BY RYAN FERRY
NAOMH Muire sharpshooter Eoin Martin is expected to miss the start of the Intermediate Championship but team manager Danny O’Donnell is hopeful that he will be available at some point over the coming weeks.
O’Donnell’s side have been beaten in the semi-finals in each of the last two seasons and are knocking on the door.
A return to Division 1 didn’t go so well this year as they struggled and were eventually relegated. However, injuries took their toll at certain stages and if they clear up, Naomh Muire will be strong contenders for the Cathal McLaughlin Cup.
“Eoin got injured in our fourth league game and he has had surgery and he is in a race against time to be fit for the championship,” said O’Donnell.
“It’s a six-to-eight week recovery so if he comes back ahead of schedule, then great, but we’re hopeful we will have him at some stage during the championship but we don’t expect him back for the early stages.
“Eoin is a big scorer for us and when Cathal Fee was also out, it really did blunt us up top but there is still an onus on other lads to step up like Joey Gillespie, Harry Harden and Darragh White who have been chipping in with Daniel Devlin.
“We’re hoping the challenges that we faced in Division 1 will stand to us come the Intermediate Championship.
“We hope we have taken good learnings but we won’t know that until we play out first championship match and we see if that six or seven months has helped us or hurt us and I’m hoping it will stand to us.”
O’Donnell previously managed Milford to the Intermediate title in 2017.
He has had a good record against the Moyle Park men in recent years but respects the challenge they will bring to the Banks on Saturday evening.
“It’s the first time in a few seasons that we have had our first game at home. It’s against Milford and both groups know a lot about each other.
“We have met in the last two quarter-finals and we also met in the league last year.
“We came out on the right side in tight games so I’m sure Milford will come to the Banks highly motivated to turn us over.
“That’s a clinker of a first game and we’re not looking too far ahead because once you do that in the Intermediate Championship, you’re going to get caught by someone.
“We will take it game by game to see if we can get to the quarter-finals.
“It opens up after that but three seasons ago we were in the relegation play-offs so we know it’s a dog-eat-dog championship.”
Bainisteoir: Danny O’Donnell
Captain: Daniel Devlin
Last Year: IFC semi-finalists
Star Man: Eoin Martin
One to Watch: Ryan Gallagher