GAA
Danske Bank Mageean Cup quarter-final: Today, 5pm in St Enda’s Glengormley: St Killian’s Garron Tower v An Dún
IT IS THE same quarter-final fixture as last year, just that the venue has changed from the Dub to St Enda’s Glengormley, writes Séamas McAleenan.
A year ago An Dún mounted eked out a narrow victory on their way to reaching the final where they lost narrowly to St Patrick’s Maghera.
Quite a few from both teams have obviously moved on to Third Level, but significantly the Down squad will have eight of last season’s team back – Ciaran Watson, Caolan Coulter, Tim Prenter, Stuart Martin, Ronan Blair, Phelim Savage, Niall McFarland and John Hughes.
Prenter went on to collect an Ulster Schools’ All-star and new players such as Ciaran Watson, Cathal Lavery, Aodhan Furlong and Sean Campbell have emerged to claim key spots on the team.
Their group games didn’t go too well with defeat to both St Louis Ballymena and St Mary’s CBGS before they ran in 4-25 against St Patrick’s Keady last week.
St Killian’s also didn’t fare too well in their outing against Cross and Passion, but put together a strong performance to beat St Patrick’s Maghera ten days ago.
Cushendall pair Pearse McKeegan and Ruairi McCollam along with Cushendun’s Tomas Scally have been doing well in defence while Glenravel’s Sean McKay and Glenariff’s Caolan O’Connor are feeding well off Ballymena rugby player Finlay Walker.
By coincidence An Dún’s Stuart Martin is heavily involved in schools’ rugby and has not played for the team yet, while a couple of others have been available for one or two of the three games played.
Once it comes to the knock-out stages, An Dún are formidable enough with a full hand to select from. It could well be the same result as last year with An Dún lining up a re-fixture with St Louis Ballymena.
