IN THE lead up to Sunday's All Ireland club football semi finals, one accepted line of thought was that Ulster champions Mullaghbawn's chances of beating Eire Og would be greatly enhanced by a blast of bad weather.

The reasoning was that the Carlow team's quick moving game would be inhibited.

As things turned out, the weather was shocking but the Leinster champions still won comfortably. It was one of two impressive aspects to the victory in Navan which puts Eire Og into a second All Ireland final in four years against Kerry's Laune Rangers.

The other marker laid down was that they resisted Mullaghbawn's second half comeback and finished strongly without any of the dangerous lapses in concentration that have frequently spoiled some good performances over the years.

"We missed a lot of scores in the third quarter," says Eire Og coach Bobby Miller, "and I wasn't happy with that but we could have won quite easily if it wasn't for their goalkeeper. They played reasonably well in the first half, putting the ball into space and turning us.

"That was against the wind and they caused us trouble playing on the break like a soccer team. In the second half, they ran at us which was fine because we were facing the ball all the time. They could have rained in high ball on us but they didn't and never got in behind our backs.

"We were six up at half time and had 10 wides as well so we were reasonably in control. Our first touch was good for a wet day and players held passes so all the forwards got good ball. Having said that, Eire Og are still not operating to their full potential.

"The replay against An Tochar was probably the best performance. We gave away a soft goal and came back. Our finishing was good but it was played in very good conditions. An Tochar were well organised and very disciplined and played to their strengths. They got their conversion rate right the first day but it's hard to do it two days running.

"Against Clane, we also did well: to recover from five points down with 13 men and 20 minutes left"

Eire Og have developed quite a recent history in the club championships. In 1993, they reached the All Ireland final only to lose to Skibbereen after a replay. A year later, they were back as Leinster champions but seemed to lose their edge during the long break between the provincial final and the All Ireland semi finals.

The result was another replays defeat, this time to Connacht champions Castlebar Mitchels. After what was a tame exit, Eire Og looked washed up and when they lost in the following Leinster championship second round - again after a replay - few would have argued that they would come back.

But they did. This year's progress has included an exorcism of the replay ghost - Wicklow's An Tochar were beaten in the Leinster final at the second time of asking. Miller believes that this year the team has learnt from its experiences.

"It's hard to get the physical thing right. Originally the players were flying with Carlow. We won our first round match (in the county championship) by around 40 points but by the time of the semi final, the edge was gone and we only beat Ballinabranna by three or four points. We heat them by about 25 the year before.

"We got it wrong two years ago. The team went away to the Canaries (a holiday organised on foot of the 1993 All Ireland final appearance and for which players helped raise funds). It upset the rhythm. This time the build up has been better."