The most eagerly-awaited ‘big alley’ doubles match in many years serves off tomorrow evening (programme starts at 2pm) in Croke Park as Dublin meet Meath in the MyClubShop.ie All-Ireland 60x30 Senior Doubles final.
The potential meeting of Dublin’s Eoin Kennedy and Carl Browne and Meath’s Tom Sheridan and Brian Carroll has been coming down the tracks for a couple of years now, ever since Browne transferred to St Brigid's in Blanchardstown.
The prospect of an epic decider, with the potential to ignite given the back story, has caught the imagination of handball fans and a capacity crowd is expected as the doubles final returns to Dublin 3 after a six-year hiatus.
The context which adds that element of spice to the fixture is not just Sheridan’s return but also that Browne, a native of Kells who formerly represented the Royals, switched allegiance to the capital in 2013 and has formed a potent partnership with Kennedy, the greatest player of his generation.
They stormed to victory last year in their maiden season as a partnership, defeating Kilkenny’s Ciaran Neary and the late Ducksie Walsh in the final, but there was an asterisk beside it to an extent in that the Meath pair didn’t enter after Carroll tore tendons in his finger at a tournament in Kingscourt.
“It happened in August and I was out for a couple of months so I didn’t really get back playing until after Christmas,” Carroll told GAAHandball.ie.
Could the time out of the alley have been a blessing in disguise?
“I didn’t get to play competitive handball in the 60x30 last year so when I came back this year, it was a long time from I had played in the 60x30. I don’t know if it was a good thing, I just felt it took me longer to get back into the swing of things this year.
“It was kind of a slow start to the season. It wasn’t really going my way in the early parts and I was struggling to find a bit of form but it seems to be coming together for me now at the right time, I’m hitting the ball a lot more sweetly and with a lot more confidence now.”
And he’s keen to make up for lost time, too.
“It was very disappointing not to be able to play in it last year because we would have felt we had a great chance of winning it. It was extremely disappointing and that’s why we kind of bounced back to try and get back into the final because there’s no better feeling than winning the senior doubles.”
Carroll has played in just a single big alley final at Ceannáras, the win over Mayo’s Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann in 2008, but he’s a devotee of the grand old theatre off the Clonliffe Road. There’s something unique and magical about it, he says, that other courts just can’t replicate.
“There’s no comparison, there’s a huge difference. Just the whole atmosphere in the court and in the crowd, you can’t really compare it.
“Why? I suppose, it’s Croke Park. Whatever it is about it, there’s a much better atmosphere and it’s more exciting to go and play a final there."
"As for the court itself, there are some differences, the glass sidewall is the obvious one and it’s probably quite a low court compared to Abbeylara or Broadford where the last few finals were.
“But they shouldn’t really be factors. The glass sidewall gets negative press from players but it’s the same as any wall really, you should be concentrating on the ball really so the glass sidewall shouldn’t make any difference.”
The chance to lock horns with the champions has whetted the appetite, too.
“We played them in the Nationals two years ago and they beat us in the final and I think we played them in the Leinster Championship in the small alley as well but we haven’t played them in the 60x30 championship.
“We’re treating Eoin and Carl like any other opponents, regardless of the history. It’s not going to make a huge difference, we’re going to go in and try to beat the two boys, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing in the final, we’ll be just concentrating on our own game and playing as well as we can play.
“We’ll definitely be expecting a tough battle but the way we’re looking at it is if we play as well as we can play they’ll do extremely well to beat us.”