Mageean Cup Group B preview

St Patrick’s Keady’s Stephen Renaghan

In the second of our two part series we run the rule over the Mageean Cup Group B sides; including Our Lady St Patrick’s Knock, St Patrick’s Keady, and the three amalgamated teams Colaiste Na Duibhis, An Dun and East Tyrone. This season, the top two group A teams will qualify automatically for the Semi-final stages, while the bottom two sides will play qualifiers from Group B. In this week’s issue we find out who has returned, who the key players are, which clubs are most represented and how each manager rates his team’s chances.

St Patrick’s, Keady
Team management
Damien McConville

Panel size
22

Returnees from last year
Stephen Renaghan back for a final year. He was a dual star for Armagh last year and won a colleges all star. Padraig Lappin, Conor McNally, Conor McAnallen (Goalie last year but outfield now). Oran Curry. All those players featured in the Casement Cup last year.

New faces
Keady have lost a few players from last year’s Kirk Cup winning team. However, last year’s captain Daniel Mone has returned along with Tiernan Nevin, Aidan Harnett, Kevin Loughran.

Clubs represented on the team
Keady, Lámh Dhearg, Middletown Fianna and Derrynoose. Sometimes the club has players from Armagh Cúchulainn’s, but they have none this year.

Trophies that the current Mageean team have won in their time at the school
The school won the Kirk cup, fifth year competition, last year and that motivated their move to the Mageean level. Their present seventh years played in the Foresters cup, while some won the Kirk Cup as fourth years.

Key players
Stephen Renaghan, Conor McNally, Padraig Lappin, Peter McKearney.

Goals for this year
“This year we took the brave step up to Mageean cup after a long time way. In our first year back up our goal is to get to the semi-finals, and hopefully gel the team together. David McCreesh is injured [cruciate ligament] he won’t play, he was a dual star last year and is a big loss
“We also have lost our coach Nick Condon, who is a Clare man. He has left the school to take a job in Belfast. We will be getting assistance from Ryan Gaffney, the Armagh hurling coach, so hopefully he can spread his skills our way.”

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday September 20. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here