SEAN MacCumhaill’s manager Marcel McGhee admits that his side are disappointed not to have reached the latter stages of the Senior Championship semi-finals, but they will prepare as best as they can for Friday’s Intermediate Championship semi-final with Dungloe

It’s only six years since the Twin Towns club won the Donegal SHC title but since then their stock has fallen drastically.

They finished in sixth position out of eight in the Summer League round-robin and that means they play in the Intermediate Championship.

There is good work going on at underage level with MacCumhaill’s which bodes well for the future.

However, for McGhee and his team, it’s all about the present, and their game with Dungloe which takes place in Hibernian Park, Burt at 8pm on Friday.

“Nobody sets out at the start of the year to be in an Intermediate semi-final but that’s where we are, and we will attack it this week like it’s a Senior Championship.

“We don’t have the numbers anymore like we used to have. We didn’t have a minor team for a few years there, and things fell away a wee bit.

“But we have a couple of very good u-17s that can play next year. Our u-15s were at the Féile and were very unlucky in the final against Carrickmore. They are a good group, who love their hurling.

“It will take time to build things up again, but we still have a good team, and there will be no excuses or lying down on Friday.”

The League stage saw every team play each other once in a round-robin. MacCumhaill’s only won two of their matches, and McGhee was far from impressed with the hectic schedule with games coming thick and fast.

He also felt that the weekends weren’t utilised enough.

“It was played off far too quick in my opinion.

“The games should have been played on a Saturday evening or a Sunday.

“We have a lot of boys working down the country and they’re trying to get up the road to play a match on a Friday or a Wednesday.

“They’re just jumping out of a car without a warm-up and going out to play a match. It’s very unfair to put pressure on boys to get up after a day’s work for a match.

“You talk about player welfare but that’s far from player welfare what was going on this year.”

McGhee’s men have held an edge over Dungloe this year in their previous meetings but he is concerned that many of his best players have been on the treatment table recently.

“We have had a lot of injuries. Gavin Browne, Del Lafferty, Dean Hannigan, PJ Browne, Conor Griffin and Jamie de Ward have all been injured. There’s a few more as well.

“We’re hoping we might have a couple of them this week and we will need them.

“We have played Dungloe twice this year already and just scrapped over the line against them.”

The Rosses men enjoyed an historic 2021 as they landed the Donegal Junior Hurling title for the very first time.

They have found the going tough at a higher level this year, but team manager Ronan Mulligan can’t fault the effort of his players.

“It’s one block at a time for us. Each game and each season brings the boys on. We’re still a very young side.

“Things have been going good. The boys have worked hard in training and in matches.

“It’s a step up when you play against those senior teams like Setanta and Burt and St Eunan’s.

“They play at a speed that we haven’t been used to, and there’s a lot of quality.

“The scorelines in those games probably didn’t reflect how well we battled.”

The other Intermediate semi-final sees Carndonagh and Aodh Ruadh go to battle in the Donegal Training Centre, Convoy at 8.30pm.