Murrin happy with where South West are at ahead of MacRory Cup knockouts

South West Donegal are gearing up for the knockout stages of the MacRory Cup next week when they face St Patrick’s Academy of Dungannon.

The amalgamation of five schools in the west of the county, made up of Glenties Comprehensive, Rosses Community School, St Catherine’s Vocational School, Cólaste na Carraige, and Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair, haven’t yet hit the heights of their debut season last year when they reached the semi-final, losing out to fellow Donegal school Abbey Vocational.

But with four teams in their group, although they finished bottom with three losses, they will go into the knockout stages of the competition next week.

A defeat to St Michael’s, Enniskillen in Tempo on Thursday night consigned them to the bottom of the group, but manager Shay Murrin took positives from the outing as they got another game under their belts in the 1-11 to 1-6 loss, where six points on the spin for the home side in the second quarter made a telling difference.

“Just before half-time, they built up a bit of a lead on us and we struggled after that,” Murrin said after the defeat.

“In the second half,we couldn’t doubt their honesty or effort, but we just lacked that composure in front of goals and we maybe rushed shots and played an extra pass.

“I thought we got enough possession from both sets of kick outs to make a dent in their lead, but we were just very rushed in a lot of things we did.”

South West did claw it back to four points in the final quarter as goalkeeper Ronan O’Donnell kicked a super two point free from off the ground, following on from a first half penalty save.

And he had the chance to do the same soon after to halve the deficit, but his effort sailed inches wide, which looked to be the chance to get back into the game for the amalgamation.

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“We were thinking if that goes over, then we have a real chance, but it just drifted slightly wide.

“You can’t blame him for it and Ronan was very composed coming in, he’s only a Transition Year student but it was a brilliant experience for him and he was very, very good coming under pressure against a very big side.

“We’re not a very big team ourselves and he did really well throughout the game.

“We’ve rotated the squad as each game has come because none of the games have been knockout.

“Position in the group does matter and just winning and getting a foot hold in the group is important and that’s what we were chasing there and in the Abbey game.

“It would have made a big difference if we had a win under our belt going into the last game, we’re an amalgamation team that have come together on a not too regular basis so if we had a win then it would have given us a better sense of where we’re at.”

Being an amalgamation of five schools, it makes it tougher logistically to get trainings for the South West side, which Murrin alluded to.

The turnover from last year’s squad is huge, as expected a lot of the time in the MacRory Cup, so there have been challenges for a team whose players are only coming together for the first time in recent months.

“We are happy enough with where we’re at, we knew the group stage would eb really difficult and we knew we’d rotate the squad. Last year, we were in a knockout group so it was a different scenario.

“We always knew it coming in, and we knew that last year that we wouldn’t have thesame access to players that other teams would have, but we can’t go crying about it, we know it’s not possible and it’s about making the most of when we have them.

“You can see gaps in our coaching when they play in comparison to other teams, but we’re just hoping to build every game and close them gaps as we move through i,t and hopefully we’ll have that done for next week.”

And they’ll face an away game against St Pat’s, Dungannon in their knockout match, with the Tyrone school winning Group C with three wins and a draw against St Joseph’s, Donaghmore.

“We’re looking forward to next week, it’s a big game and we’ll be away from home, we knew that from last week, so we’ll try and get regrouped and ready for that one.

“I watched them play against St Mary’s, Magherafelt and I felt they were very strong that day and they have a huge physical presence, great pace and a clear method of play and the conditions that day were really rough but their ball handling and kicking was excellent so we know we’ll be up against it but we’re going to go there and give it our best shot and see where it takes us.”