had a ropey couple of years. They stayed in junior for, I think this is now their fourth year in junior. And they're finally kind of achieving their potential at this level. But they've looked at under manager Stephen Baxter, they've pushed on. They've definitely got competitive. They were in last year's junior final, which was actually played earlier this year, played in August of this year. They lost to Templeport in that. They were heavy favourites going into that game, but were pipped on the day by a better Templeport side. But they bounced back, put in a really good championship semifinal replay against Knuck Bride where they blitzed them after a tight affair in the first day. And then they'd be drawn in the county final to pick up a deserved title. So they're a community that has suffered loss over the course of the pandemic. There's been a lot of issues within the community. So the Cavend, GA fraternity are very much behind them because it's a feel-good story in an area that needs a feel-good story. Yeah, and I suppose it's very similar to the position that Downings are in because Downings went in against Sean McDermott of Monaghan as underdogs in their game. Den were seen as underdogs against Desert Martin, the derri side that was going to win this junior championship. So it was the underdogs in both that came through. But up here, I know they're saying that Down are very strong. And then will be the favourites for the title and for the match. And I'm sure you're the opposite to that down in that end, didn't you? Without a doubt. Straight away after the game for the podcast, I was talking to Stephen Baxter, the Den manager, with Jerome Kiernan and his words were, look at their after beating Sean McDermott, who are favourites for the championship. So for the other championship, they're bound to be favourites going into this one as well. And now we're happy being underdogs. So both sides are happy to be underdogs, which means that nobody's an underdog in one of those situations. But I think the result like Monaghan's history in this competition is very, very strong. They're the most dominant side in the last decade in this competition. And they've had all Ireland winners come from it. So that is an eye catching result. But like you said, everybody expected Desert Martin and Sean McDermott to be in this final. And then we're deserving winners over Desert Martin. They were the better side on the day. The Desert Martin done really well, curtailed a couple of the key forwards that then have. But what then have is a lot of forwards for a junior championship team. If you mark two of them really well, they have another two or even three that can step up and add in three, four or five points. You know, they're that capable. So I think that's their big advantage in in in Denmark. Yeah, can they get physical in the game? And what I mean by that is McSean McDermott's from Monaghan brought the physical factor of the game against Downeynes. Is that something then can bring? Was it all running and all football? No, it's it's a mixture. So if you if you think of their team, they've got a lot of runners, a lot of light, pacy players and and real good forwards. And I say a lot that, you know, there's probably six lads who would be very light on their feet, very nimble. But then they have Mossy Core at fullback, who's ex County senior fullback. Their captain, Beanie Gaffney, Michael Gaffney, his brother, physical, robust players, Josh and Karen and that that can mix it up as well. So they probably have a good enough balance that if they have to go to the trenches, they can go to the trenches. And kind of what what they've done this year is played a lot of different styles of football. So they played all out attack right through the group stages of the championship here. There are pressing teams high up the field. They were conceding quite a bit in doing so, but they they always managed to outscore the opposition. Then in the drawn semi-final that I mentioned, against Knockbride, it was that sort of an affair in the replay. What they did was they set up, brought all bar four forwards back, cried out to the fence. Physically, they got they bullied Knockbride in that game. And once they turned over, they let the ball move forward into the spaces where the four forwards really done damage on that occasion. So they have the ability to mix it up, whether it be physical or it's a running game. So they'll not be afraid of either kind of battling fairness to them. Just finally, then, the fact that it's been played in Clonus, big open pitch, good surface there. Can we expect a high scoring final? Or is it going to be one of these real dog at Ulster games that low scoring and a real dog fight, David? Yeah, do you know what? The venue to me is I was surprised at the venue when then got Desert Martin in Clonus because from Croskies to Clonus is about at maximum it's a half an hour drive. Whereas I think downings down could be two hours down to Clonus. So I'm very surprised that that is the location and the fact that then have played their semifinal there. I think that's a big advantage. But to answer your question, I don't expect it to be high score. And even though then have been high score and throughout the cabin championship in Ulster, right, they put up a big score against Neve Cole. But I think Neve Cole tried to set up with a blanket defence and they hadn't done it before. They didn't know really how to execute it. And after a wobbly first half were then hit eight wide or first quarter actually were then hit eight wide. They opened up the key and they just tore them apart. So I expect the downings better organised have been low enough scoring or conceding low enough scores throughout the championship that I think we could we could end up with maybe nine, 10 scores to win this game actually. And it has to finish in the day too, doesn't it? Yeah, extra time. It does. It could ruin our Christmas dinner if it went down. Or I say, maybe make our Christmas dinner. Oh, what a deal. Listen, we're looking forward to it. Demi, looking forward to seeing you again this Sunday as well in the press area in Clonus. Hopefully we get a good game. Without a doubt. Thanks, Demi.