LET'S BURN IT UP

The Academy will be on the hunt for their 10th Burney Cup title, having last won the cup in 2007 and with Campbell being a school more renowned for their rugby skills than for those with a hockey stick it’s hard to look past the locals lifting the cup.

“We are favourites. We won the McCullough Cup back in December so we have been considered favourites from the very start of the campaign,” said Dawson.

“Wallace were our biggest rivals so to get past them in the quarter finals was a major achievement.

“But I’m keen that the boys don’t take anything for granted - I’ve warned them of that; their name isn’t on the trophy just yet.

“We have a lot of experience but they are all still young and still have to perform in the final. Hopefully they can do themselves justice and enjoy the occasion; to get to the final itself is an incredible effort.”

Dawson isn’t wrong when he says his team has a wealth of experience. A large number of the Academy side feature regularly for Banbridge’s senior teams and have been there and done that in club hockey.

He added, “Our captain, Stevie Dowds, is an invaluable player who is deadly at drag flick short corners so even if we are in trouble we always have that in our locker to dig us out.

tremendous

“Vice Captain Philip Brown plays in defence for the senior First XI and Ireland U18s; we rely heavily on him at times. Owen Magee is in fifth form at the minute and while he still has time to develop he’s a tremendous player and a class act who has a lot to live up to by following in his brother Eugene’s footsteps.

“Joshua Moffett is also in fifth form but has just broken through into the senior firsts too and is supported in midfield by the likes of Hugh McShane and Matthew Bell.

“In goals Andrew Mooney has made a lot of progress over the last year. He’s been capped by Ulster U18s and is now training with the Irish and Ulster U21s.”

Of Campbell he said, “They have a few boys in the Ulster U16 squad so they’re not to be underestimated. Ronnie Smyth, who is a very respected coach, is helping them out now and you can see the benefits of that.

“They just about got through against Sullivan Upper. While they have some good individual players I would like to think that we are more advanced as a team.”

Despite their favourites tag the Academy will need to produce a much improved performance than they won they produced against Cookstown High in the semi final, Dawson added.

DISAPPOINTED

“We were 4-3 down with two minutes to go but a Dowds drag flick just about earned us extra time. I felt we should have had it won in normal time so I was dissapointed with our performance on the day,” he said.

“At half time we were a goal down but after the boys had a bit of a talking to at half time it was 3-1 to us. Then we tried to throw the game away and we can’t afford to do that in the final.”

The Academy are appealing for as many fans as possible to come down and cheer on the team. The game starts at 2pm at Lisnagarvey’s Blaris HQ.