Caulry stand between confident Finea and the Promised Land

Paul HughesAlthough ranked as slight underdogs by the bookies, a full-strength Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall will hope to exorcise the ghosts of the last five years with a win over Caulry in this Sunday's Jasca Sports intermediate football championship final at Cusack Park (3.30pm).Michael Tynan's troops have ever been the bridesmaid, but never the bride, and captain Ray Sheridan reckons that with the intermediate grade becoming more competitive and difficult to master with each passing year, now is the time for Finea to make the jump."We've been knocking on the door for the last five seasons, and we're obviously keen to get over the disappointments we've had along the way," he said."I think over the last five years we topped our group four times, and finished joint top another time, only to lose three semi-finals."Losing to Coralstown/Kinnegad last year was difficult, but I think getting past the semis last year was a huge thing, after losing three of them. We're a lot calmer going into the final this year, and the occasion won't affect us as much."Finea lost to Caulry in a league game earlier this year, though they haven't met in the championship since the first round of 2011."We drew that game, and this year, we played each other in the league in March, but you had two very weakened sides playing each other that day," Ray said. "There'll be a kick of a ball between us. Both of us have only lost the one game each over the last two years, and we're both coming to a final unbeaten. We expect a good game of football from two teams who have been very consistent this year."The north Westmeath side were lifted mid-season by the return of potent forward Niall Kilcoyne and wing back Glen Plunkett from foreign shores."Niall's return has made us that little bit more dangerous," Sheridan remarked, adding that Finea benefits from a good blend of youth and experience - from veteran dual player Darren McCormack, to the likes of 19 year-old corner back David Higgins.Sunday's IFC final will be preceded by the KC Marketing junior football final between Kilbeggan Shamrocks and Mullingar Shamrocks' 'B' team (1.45pm), with the former fancied to clinch a return to intermediate grade.