Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup quarter-final: UCD v St Mary’s University College, Belfast (tomorrow, 2pm, Belfield)
HE may not have featured in last weekend’s win over Ulster opposition, but St Mary’s boss Gavin McGilly is expecting to come up against Dublin powerhouse Con O’Callaghan when they face UCD tomorrow.
The Cuala star has a résumé to rival almost anybody at the age of just 23. Already he has four All-Ireland medals with Dublin, four Leinsters, two National League titles, two Allstars, a young player of the year award, as well as being a Sigerson Cup winner with the Dublin university in 2018.
And that’s only in Gaelic football – O’Callaghan has also won two All-Ireland Club hurling crowns with his club.
A shoulder injury suffered in the warm-up kept him out of last weekend’s extra-time victory over Ulster University, but McGilly expects him to play some part in tomorrow’s Sigerson quarter-final at Belfield.
“You wouldn’t know but you’d probably expect it,” said the Ranch boss.
“He’s the sort of player you’d be doing anything to have for whatever length of time. But he’s far from the only one - they’ve a good contingent of Kerry players there with the likes of Barry Dan O’Sullivan, Fiachra Clifford, Gary Walsh was the top scorer in the National League two years ago [with Laois], Barry McGinn from Monaghan, Stephen Coen from Mayo…
“UCD will always be strong, but it’s a game we’re looking forward to. You’re guaranteed a battle. It will be a complete war of attrition and it’ll take everything we have for our boys to pull out a result, but they’re well capable of it.”
And that is something St Mary’s have proved beyond doubt in recent years, having stunned UCD in the 2017 final before taking their scalp at the semi-final stage of last year’s competition.
The Ranch come into tomorrow’s game in rude health too after an easier-than-anticipated opening win over Maynooth University, with goals from Down’s Owen McCabe and Tyrone’s Conn Kilpatrick helping them to an 11-point victory.
“We probably expected a tougher game against Maynooth,” admits McGilly.
“Going into the first game of the campaign, you don’t know what you’re going to get. That was basically the first time that team had played together. The Friday before we trained up at O’Donnell’s and that was the first time we had every single panel member out.
“It was only a light session but it was the first time we’d all been together. On paper, Maynooth had a lot of quality players, but we just got the start on them, got a good lead built up in the first half and that kept us in control.
“But we know what we’re facing into this weekend won’t be anything like that.
We’re going to UCD who have a strong tradition in the Sigerson and it’ll be a totally different battle.
“They’ll probably relish having another crack at us, and that’s okay too. We don’t mind that.”
McGilly boasts a clean bill of health going into the game, with the winner going on to face whoever comes out of tomorrow’s quarter-final showdown between Queen’s University and DCU. The semi-finals take place on Wednesday night.
“The one thing about Sigerson, there’s not an awful lot of time to do analysis – you just go and play.
“UCD probably will have spent the week looking at us but we only ever look after ourselves and get ourselves right. We just worry about who we have. We don’t really worry about who other teams have.
“It’s a hectic period for the lads, but they enjoy playing straight knock-out football, and if you had the opportunity to play in a semi-final on Wednesday night, you’d grab it.”
