St Catherine’s using the McCormick cup as pre-season for the league

With another Donegal Junior League season starting, clubs are battling to get results early on without some key players in the Brian McCormick Cup.

The Donegal Championship leaves many teams without options at this stage of the season, and fielding for some can be difficult, and St Catherine's are no different.

Boss Shaun Kelly understands they aren’t the only side in the situation at the moment, but he’s happy to have the Brian McCormick Cup begin first as they wait for players to return.

The Emerald Park men did well on Sunday to name five subs as they won their opening game against Curragh Athletic, but Kelly had to put on the boots again, although he still managed to score.

“This time of year for us is extremely difficult because we have a lot of GAA players.

“We don’t have a real senior team as such right now, but we have a hell of a lot of good young players. We only have one or two subs at the moment, and we don’t want the Saturday players getting cup-tied, so we’re trying to balance that, but both teams came through at the weekend, so we’re happy with that.

“I had to play myself, as did Michael Mullin and Conor O’Rourke, so we were light.

“We’re treating it like pre-season, this cup, and we’re working towards that.

“It would be great if everyone had their full team from the start of the season but it isn’t to be, and where we’re from, we have players from Glen to Ardara to Inver, and it’s the most important time of the year for those GAA players so it’s a slow start when you’re going straight into the league.”

Once players are back, Kelly will have a near-identical team to pick from compared to last year, although they lost Josh Maxwell to Bonagee, while Ryan Carr has torn his ACL.

“It’s a big blow to lose Josh, but there are plenty of other young boys who are looking to step up and fill that position.

“Experience wise you have Conor Doherty from Kilcar, then Odhran McGuinness and Ryan Cunningham are still very young, but they were up at the Irish Amateur trials on Saturday and are quality.

“After that, we’re very young, but they’re learning all the time, and they are well capable of stepping up.”

“But the players want to be playing against those best teams, and we have Bonagee first game, so we’re straight into the hard games.”

Kelly is in his fifth season in a managerial capacity as the Saints were promoted along with Fanad United in his first year.

That pair then battled for the title two seasons ago for the title before St Catherine's tailed off near the end of the season, and the return of Letterkenny Rovers and Bonagee United made it a tougher season last year, but they still finished sixth.

But the former Limerick FC star is still enjoying the local club scene as they now face Ballybofey United in the semi-final.

READ NEXT: Finn Harps appeal for stories of Ollie Horgan for next match programme

“You do it because you enjoy it, and since I retired from the League of Ireland, it has kept me involved, and I can’t say a bad word about it.

“We’ve done really well and fell short, but those games against Fanad, Kildrum, Letterkenny, and Bonagee, it’s the games you want to play, and there are big crowds turning up.

“There are good sides in this Area (of the cup), Donegal Town have made a couple of good signings and they’ll do well in the league. They’re a welcome addition to having a local derby in the league.

“Ballybofey have some really good players and probably should have beaten us last year, but we nicked it in the end, so Sunday will probably be as difficult.”