By Niall Gartland

HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing but Erne Gaels manager Seamus Ryder says that being dumped out in the Senior Championship in 2020 could turn out to be the best thing that could’ve happened at the time.

The Belleek club reached a Cenior Championship final as recently as 2016, losing by a point to Fermanagh kingpins Derrygonnelly, but they stood at a crossroads following their aforementioned relegation to the Intermediate tier.

However, it seems like it’s been a blessing in disguise as their manager Seamus Ryder says it forced them to “hit the reset button” and the introduction of talented younger players allied with a committed approach from their remaining stalwarts saw them win the Intermediate title at the first time of asking.

They’re having a tremendous league campaign in Division One this year as well, maintaining an unbeaten record after four matches (subject to yesterday evening’s fifth round clash against Derrygonnelly).

Ryder, who was a long-serving player with the club, is in his second year in charge and explains how they’ve managed to turn things around after a lean period of a few years.

“We were there or thereabouts for two years, Derrygonnelly beat us by a point in the final in 2016 and they beat us again by a point in a quarter-final in 2017.

“There was a heavy turnover in personnel and getting relegated was the culmination of that, it was the Covid year and there were a lot of lads missing.

“We hit the reset button and in the long-run it could’ve been the best thing that happened us. We assessed where we are and we had three or four young lads come through last year, and a couple of lads came back like Brian Mullan who’d been in London. It gave us a nice, fresh impetus.”

Erne Gaels impressive league form coincided with the return of their three senior inter-county players, namely Ryan Lyons, Jack McCann and the hugely talented Oisin Kelm.

They also had three players involved with the Fermanagh u-20 set-up, and Ryder says that in general clubs across Fermanagh are improving in an attempt to keep up with last year’s beaten Ulster finalists Derrygonnelly.

“Some of the lads had been
away with the county, getting a
bit of exposure and training and they came back fresh and ready to go.

“Before that we had the club players competition and we used that to integrate a few of the younger lads. We kicked on when the proper league started and we’ve picked up a bit of momentum. Our first couple of performances weren’t great but we got the wins and we’re starting to get the performances as well.

“We’re in good form, I know everyone talks about Derrygonnelly but they were taken to two replays en route to winning the title last year.

“You’ve coming teams like Enniskillen, Kinawley, Ederney obviously, and ourselves. Derrygonnelly have that target on their backs and that’s brought everyone on. I think it’s only a good thing for Fermanagh football as they’re bringing four or five teams with them.”