O'Boyle's on a rebuilding mission with Eunan's

St Eunan's boss Eamon O'Boyle

EIGHT games into his return as St Eunan’s boss, and Eamon O’Boyle has helped the 2009 champions rediscover their winning ways.

They’ve recorded six wins from eight games, more than any other division one side and, at the moment they appear to be the team to beat.

A win against Ardara on Friday night would make it six wins on the trot for O’Boyle’s team, who is assisted by Brendan Devenney and Michael McGeehin.

Of course O’Boyle is cute enough not to overanalyse the situation, it was the same man who last guided the Letterkenny side to Championship glory back in 2009, their third title on the trot.

“We are happy with the way we are going. We are going in the right direction,” he said.
For the past two years, St Eunan’s have watched as the rest of the teams in the county have upped their game.

In 2010, O’Boyle stepped aside and in came Charlie Mulgrew and John Haran, but the club failed to even reach the county final which was won by Naomh Conaill, who had lost out to Eunan’s the previous year.

Then last year, Johnny Scanlon took over as Eunan’s boss but again they failed to reach the Championship final, as Glenswilly beat St Michael’s in the decider.

“There hasn’t been a huge change [in St Eunan’s] we still have the same base of players, though we have brought in some younger players. The key for us is to move it on another step. The players have responded quite well.”

However, what everyone in the St Eunan’s club wants to know, and indeed quite a few outside is this. Can the 2009 championship-winning management team bring glory back to the club?

According to O’Boyle, to do so will be a lot harder than it was three years ago.
“As regards winning Championships this year, before we can even talk about that, we have to get back up to the same level as everyone else. We are playing catch up,” he said.

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published Thursday May 24. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or click here to purchase the pdf for just 90p.