St Eunan's hoping to unleash untapped potential in Ulster showdown

St Eunan’s know better than most that nothing but their best is required in order to make any sort of headway in the Ulster club championship.  

This Saturday evening in Healy Park in Omagh at 7.15pm, it will be St Eunan’s eighth outing in this Ulster competition since the turn of the century, but history has not been kind to the Letterkenny men with a return of just two wins in that time.  

But team manager Barry Meehan knows better than most that he can’t control the past as he readies his side for their opening battle with Tyrone champions Errigal Ciaran.  

Coming down from the high of winning a championship can be a difficult proposition for most teams, but right now, for Eunan’s all engines are ready for their first Ulster adventure since 2021.  

Getting his side prepared for this weekend was anything but an issue for Meehan.  

“We came down from the high of the county final very quickly,” the St Eunan’s manager told Donegal Live. “On Tuesday morning the boys got the text about training, but in fairness to the boys, they are a solid bunch who really work hard so getting them back to reality was not a problem.  

“They had the Monday Club like most teams have after a final win, but then it was back to brass tacks on Tuesday with many of the lads into the saunas that day to sweat everything out of them, and then back into the gym on Wednesday, and on the field on Thursday.  

“So, we’ve probably had a total of eight sessions before the Errigal Ciaran game which is great.”  

The overarching theme geared towards this Eunan’s side is that they have failed to reach their full potential for an entire game.  

Some of the football has been excellent in parts, but there is a feeling that there is more to come from them.  

However, the Eunan’s men don’t deny this either. They know there’s more to give, but credit themselves for coming through a tough county championship knowing there’s still more to offer from them.  

“We don’t really buy into what other teams say about us, we set our own standards and we’ve always done that,” he said.  

“If we’re very honest with ourselves, which we usually are, over the course of the championship we had a very good first half against Naomh Conaill, we had a great second half against Dungloe, but have we produced it for 60 minutes? Probably not.  

“There’s definitely more in us, but it’s also not a bad thing to say that we’ve won a county championship and we feel there’s more in us.  

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“We know we have to get more out of the group, but that’s the challenge in front of us, and I suppose against Errigal Ciaran, we’re going to have to be better than what we have been up until now.  

“We’re not worried because we’re quite critical of ourselves, but at the same time, we’ll pat ourselves on the back when we feel we’ve done well too. As we know, football is a strange game, one week we get a pat on the back, and the other you get a kick up the arse.   

“So, we know we have to go higher and further as a team if we want to do well in Ulster, but to come out of Donegal as champions and know that there’s more in us, that’s great.”  

Meehan points to the character and never-say-die attitude that his side has produced since day one this season and believes it to be the reason his team can see games out, and just hopes that will stand to them in Ulster.  

“We’ve had no easy games and during the championship, certain teams have asked certain questions of us, and credit has to go to those teams too,” Meehan pointed out.  

“To a certain extent, we’re battle-hardened after coming through Donegal. We never blew any team away and a lot of the matches have been really close.  

“Against Naomh Conaill, we were down and fought back to win that game which showed massive character. In the past, we might have given up maybe, but that win was a huge turning point for our team.  

“It was the same against Gaoth Dobhair and Dungloe where we had to fight for everything and you need that spirit going into Ulster where the challenge is so tight and I think against Errigal Ciaran, those games in Donegal will really stand to us.”