St Eunan's and Setanta open with titanic clash in Senior Hurling League

Even without their county senior hurlers, both St Eunan’s and Setanta have more than enough players to make this Sunday’s opening Senior Hurling League fixture a high-quality absorbing tussle as they have loads of depth and quality in their ranks.

St Eunan’s are the reigning League and Championship holders and have some fine hurlers even apart from county men, Sean McVeigh, Brian McIntyre, Conor O’Grady, Daire O’Maoileidigh and Ryan Hilferty. They can still call on Cormac Finn, Russell Forde, Conor McVeigh, Sean Halvey, Kevin Kealy, Paul O’Donnell and Steven Doherty to power their efforts.

That double victory has caused a hurling revolution in the club with massive interest in underage structures since last year’s historic success. But they only beat Setanta, who have been giants of the ash since the early 1980s, by a single point in an entertaining county final. Many believed that both sides could be meeting up again in this year’s deciders.

Danny Cullen, Declan Coulter, Michael Donaghue, Davin Flynn, Bernard Lafferty, Gerry Gilmrore, Mark Callaghan and Oisin Marley are all on Mickey McCann’s senior squad.



But they also have ash artists like Kevin and Ruairi Campbell (uncle and nephew), Shane Gallen, Ritchie Kee, Ryan Coyle, Dean Harvey, Ryan Callaghan Tommy Lee Curtis and Conor McGettigan to power their challenge. This could be a real cracker, and home advantage might just swing it Eunan’s way.

Their clash at O'Donnell Park on Sunday is the only fixture on opening weekend as Dungloe's clash with Buncrana, and the meeting of Aodh Ruadh and MacCumhaill's, which were both scheduled for tonight, Friday, having been postponed.