CORDUFF manager Seamus McEnaney labelled Galbally red-hot favourites going into tomorrow’s rescheduled Ulster Intermediate Football Championship final but Enda McGarrity, joint-captain of the Pearse’s, doesn’t agree with Banty’s assessment.
Tyrone champions Galbally came out on the wrong end of a 1-15 to 0-13 scoreline when they tangled with Monaghan’s Magheracloone in the Ulster final of 2019. McGarrity, one of a number of survivors from that day, says it’s once-bitten-twice-shy for the Red Hand county representatives.
“We definitely don’t see it that way,” said McGarrity.
“To come out of Monaghan you have to be a really high-quality team as we learned to our detriment three years’ ago against Magheracloone. We’ve watched Corduff and they’re an extremely well-conditioned, athletic team and it’s going to be a huge task for us to try and overcome them.
“The 2019 final was obviously unknown territory for everyone in the club and that day we were taught a lesson an experienced, good footballing team. You do take a bit of learning from that and a lot of our players featured in that game and hopefully will have learned a bit from it.
“The one thing I took from that game is that any intermediate team coming out of Monaghan is going to be an extremely good side.”
Galbally go into the tomorrow’s final on the back of an eye-catching 7-12 to 1-11 win over Derry champions Glenullin which they followed with a more straightforward 1-12 to 0-10 win against Donegal’s Dungloe.
Meanwhile, after beating Magheracloone in the county final, Corduff saw off Down’s Saval and, in the semi-finals, Castlerahan of Cavan.
“The form is pretty good,” said McGarrity.
“Things clicked well against Glenullin and the last day out was ok but we definitely have a lot we can improve on from then – the weather conditions weren’t great but they’re not going to be at this time of year.
“We’ve had ups and downs this year, we haven’t always performed to our full potential. When it comes to this time of year, things have to fall for you on the day. A lot of factors play a part and you really have to show up and hopefully we can do that.
“Corduff are a strong, athletic team and they’re coming in with a lot of momentum behind them having beaten Castlerahan in a closely-contested semi-final. They have loads of energy, they are hard-working and they work hard for each other so if we don’t match that, and more, then we’re not going to get a result.”
This year’s final was postponed by a week due to a frozen pitch at Pairc Esler, Newry last Saturday. Temperatures are forecast to rise only marginally between now and the scheduled throw-in time (1pm) tomorrow and McGarrity hopes a proper contingency needs is in place in case there are further issues with the Pairc Esler surface.
“It was disappointing when we got the news through last week,” said McGarrity.
“But you can only control the controllables so it was straight back to work again and all we can do is be ready for this weekend. Hopefully it goes ahead and hopefully there’s a proper contingency plan in place to make sure that it does whether it’s a different venue or any other measure.
“The postponement hasn’t had a significant impact on us one way or the other, we just had to re-gather ourselves and get ready to go again. The pitches have been frozen – that’s the case everywhere – but we’ve been able to do a bit of training.”
