BY MATTHEW WILSON

St Eunan’s Eugene Organ is anticipating a fierce contest on Friday evening when Burt make the trip to O’Donnell Park for the second round of the Donegal Senior Hurling Championship.

The Letterkenny men have enjoyed a strong 2025 season to date, going unbeaten to secure the Donegal Senior Hurling League last month.

Organ stated that the league campaign was a great opportunity for them to add depth to their squad, being without the services of their county players, but the success they experienced will have no reflection on the championship.

“The league is funny, you can’t read an awful lot into it because a lot of teams are missing their county players and other things. However, we saw it as an opportunity to look at our panel and have a look at lads that’ll be putting their hand up for the championship. Any competition you enter you like to win it and things went well for us but we know it’ll have no reflection on the championship.”

The Donegal Senior Hurling Championship commenced last Friday. St Eunan’s began their quest to win the championship, which they last lifted in 2021, with a trip to Setanta where the two sides shared the spoils in a thrilling encounter.

The O’Donnell Park men led by four points entering the closing stages but a Danny Cullen goal followed by a last-gasp Gerard Gilmore point secured a draw for the hosts.

Organ stated that in normal circumstances you would be content with a point in Setanta’s own backyard but are disappointed given the strong position his side had found themselves in with the clock entering red.

“If we were offered a draw before we went over to the Cross come championship time, based on the couple of performances we had down there over the last couple of years, we would have taken it. However, we put ourselves into a position to win that game but Setanta are a top class championship team and they just found a way to get those scores so we’ll just have to take learnings from that.”

The St Eunan’s man went on to discuss the quality of all the sides within the Donegal Senior Hurling Championship. Organ feels as though the gaps between the teams are constantly closing which makes it a tough cup to get your hands on.

“Every team will be having in their head that they are capable of making the semi-finals. People are saying there’s a gap but the gap is being closed every year from what I see. I see the likes of MacCumhaills and Carndonagh doing some great work and Buncrana are there or thereabouts every year as well so it’s very competitive.”

St Eunans’s now host Burt on Friday evening at 7.30pm in the second round of the Donegal Senior Hurling Championship where they’ll be searching to get the first win under their belt.

Eugene said the squad is in a good place at the minute but are without the services of Sean McVeigh for the remainder of the campaign due to an injury he picked up in Donegal’s Christy Ring campaign.

“The camp is good, we didn’t pick up any injuries the last day but we have one or two lads away on holidays. Our biggest injury I suppose is Sean McVeigh being gone for the year. He picked up an injury towards the end of the county season which will see him out for four or five months.”

Burt are reigning county champions having gotten the better of Setanta in last year’s showpiece to end the Cross residents bid for three-in-a-row.

They got their title defence off to a fine start last Friday courtesy of a six-point victory over MacCumhaills at Hibernian Park.

Eugene Organ and the St Eunan’s squad are bracing themselves for the tough challenge that Burt will present at O’Donnell Park on Friday and is wary of the attacking threat that they undoubtedly possess.

“Burt are a great championship team. They’re always very competitive so we’re expecting a massive battle down here. Again, we’ll be looking to win it but they’ll be looking to win it so we’ll just see what happens on the night”, said Organ.

He continued, “they appear to have a massive goal threat with the likes of Conor Gartland and Ronan McDermott, they put five goals past Buncrana. We’ll have a number of players that we’ll have to take a look at and see what we can do to counteract their effectiveness. However, on the flipside we have some top class players as well. It’ll come down to who’s game plan works and that’ll decide it.”

Elsewehere in the Senior Hurling Championship, Setanta head to Ballybofey to face MacCumhaills at 7.30pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, Carndonagh travel to Buncrana with both sides looking to bounce back from opening day defeats last week. Throw-in at the Scarvey is at 8pm.