St Eunan’s seek first SHC since 1972 against formidable Setanta

If St Eunan’s bring their A game and all other things being equal, they will not be too far away from hot favourites Setanta in O’Donnell Park in the Donegal SHC final in Letterkenny, throw-in 3:30pm.

But if that does not happen, then it could be a “long afternoon” for the Letterkenny lads, in the candid opinion of their manager Eugene Organ. The Clare native is well aware of Setanta’s armoury -which has been added to by the return of the outstanding Davin Flynn to the Setanta fold.

“We had a slight suspicion and heard rumours that he might be coming back,” Organ said. “He has not played, but a man of that calibre does not need too much of a run-in. It is another headache that we have to deal with”.

On the plus side St Eunan’s have already won the SHL earlier this year. But this was done minus county players and Organ is under no illusions about this completely different scenario as they chase a first SHC crown in 49 years.

“This is the championship, which is where you want to be and our aim was to close the gap with Setanta at the start of the year-but they gave us a good beating in the round robin stage, so we know what we are facing,” he said.

“But we are there on merit, are looking forward to the game and we won’t be overawed, and this is the third time in a row that we will be meeting in the final”.

St Eunan’s had a good solid win over Burt in the semi-final, which was a good test for Setanta and that could give them a bit of a fillip.

Organ added: “We need to keep things as tight as we can and we need to cut out the mistakes as best we can for Setanta are ruthless at punishing mistakes.”

And they are boosted by new boy Daire O’Maoileidigh.

“Daire is a very clever hurler, he does all the simple things right, is great on the ball and is a sweet striker and he has been a huge addition to us and he is very vocal and when he speaks, lads listen. We also have a few dual players who are very fit and we have not overloaded Sean McVeigh, Kevin Kealy and Brian MacIntyre and we have to think of player welfare too”.

Opponents Setanta will carry threats all over the field, but Eunan’s have always been able to create loads of chances but have not been accurate enough.

“We need to be taking a high proportion of our chances if we are to have any chance of winning-that is a given. We can’t let them get a good start because they are very good at closing up at the back when they do get ahead. They set up very well and they have threats all over the field”.