IT’S hard to believe that Sleacht Néill are bidding for their eighth Derry Senior Championship crown in-a-row, and Dungiven boss Geoffrey McGonagle describes them as the ‘benchmark’ that every other side is trying to reach.

Kevin Lynch’s are the second-best team in Derry at the moment, but even though they gave a good account of themselves in last year’s decider, they still ended up losing by 1-23 to 2-12.

A respectable margin of defeat, yes, but there was still considerable daylight between the two teams and it’s hard to know if the gap has been closed after the pair recorded facile semi-final victories a fortnight ago.

Dungiven are a proud dual club, and there were half-a-dozen hurlers involved as their footballers bowed out of the Derry Senior Championship at the weekend with a defeat to Loup. So it’s been all systems go for a lot of their players, but Sleacht Néill are obviously in the same boat with many of their players in action against Foreglen on Sunday.

McGonagle said: “Our footballers were beaten at the weekend and our dual players have been in action week-in week-out. It’s sore on the players’ bodies but every dual club has the same issues. We’re just trying to get them patched up and rested as best we can now.”

Elaborating on their injuries, he said: “It’s just wee niggles, nothing serious and that’s part and parcel of the game. We’re trying to get them ironed out, and there’s not much else we can do this week because of the footballers match.”

They mightn’t put it on the record, but Sleacht Néill will have loftier ambitions than merely retaining their Derry Championship title. They’ll want to rubber-stamp their status as the best hurling team in Ireland, and they’ll know they weren’t far away at all in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Henry Shefflin’s Ballyhale Shamrocks.

They’re in good form at the minute as well, with Brendan Rogers scoring four goals in their 5-33 to 0-8 trouncing of Swatragh in the semi-finals, while the likes of Gerald Bradley, Cormac O’Doherty and Se McGuigan also ran riot on the day.

McGonagle said: “It’s a massive challenge for us and we know that. They’re the benchmark and everyone is trying to get to their level, in Ulster never mind in Derry.”

The Lynch’s also had an easy semi-final, overcoming Ballinascreen by 3-24 to 0-9. They actually conceded the first few scores, but soon got their act together with Tiarnan McHugh’s 13th minute goal giving them a commanding eight-point lead. Ballinascreen had no answer to Odhran McKeever, who scored six points from play, while Niall Ferris is another attacker to watch out for.

“We played rightly against Ballinascreen. In the first few minutes they went a couple of points ahead but that happens sometimes. You just have to get over yourself and get back into it, and once we settled into a rhythm, I thought we played well.”

Junior Championship hurling final

Banagher v Lavey

(Saturday, Celtic Park, 3pm)

All three Derry hurling finals are on this weekend, and Banagher and Lavey’s Junior decider is the curtain-raiser at Celtic Park on Saturday afternoon. Banagher will be favourites to take the spoils; they won last year’s Intermediate title with something to spare, and have been a regular feature in Derry Senior Hurling deciders in recent years, falling short against Sleacht Neill for three years in-a-row between 2016 and 2018. The St Mary’s team qualified for this final with a straightforward win over Na Magha, with Jonathan O’Dwyer and Darragh Cartin riot, hitting 16 points between them. Tiarnan McCloskey is set to miss out after a clash with Na Magha’s Michael Lynch saw him dismissed for a straight red, while half-time substitute Darrell McDermott is another doubt after he had to go off with a shoulder injury. Lavey, meanwhile, overcame Eoghan by 2-24 to 2-14 in their semi-final, and must be commended for their massive strides at underage level recently, with their U14s and 16s also performing supremely well in recent weeks.

Verdict: Banagher

Intermediate Hurling Final

Ballinascreen v Swatragh

(Saturday, Celtic Park, 5pm)

Swatragh are aiming to make amends for last year’s Intermediate final defeat to Banagher. They didn’t really show up on the day and lost out by 0-21 to 0-8 despite a brilliant second-half cameo from Michael Kirkpatrick. They find themselves in the Intermediate final after enduring a torrid time of it against Sleacht Neill in the senior semi-final, losing 5-33 to 0-8 and shipping four goals to Brendan Rogers. Ballinascreen started off strong in the senior semi-final against Kevin Lynch’s but ended up being beaten 3-24 to 0-9, so the Intermediate title is perhaps something of a consolation prize. Early Conor McSorley and Paul Cleary points gave them an unlikely lead, but they were soon overrun by the Lynch’s and struggled to contain Odhran McKeever despite trying two men on him. Their goalkeeper Marty Mulgrew prevented it from being an even bigger thumping, but it’ll be a much closer encounter against Swatragh.

Verdict: Ballinascreen

By Niall Gartland