By Ryan Ferry

ST EUNAN’S manager Barry Meehan believes that his team is battle-hardened after the Donegal Senior Club Championship, and he’s hoping that will help them make a real imprint in Ulster this season.

The Letterkenny club are out on their own at the top of the Donegal SFC roll of honour but they have never collected provincial honours at senior men’s level.

There have been some hard luck stories and tough draws, and they found an awesome Crossmaglen side in their way on more than one occasion.

When they were last in Ulster in 2021, the O’Donnell Park side were frustrated with a one-point defeat against Glen, Maghera.

Meehan admits that they haven’t always performed to the best of their ability in the provincial arena.

“To be honest, we haven’t been good enough a lot of the days we have gone out.

“Maybe apart from 2008 which was the one year that we had a proper go at it and ran Crossmaglen close with Eamon O’Boyle and Mickey McGeehin (in charge).

“The fact that we didn’t have ‘DV’ (Brendan Devenney) that day and we were ahead at half-time and should have been further ahead, and we felt they were a bit fortuitous with how they got back into it in the second half, and they saw it out with the experience they had.

“I suppose in 2014, we got a home draw against Roslea and then went to Celtic Park and were beaten by Omagh.

“But other than that we haven’t really excelled in Ulster. You can put it down to we haven’t had a nice draw but there’s no handy draws at this stage.

“The bottom line is that if you want to make an imprint in Ulster you have to be able to win your tight games, and we haven’t been able to do that down through the years. That’s something we need to rectify as a group.

“We’re very aware of what we are dealing with in Errigal Ciaran. We know it will be tight. All games in Ulster are tight.

“In the last number of years that we have been in it, we have come out the wrong side of the tight games. But hopefully the fact that we have had a tough championship in Donegal that will leave us battle-hardened.”

St Eunan’s have had a three-week gap since their Donegal success where they edged out a gallant Dungloe.

Some players headed abroad for a short break and Meehan is understanding that players have private lives that have to be respected to.

He says they are fortunate to have a large number of teachers and will make the most of the mid-term break this week.

“Like all teams after winning the championship, they enjoyed the Sunday night and the Monday club and we pulled the pin on it on the Tuesday.

“They were back in the gym on the Wednesday. No doubt some of them were in the sauna and the steam room on the Tuesday evening to get themselves ready but they were back in the gym on the Wednesday and on the pitch on the Thursday night.

“We had two sessions that weekend and we had training during the week and we had two sessions last weekend.

“We will get a couple more this week so we will probably have had eight good training sessions between the county final and the first round of Ulster. It’s a good run-in and we’re very fortunate in that way.”

Errigal Ciaran were beaten in the Tyrone final in 2023 but have come back strongly this year with ex-Antrim manager Enda McGinley calling the shots.

They haven’t had it all their own way and Pomeroy and Clonoe both asked questions of them, while they had just one point to spare over Killyclogher in the semi-final and then Trillick in the decider.

Darragh McAlaney, Aidan McCrory, Ciaran McGinley, Niall Kelly, Ben McDonnell, and Peter Og McCartan have all been part of the Tyrone senior panel in previous years, while Joe Oguz, Cormac Quinn and Peter Harte were with the county in 2024.

However, their star men are undoubtedly the Canavan brothers, Darragh and Ruairi.

The St Eunan’s defence has been excellent so far this season but they will be put to the test in Omagh.

Meehan said: “If we’re being very honest, and I genuinely don’t mean any disrespect to any team we have played so far but I don’t think we have come against any team that has two forwards like Ruairi and Darragh Canavan.

“They are able to generate five or six yards of space inside the tightest of spaces.

“They have a low centre of gravity and that ability to hold onto the ball under pressure is phenomenal, and then you have Peter Harte delivering ball to them. They are a formidable outfit.

“Our defence will have to be at our best. We have been solid so far.

“We gave away one goal against Gaoth Dobhair in the group stage which was a real lapse of concentration from a kick-out we should have won, and then the penalty against Dungloe.

“Other than that we have stood strong and that’s something we have worked hard on, and we will have to be at the top of our game to hold the two boys.”