St Eunan’s hurler Brian MacIntyre feels that the years are starting to drift on and he’s keen for his team to really make a mark this season.
The Letterkenny club famously won the Donegal Senior Hurling Championship in 2021 when they stunned a fancied Setanta team.
However, they haven’t managed to kick on in the manner they would have liked since that.
However, this year they seem to have upped the ante and topped the group stage of the championship.
Sean MacCumhaills stand in their way of reaching the decider, and St Eunan’s are keen to overcome that hurdle.
“We definitely want to get through to the final,” said MacIntyre.
“The last time we were there was in 2013 and we performed poorly.
“Last year was a bit of a strange one as we played Burt in our last group game and they got through ahead of us on score difference.
“We have good numbers at training this year so we are looking to drive it on now and reach the county final and win it.
“We have only won two in our history so we’re hoping to add a third.”
Chris McAuley and Eugene Organ are calling the shots for St Eunan’s this season and MacIntyre is pleased with the set-up which the players have responded well with.
“Chris McAuley had come in this year from Ballycastle and he has been very good.
“He has followed on from the good work that was done by Kevin Kelly.
“There’s great interest there at the minute and we have a great crowd of young lads trying to break through.
“Between our senior team and our intermediate team we have around 40-45 players which is brilliant because when I first started about ten years ago we were under pressure just to get one tram out.”
MacIntyre had a great campaign with the Donegal senior hurlers this year and performed well in Division 2 of the NHL and in the Christy Ring Cup.
However, there was plenty of work going on with St Eunan’s at that time which is standing to the side now.
“I think we had nearly ten players away between the Under 20s and the seniors so it was a big challenge.
“But that gave a lot of young lads plenty of hurling and we won the league.
“Some of those are now playing with the intermediate team and they are going really well as well.
“There are a lot of good players coming through. John Kealy and Peter Kelly are both up with the county team and David Horgan is playing well. James O’Donnell has had a great year for us this season.
“We have plenty more in training as well. They all have good attitudes.”
Things are going well for St Eunan’s but they will be without a key stalwart on Saturday.
“Sean McVeigh picked up a bad injury in the final county training of the year.
“He was very unlucky and it looks like he might be out for the season.
“That’s a real blow because he’s one of our best county players.
St Eunan’s defeated MacCumhaills by 1-25 to 2-10 last month but MacIntyre views the Twin Towns side as a coming force.
“I’ve been looking at their results at underage level and they have been winning ‘A’ Championships very comfortably so those players are going to be coming through soon.
“A few of them are already in. I was very impressed with Jacob (Malone) against us in the group game when he scored three or four points.
“I’m not sure if Dan Donnelly is injured or not but he’s a very good player as well.
“They probably have five or six players through and there will be a constant stream after this.
“I thought they played well against us in the group and Del (Laverty) and Conor Griffin weren’t playing that day so they should be stronger this time.”
It’s a big few days for MacCumhaills and that begins this evening (Thursday) when they take on Aodh Ruadh in the Minor ‘A’ Championship Final in Convoy at 8pm.
They will then turn their attention to Saturday’s senior semi-final.
MacCumhaills had found themselves outside the top four t at times in recent years but appear to have leap-frogged above Buncrana once again.
Defender Conor Griffin feels things are heading in the right direction.
“It’s good to be back there again.
“It was just a matter of rebuilding for us.
“In fairness to Jamesie (Donnelly), Conor Malone, Marty McGonagle and all those boys, they are doing a serious amount of work at underage.
“We had a brilliant year in 2024 and that’s testament to the hard work that is going in.
“That will start to show in the senior team now but it’s just about building for the future.”
Griffin (28) says MacCumhaills have a lot of men to watch this Sunday but he’s hoping his team can give a good account of themselves.
“Eunan’s are going well and we would know plenty about them.
“I was up with the county and there’s a good lot of them up there.
“You have Conor O’Gradey, Peter (Kelly), Brian Mac and they have serious hurlers all over the park.
“They are flying and they have put in a serious bit of work to get to where they are and we will see how we get on against them. We will just do our best.”