Sport

McGrath makes Ulster title Fermanagh's next target

Pete McGrath and his Fermanagh players salute their supporters at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park<br/>Picture: Colm O'Reilly
Pete McGrath and his Fermanagh players salute their supporters at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park
Picture: Colm O'Reilly
Pete McGrath and his Fermanagh players salute their supporters at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park
Picture: Colm O'Reilly

PETE McGRATH says Fermanagh have their sights on next season’s Ulster title after his side fought to the death against Dublin on Sunday.

The Erne men went into the game as 100-1 outsiders and trailed by 10 points after half-time, but outscored the Leinster champions in the second and left the field to resounding applause.

McGrath, whose second season has brought promotion to Division Two and an exciting Championship run, has no doubt Fermanagh have the personnel and character to finally break their provincial Championship duck. 

“Our target now has to be a first Ulster title next year,” said the two-time Sam Maguire winner.

“Fermanagh have never won an Ulster Championship and I don’t mind saying that will be our target next year. We will work towards that and it certainly is something that we can achieve. 

“Why should Fermanagh not be able to stand up and say ‘our objective is to win our first ever Ulster Championship’? I think it would be a marvellous achievement for this group of players and we have the players to do it. I don’t say that with any kind of arrogance, I say it with belief, total belief.”

McGrath had every reason to be proud of his players after their performance on Sunday. They were written off going into the game, with many pundits predicting an embarrassing defeat against a Dublin side that had put all three of their opponents to the sword on the way to winning the Leinster title.

“We were 10 down at half-time,” he said.

“The choice was stark; we could lie down and accept defeat, or we could go out and show people what we are capable of doing. And I think, in the second half, we showed people what we are capable of doing. We showed character, courage, enthusiasm, high skill levels and I am exceptionally proud of the players.

“When I speak to the players, I will tell them how proud I am of them and, now, we have to feed into all the positives of this campaign and this game today has given us and bring it forward into next year.

“It is a young team, it’s an ambitious team, but they have shown enough here today to indicate that we can stick together, get the work done and that we will have other days here.”

Dublin will have another day at Croke Park on August 30 when they play the winners of the Mayo v Donegal quarter-final. Manager Jim Gavin says his side will need to improve on their performance to prevent a repeat of last season’s semi-final loss.

“The players will know, I won’t need to tell them, that that performance won’t be good enough – particularly the last quarter – to beat Mayo or Donegal,” he said.

“It certainly gives us areas to focus on and to improve on in the coming weeks. We sat off them and gave them space and time on the ball. In fairness to Fermanagh, they played well when they got that space and took some very, very good scores.”

Gavin was impressed enough by Fermanagh's performance to agree with McGrath’s assessment that they have to be rated as Ulster title contenders in 2016. 

“I have been generally impressed by them and the way that they played in that last quarter reminded of how they played against Roscommon in Enniskillen,” he said.

“They really went hard at it, pushed right up and took some great scores and played to their true potential. That’s what they realised out there in the park today, so I think they have a great chance.”