DERRY minor captain Pádraig McGrogan has had to watch on enviously in recent weeks as his friends boarded aeroplanes and headed off for some much-needed downtime in the sun.
While they have been lying on the beach, McGrogan has been preparing for Sunday’s Ulster final – and all the sacrifice will be worthwhile if the Oak Leafers can get their hands on the title this weekend.
Cavan provide the opposition as Damian McErlain tries to guide the county to a second Father Murray Cup success in three years, and McGrogan is just bursting to get out on the pitch.
“It’s an unbelievable occasion and it’s great to be involved at this time of the year,” said the Newbridge player.
“You see other boys away on holidays and you think that looks deadly too, but if you’d the choice you’d pick here every day of the week.”
McErlain’s side are favourites to triumph, mostly down to their performances against Tyrone and Antrim but partly because they came so close to defeating Donegal in last year’s final.
McGrogan, however, isn’t convinced by the second part of the argument as he is just one of a few players still involved from last season.
“It is a new team basically,” he said.
“People have been talking about the experience in the squad, but three or four players isn’t a lot of experience.
“There are a lot of boys there experiencing this for the first time and it’ll all be new to them. So it’s not really that big of a deal given that most of the squad is away from last year.”
It’s that victory over the Red Hands, when they struck back after losing the Ulster League final to them a month prior, that really set the side on their way this season.
“At the start of the year you only look at the first round of the championship,” said McGrogan.
“Tyrone, like last year, was the biggest game we had in our minds.
“We knew if we could get over them it would be a real stepping stone for us.
“Against Antrim we needed the boys off the bench because we were sort of puffed after 25 minutes. The intensity was that high and we were feeling it.
“There’s no point in stopping though and halfway through the second half we were saying that we have to keep going. Whether the game is over or not, you have to keep going and that’s what we did against Antrim.”
Like Derry, Cavan have had an impressive run to the final as strong second-half performances saw them defeat Monaghan and Down.
It’s another underage final for the Breffni county, and McGrogan is wary of the threat that they carry.
“They have had a lot of success at underage over the last few years,” he said.
“They are a very physical team and a very talented team.
“They’ve shown what they’re about by coming from a few points down in both of their games at half-time. It’s going be tough, very tough.”
There’s no doubting, however, that last year’s two-point loss to Donegal is driving McGrogan on.
“All I remember from last year is that we completely let it slip.
“In the first 10 minutes we should have been 1-6 up and that’s what cost us.
“You just have to learn from that game and then try and forget it.
“You try and learn to be more clinical because we’ll need that this weekend.”
