Pressure on Moynalty as St Mary's sense opportunity

If at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again. That has been the motto for Moynalty for the majority of the last two decades. The north Meath side will take on St Mary’s on Sunday in the Junior B FC decider, their third straight final appearance and their sixth since 2009 having lost the previous five, writes Davy Rispin.

There is no way of dressing it up, Moynalty’s record in finals makes for bleak reading, one win in their last 12 appearances which came in 1987 against Cortown. St Mary’s on the other hand, have no such baggage with most of their current crop too young to remember their last final appearance in 2012. They themselves are seeking a first Championship success since 1979, an even longer time between drinks for the Donore/Rosnaree side.

It is impossible to speculate on which team will turn up to Pairc Tailteann with the better mentality on Sunday, contrasting Moynalty’s woeful record versus St Mary’s inexperience on the big day. What we do know is that the teams are evenly matched having played out a draw in the final round of the group stages only a month ago.

Andy Brien rescued a share of the spoils for Nicky Gogan’s side that night, the prolific corner forward then registered 2-5 in their semi-final win over Cortown a fortnight later. A Meath Minor last year, the addition of Brien and Caimin Hughes have added significant firepower to the St Mary’s forward line.

A year ago, the sides met in the penultimate stages with Moynalty falling over the line, 0-8 to 0-6, only to lose out to neighbours Carnaross the following Saturday. Derek O’Brien’s team slept walked their way through to that final, but this year has been a different story.

They could so easily have exited in the group stages had Evan Dixon’s goal attempt with the final kick of the game for Boardsmill gone under instead of over the crossbar. It was that reprieve that has since breathed new life into Moynalty. A battling draw in the final round against Sunday’s opponents preceded a topsy-turvy semi-final victory over neighbours Kilmainhamwood last time out with stalwart Paul Lynch popping up with the winner.

Johnny Lynch is still one of the finest goalkeepers in the county, Paddy Byrne, who spent much of 2025 on the sidelines, is back to his brilliant best and Pauric O’Connor has that x-factor on the inside line.

Ironically, O’Connor was running amuck against St Mary’s until Joey Greene was redeployed on the Moynalty sharpshooter in the group stage encounter, expect them to renew acquaintances from the start this time around.

The Victory brothers Cormac and Sam made a sizable contribution off the bench in the semi-final for St Mary's, the expectation is that Cormac may get the nod to start on Sunday and add to the scoring prowess of Brien, Hughes and Sean Nulty which might just tip the balance in favour of the more youthful side who, should they get over the challenge of Moynalty have the potential to follow a similar trajectory of Kilbride in year’s to come. One step at a time though!

Verdict - St Mary’s.