ARDARA didn’t get too worked up about their stuttering league form, and they hope they have timed their run as well as they did last year.
The Pearse Memorial Park men weren’t tipped to do much in 2023 but they ended up being one of the stories of the championship as they won three games before putting it up to Gaoth Dobhair in the semi-final.
They weren’t up at the higher echelons of Division 2 this term, but team manager Damian Devaney isn’t overly concerned about that.
“It was definitely very enjoyable for the boys last year.
“Over the last few years we haven’t got too stressed about the league and put the focus on the championship and it paid off last year.
“In the other years I’ve been here and for a year or two before that, it was always relegation play-offs which is tough going.
“We had some great games last year. We beat Cloughaneely in the Preliminary quarter-final and then the Gaoth Dobhair game was off the charts. It was helter-skelter.
“It’s a similar approach this year. With injuries and players away and boys with the county senior and Under 20 squads, we have always been missing boys, but we should be close to our full team on Sunday.”
Ardara are away to MacCumhaill’s in their first game and then host St Michael’s, and the main objective at this juncture is to make it through to the knock-out stages.
“I think you have to look at the first block of four fixtures first and see where you are after that.
“Obviously you’d be looking to get through to the quarter-finals or the preliminary quarter-finals.
“You always want to do one better than you did last year but obviously that’s going to be tough.
“That said I think we probably have better squad depth this year than we had before.”
Devaney previously played for and coached MacCumhaill’s so today’s fixture is always going to garner some local banter.
“MacCumhaill’s are a coming team. They are well-organised and set up and they obviously have some top, top players.
“I know them well and would have coached a lot of the players before.
“My own young fella is over training with the Under 10s and he told me he won’t be taking the MacCumhaill’s top off all week.
“It’s one of those things. We will go at it for an hour and we will still be chatting afterwards I’m sure.”
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