IAFL 1 Bowl Preview

All to play for this Sunday with the IAFL 1 Bowl and promotion to the Shamrock Bowl Conference at stake as the IAFL 1 top seeds Craigavon Cowboys take on second seeds Westmeath Minotaurs. The game will be played at Navan RFC with live commentary, music, bar, BBQ and an ice cream van for spectators to enjoy and of course, the big game. Admission is free for everyone with the game kicking off at 2pm – not to be missed!

Craigavon Cowboys vs Westmeath Minotaurs

Form favours the Cowboys as they are currently on an eight game winning streak, whilst also carrying the best consistency having lost only one game this year. The Minotaurs had an excellent start to the season, winning six games in a row before losing their last two regular season games. These teams last met only four weeks ago where the Cowboys would return home from Mullingar RFC with a 26-0 win.

This will be the third bowl game for the Cowboys in three years, having lost out to the Mavericks and Rhinos in the previous two years. This has been an improved season for the County Armagh outfit, winning the league this year compared to finishing fifth in the 2018 overall standings. The Cowboys boast the better defense of the two teams, however they are up against the best offense in the league this Sunday. Cowboys head coach Greg Loughran will be hoping third times a charm and that the bowl makes its way back to Craigavon “We have to be confident going into this game but we are also well aware that nothing is guaranteed and that we have to perform at our best to come away with the win. We don’t have a right to the Bowl, it has to be earned and I’m pretty sure that the Minotaurs will be thinking along the same lines.”

The Minotaurs will contest their first ever bowl game this Sunday, following a stellar season so far. Changes off the pitch within the club set the foundations for the players to excel this year, which saw them improve on their fourth place finish in 2018 to second place in 2019. A tricky encounter with the Wexford Eagles two weeks ago, which had a 14-14 score line at half time, saw the team in purple emerge as 27-22 victors. Minotaurs head coach Conor Brennan was pleased with his team’s performance in the semi-final and has his team ready to try and bring home their first bowl “We’re really looking forward to the final. Obviously we didn’t like how the regular season ended as we felt that performance wasn’t what we were capable of. The semi-final result saw our big guns return to action and it was a much improved performance. We had a light session Sunday, just walking through plays and adjustments. I feel everyone is very excited but also relaxed at the same time. We’ve been around for eight or nine years at this stage and have had very mixed results over the years. We’ve gone 0-8, had some good years and some mediocre ones. Now we’re coming off back to back 6-2 seasons and playoff football so we’re just going to enjoy this occasion. That would be my message to the lads. We’ll aim to put in our best performance of the season and the result will look after itself.”

Location: Navan RFC, County Meath

Kick-off: 2pm