By Niall Gartland

AUGHER have been pitted in the preliminary round for the second year running, and Ronan McElroy is hoping for a happier outcome when they take on Brackaville on Saturday afternoon in Killeeshil.

This time last year Augher played their part in an engrossing contest against Glenelly on a sunny day in Tattyreagh, but they fell short on the home straight despite the best efforts of Darragh Kavanagh up front with ten points to his name.

But Augher will quietly fancy their chances against a Brackaville side that won a mere three games across an entire league campaign, and McElroy points out that they themselves seem to have hit form at the right time, winning three of their final four Division Three games.

“We’ve had an up and down season. We’ve played well and lost, and played poorly and won, but we finished well with a few good wins so we’ll hopefully take that momentum into the championship.”

“The championship is what you look forward to every season, everyone gets excited when championship comes around. All eyes are on Saturday at this stage and hopefully we produce a good performance.”

The Augher vice-captain has two siblings on the team including younger brother Tiernan, who has marked himself out as potentially a mainstay of the team for years to come.

“There’s plenty of McElroys around Augher,” said Ronan. “I’ve an older and younger brother on the team, Finbar and Tiernan. They’ve both played really well and Tiernan has been flying this year.

“He’s 19 and has his best years ahead of him hopefully. He didn’t play much last year but has really stepped up this year and been very important to us.”

Augher have languished at Junior level in recent years and have had their struggles at underage level, but Ronan points to an influx of other promising younger players at adult level as cause for optimism in the club.

“We’ve had a few boys hang up the boots, lads like Aidan McElroy who soldiered away for years, but we’ve added in a couple of younger boys from minor level.

“Ben Trainor has stepped up really well, he played right throughout the league and there’s a few other boys coming through as well.”