This weekend sees the Playoffs get underway in both the Shamrock Bowl Conference (SBC) and in the Irish American Football League Division One (IAFL1).
One novel pairing over the weekend is the game between the Craigavon Cowboys and the Galway Warriors. The Warriors (3-5) head to the People’s Park in Portadown to take on the (5-3) Cowboys on Sunday. These sides have never met previously, so it will be a new experience for both sides.
Warriors Head Coach Colin O’Halloran is excited for the challenge on Sunday, but knows it won’t be easy to get a result. “It’s our first time ever playing the Cowboys and we are fully anticipating a very well organised and efficient opposition. However, we’ll be going up there with nothing to lose and in knock out football, nothing that has happened before now holds any weight,” said O’Halloran.
He continued, “Obviously as a club, we’re delighted to have made the playoffs, especially with it being our 1st year in IAFL-1. Some good teams missed out on a spot so it shows how competitive the division was this year,” said O’Halloran.
“We’re excited for the challenge and delighted to finally break our playoff duck.”
As for the Cowboys and their Head Coach Greg Loughran, he says the fact that the clubs have never met before can be difficult, “We have never played the Warriors before so we don’t really know what to expect but we have been preparing our A-game and expect a tough encounter. It’s a wild-card game and anything is possible on the day.
The Cowboys will welcome back some players back to the squad for the big game. Loughran said, “From our side, we are happy to have a number of experienced players returning to the roster and available for Sunday. We will not be taking anything for granted.”
“We know where we have been weak in our recent games and we’ve worked really hard to rectify this, so we will see how far we have come in that regard. We’re really looking forward to Sunday.”
The game kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday with the winners facing a trip to Wexford on July 29th to face the Eagles in the semi-finals.