RATHNEW ARE the team that everyone has to beat if they are to win this year's Senior football championship.

Punters will be reluctant to bet against the county champions retaining their title after the thrashing they dished out to Donard-Glen in their one-sided quarter-final match at Aughrim on Saturday.

Strangely the westerners offered their best resistance in the opening half against the wind, but they were blown out of the water on the change-over as Rathnew moved up a gear to give a commanding display of football that left their opponents with no answer.

With a good tail wind in the first-half, Rathnew only led by 1-6 to 0-4 at the break, the main difference separating the sides being a peach of a goal by Tommy Gill after 24 minutes and a brilliant performance for the champions by Stephen Canavan at centre-back.

Evergreen Tommy Gill is as wily and crafty as ever. Following a good ball down the right flank from Nicky Mernagh, we were treated to a magical piece of wizardry by Gill and Leighton Glynn before the Rathnew number-13 weaved his way infield and tucked his left-footed shot in the corner of the net at the near post.

Gill also scored four delightful points in this match, including the opener from a free after two minutes and one from play shortly afterwards as Rathnew opened up a 0-3 gap in the first ten minutes.

Donard-Glen had their share of the play in the opening half and the accuracy of wing-forward Harry Mangan from frees on 12 and 18 minutes left them trailing by a mere 0-5 to 0-3 after 20 minutes. The third point by Colm Osbourne also came from a free, Harry Mangan landed the fourth from a placed ball also on 26 minutes, but thereafter the westerners were not to score again for the rest of the match.

Donard landed themselves in deeper trouble just before half-time when they were reduced to 14 men with the sending off of corner-forward Laurence Daly on two yellow cards, but in hindsight it is doubtful if the loss had much of a bearing on the final outcome, such was the dominance and football power shown by Rathnew in the second period.

From the restart the men from the Thatched village took complete control of the exchanges with county star Leighton Glynn really cutting loose. And at times it looked as if they were toying with the opposition as they attacked almost non-stop.

Tommy Gill drilled a free over the bar after three minutes, Leighton Glynn added another a minute later after good work, and this game was over as a contest after 37 minutes as the Mernagh brothers combined for Nicky to shoot to the Donard net for goal number two.

Rathnew had now stretched their lead to 2-8 to 0-4 and there was no hope of a Donard revival. Instead the one-way traffic continued, James Stafford shipped some heavy tackles but pressed on regardless, and Leighton Glynn added the icing on 46 minutes when he cheekily sided-footed a third goal.

On this showing Rathnew still have that appetite for more silverware and county titles. In the semi-final in two weeks time, they will take on Blessington who also recorded a big win at the weekend against Stratford-Grangecon.

Rathnew scorers: Leighton Glynn (14), Tommy Gill (1-4), Nicky Mernagh (10), Mark Doyle (0-2), Stephen Canavan (0-1), James Stafford (0-1).

Donard-Glen scorers: Harry Mangan (0-3 frees), Colm Osbourne (0-1 free).

- MARK KENNEDY