Football

St Mary's boss Paddy Tally hopes to make up for lost time as Sigerson Cup semi-final looms

St Mary's boss Paddy Tally knows his team will be up against it again when they face University College Cork at the Connacht GAA Centre today. Picture by Seamus Loughran
St Mary's boss Paddy Tally knows his team will be up against it again when they face University College Cork at the Connacht GAA Centre today. Picture by Seamus Loughran St Mary's boss Paddy Tally knows his team will be up against it again when they face University College Cork at the Connacht GAA Centre today. Picture by Seamus Loughran

Sigerson Cup semi-final: St Mary’s College, Belfast v University College Cork (today, 2pm, Connacht GAA Centre)

IT is 14 years since they last made it to the Sigerson Cup finals weekend, and St Mary’s University College are determined to make up for lost time when they take on the might of University College Cork (UCC) today.

Paddy Tally was on the line back in 2003 when a Ranch side featuring the likes of former Down player Dan Gordon and Tyrone’s Davy Harte was edged out by Damian Barton’s Jordanstown select.

A series of near misses have played a part in their absence from the big weekend ever since, and St Mary’s have had to defy the odds to reach the last four this time around after overcoming NUI Galway and Dublin City University (DCU).

For a college with such a small pick, reaching the last four of the Sigerson Cup is a huge achievement in itself. Now they have the chance to write themselves into the history books, though typically Tally is taking it one step at a time.

He said: “We’ve had a lot of close calls since [2003], so it’s just nice to be in the last four. It’s something we were determined to do this year because we’ve been knocking on the door for a long time.

“We’re in a position now that we can look towards the top two. Maybe things have just fallen the right way for us this year, but we have another huge game now against UCC.

“We can’t even look past the first 10 minutes of that game.”

The Tyrone native reported a clean bill of health before the Ranch headed for Mayo and their base minutes from the Connacht GAA Centre yesterday morning.

“We’re all fine,” added Tally.

“A few boys sat out the training session on Tuesday, there were a few wee knocks from the weekend from club and county football, but fingers crossed we should all be grand.”

Today’s opponents boast a number of players from the Cork U21 side that reached last year’s All-Ireland final, including the excellent Michael Hurley, while there is a fair representation from the Kingdom too.

It is another mammoth task but, considering the challenges St Mary’s have already overcome, Tally feels his men are in a good place.

He said: “UCC still have a fair few of those boys who won the Sigerson a few years ago so there’s experience there too.

“They have the big names but there’ll always be another couple of fellas who you never hear about that you’d be very wary of.

“That’s the thing about college football – there’s lads there you wouldn’t hear a word about but they rise to the occasion considerably in this sort of environment. We rely on those sort of players too.

“But we can take confidence from our previous performances. The DCU game could’ve gone either way, it’s such a fine margin.

“Other years we’ve lost those games, so it was very satisfying. That feeling after a big victory, that’s why you play football.

“We dug deep and just did not want to lose the match – that’s a good trait to have in any team. These boys don’t want to get beaten and hopefully that mentality continues into the next game because we’re certainly going to need it.”