FERMANAGH’s goal hero Sean Quigley says he’s no divine right to start every game for his county – and sang the praises of the high quality footballers coming through the Erne ranks.
The mercurial Roslea full-forward turned last Saturday’s nail-biting Division Three encounter with Antrim on its head by flicking home the equalising goal in the fourth minute of stoppage-time at Corrigan Park before another substitute Conor McGee won it for Fermanagh.
After starting Fermanagh’s opening two NFL games, Quigley was dropped to the bench for the Down and Antrim games – but proved his worth by netting in both games.
The 30-year-old has no qualms about being nudged out of Kieran Donnelly’s starting line-ups.
“I’ve been carrying a knock from the end of last year but that hasn’t impacted me to be honest,” said Quigley.
“The simple fact of the matter is Fermanagh have a huge array of up and coming talent and you have to fight to get on the team. I have come on the last two days and I’ve probably struggled with sharpness and that sort of thing and I haven’t been able to get as much training in.
“I’m not 18 any more. When you hit 29 and 30 you forget that you’re not 18 and the body starts to catch up with you a bit. That’s just where I’m at. But that’s not taking away from the lads that have come in.
“We have a huge amount of talent, talent that if they were playing in any other county would be seriously talked about. Ronan McCaffrey plays like a man of 28 or 29 – he’s 19-years-of-age, 14 stone of pure muscle. There is no exaggerating that. This is his second season and he’s cemented his place in the team.
“Josh Largo Ellis, Ultan Kelm is unstoppable at the minute, Darragh McGurn was struggling with an injury but was unstoppable the previous week and will come again. That’s the type of boys you’re up against. And as a 30-year-old who was never in great shape, it’s difficult at times.”
Quigley credits Fermanagh’s encouraging trajectory in 2023 to the St Michael’s, Enniskillen contingent who won the Hogan Cup in 2019 which the county set-up has been able to harness.
The vast majority of that St Michael's squad have been tried at senior inter-county level, including Sean McNally, Luke Flanagan, Josh Largo Ellis and Brandon Horan who all started against Antrim last weekend.
“Kieran [Donnelly] deserves a lot of credit and, in my honest opinion, the lads that have come through have been great. St Michael’s won a Hogan Cup a few years ago and we’re reaping the rewards of that now. Those lads have turned into men and our county footballers now, and a really good standard of county footballers too.
“We’ve still got Ryan Jones knocking around the middle of the field, not giving the ball away, doing the simple things really well.”
Quigley was thrust from the bench at half-time of last Saturday’s one-point win over Antrim, replacing Darragh McGurn who was struggling with an injury.
“Any time you come onto the pitch you’re expected to make a difference,” he said.
“That’s the role of a sub, I suppose. When I came on I had a couple of opportunities. I could’ve finished that game with 2-3 or 2-4. I dropped a couple short and I hit the post, but thankfully I got that flick to the goal and got us back in the game. It’s a great win and it’s probably a game we’ll sit and watch and have heart attacks with some of our mistakes we made.
“But if we can get a win next week [at home to Tipperary], it sets us up really well.
“Our game management against Antrim at times was poor until the last 10 minutes and that’s when you sensed something is changing in terms of the Fermanagh ethos. We won a one-point game and we can see games out now, whereas a few years ago we’d be five points up and shitting ourselves.”
