Setanta aim to blow off the cobwebs after 14-week wait

Setanta have real ambitions of going all out to regain an Ulster JHC title they last won in 2017.

But so too have their opponents, Eoghan Ruadh of Dungannon, according to Setanta’s team boss Gary McGettigan ahead of their clash at O’Donnell Park on Sunday.

Tyrone native McGettigan watched opponents Eoghan Ruadh of Dungannon, who were surprisingly knocked out of the Tyrone SHC championship, in their JHC final win over Omagh and was impressed. “This is their first team, and they were beaten by Naomh Colmcille in the senior semi-final,” he said.

“They missed Damien Casey (who tragically died in a pool accident at a hotel in Spain) badly and that was a terrible tragedy, and I am sure it must have had a knock- on effect on them as they were surprisingly beaten in that Tyrone semi-final. Sometimes that sort of a tragedy can drive you on, or put you back.

“But they seemed to have got their act together and by all accounts they have been training pretty hard. I was at the JHC final and Dungannon had 46 players togged out as they beat Omagh in the final.

“They looked like they meant business and they beat a weak enough Omagh team at this stage. Omagh are still developing, and it will be a few years yet before they will be challenging for anything”.

In Casey’s tragic absence, Dungannon still four county players for a Tyrone side that deservedly won this year’s Nickey Rackard Cup, beating Donegal en route in Carrickmore.

In defence they have Ruairi Devlin, Lorcan Devlin and Conor McNally who are very strong at the back.
“They also have good young players in Cian Fergsuon and Matthew Mulgrew, so we know we are facing a tough test on Sunday,” McGettigan added. “They have a lot of firepower and they have had some very good underage teams in recent years.

“And I hear they are training very hard and no doubt, no more than ourselves, they will be saying they can go all the way and win an Ulster title”.

Meanwhile it will be a full 14 weeks since their last competitive match -that was when they just edged out Burt in the Donegal SHC final battle back in July.

“That is a terrible long break,” McGettigan said. “I suppose it was an unknown as we did not know what way the thing worked and it has been just so hard to keep the thing going in the meantime.

“We gave the boys four weeks off and we were back again in the first week of September. But while it is not too hard coming back, it is hard getting back into the full swing of things. We found it hard enough to get games as if you were trying to get challenges with clubs in other counties, they were all still in the middle of their club championship”.

Last year, it was a different complaint, that the games were coming too close together, but McGettigan says they could have few real issues with that at the time following the pandemic.

“Everything was delayed with Covid last year and that was out of everybody’s hands,” McGettigan added. “But it was played far too early this year. I would be saying the same no matter who won the county title this year and it is far from ideal preparation for a big game for us”.

“We have been back training since the first week in September and we played Lisbellaw and Carrickmore and both games were pretty competitive for 40 minutes and both teams ran the bench then. You can’t read too much into these games but they were good enough run outs.

Setanta have no major injuries but the U-21 hurling championship is now underway and Ruari Campbell, Stephen McBride, Dean Harvey and Oisin Marley were all playing as they went down to a very strong But side.

“A few of those boys are carrying a few knocks from last week, but I think everyone should be ok for the weekend,” McGettigan said.

Setanta have a forward line that would be the envy of many county sides with top class performers like Gerry Gilmore, Davin Flynn, Josh Cronolly McGee, Ruair Campbell, Barney Lafferty and Oisin Marley. Further back the experience axis of Danny Cullen and Declan Coulter gives them considerable leverage. Add in Stephen McBride, Michael Donaghue, Mark Callaghan and Denim Rowan and you see the quality. They also have promising youngsters like Dean Harvey, Ryan Coyle and Ryan Callaghan also coming through.

"We have scoring power and hopefully they will all perform on Sunday,” McGettigan said. “Up to now they have not clicked properly, and Burt gave us quite a test in the county final. That was good preparation for this big test on Sunday”.