Finn Culleton confident Mountmellick can rise to IFC challenge against Crettyard
The sides are set to meet on Friday evening
Mountmellick and Crettyard are set to go to battle on Friday for the right to be called Laois Shopping Centre Intermediate Football champions and with it a place in the Senior Football Championship for 2025.
Mountmellick have been down at Intermediate since being relegated in 2017 so they'll be hoping to end a six-year wait to return to the top table of Laois GAA club football.
Finn Culleton, one of the younger members of the panel, spoke to the Leinster Express/ Laois Live ahead of the game in Laois Hire O'Moore Park.
"We were training there last night (Wednesday), just sorting out the last bits, making sure it's all set. Looking forward to it now and everyone's fairly excited. I am definitely really looking forward to it myself, we haven't had too many chances to play there. The last time we were there was disappointing enough when we lost to Park-Ratheniska. So, looking forward to it big time now,” he said.
Mountmellick have always been there or thereabouts when it comes to the latter stages of the championship. They've been unlucky in the way that anytime they lose a semi-final, it's usually the side that goes on to win the title.
"I suppose we're down here a good few years at this stage. We have been unlucky the last few years, getting knocked out to the eventual winners. But I suppose if you want to win it, you have to beat the best team in it. So that's just the luck of the draw really. It would be great now if we can go on and win it out of Intermediate and push on in Senior then,” Culleton added.
Should Mountmellick get over the line on Friday night, Culleton feels that the club is a great place to survive in the Senior grade.
"I definitely think so. There's a lot more younger players in the team now, and even more to come up from Minor and U-15's as well. So over the next few years, we'll be getting stronger players and then from this year with a few injuries, they'll be returning as well to make the team even stronger, I definitely think we could do well to definitely survive in Senior and hopefully in the next few years, push on, if we are to make it up,” Culleton said.
Reflecting on Mountmellick's run to the final, the young forward reckons that Mountmellick have gotten better as the championship has progressed.
“We probably got off to a bit of a rocky start, like losing to Annanough. I don't know, they were very organised and strong, and we were kind of slow to start in that game. But then slowly turned things around as it went on. We played well for most of the game against Portlaoise and then against Arles-Kilcruise, they were a very tough opposition but we kind of kept ahead and showed a lot of heart. Same with Ratheniska, I thought that was our best game so far this year. We were very organised and felt very confident when it was playing. I think we're just kind of getting stronger as the Championship goes on,” he added.
Crettyard will provide a stern test for Mountmellick on Friday evening and Culleton is well aware of the threat they pose all over the field.
"They definitely have a lot of threats on their team. Strong attack and obviously very good defensively as well. But if we can get our own game together and focus on our own strengths, going forward there's a lot of good players, a lot of speed and a lot of players who can shoot from distance as well. I think if we can focus on those strengths, we'll definitely have a good chance. But again, we'll have to be strong ourselves defensively because they have a very strong attack, so we'll need to be very organised to be able to deal with them,” the Mountmellick man said.
This will be the first of two Intermediate finals for the town with the hurlers set to take on Abbeyleix in the decider too.
"I play hurling myself so we'll hoping to do the double but even just one would be amazing. A lot of the younger lads in the team, we haven't won any county finals or any championship finals. It'd be brilliant for us to get some silverware and obviously for the town it would be a huge boost as well," Culleton finished.