COLLEGELAND have showed serious resilience and a never say die attitude during their championship run and captain Steafán McKenna hopes his team can once again call on those qualities as they contest the Ulster JFC semi-final against Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin.
Paul Doyle’s side saw off championship favourites Forkhill in the county semi-final and came through a replay and extra time to overcome their fierce rivals An Port Mor in the Armagh decider.
Extra time was once again required in the opening round of their provincial campaign when they edged out Dromara by the minimum of margins, having trailed by five-points at one stage and looked like limping out.
“We’ve come through those games, the two games for the final, extra time, extra time then against Dromara,” explained McKenna. “There definitely is that resilience there and we don’t really know how to lose a game and it’s good for us to look back on.
“We have that sort of mentality and fight that even if we do go a few points down, we went five points down against Dromara, but we don’t crumble. We have that ability to get back in the game at any time.”
The Collegeland subs bench has been a big boost this season as well. In the replayed county final, Shane Donnelly rattled the net while Olivier Murphy kicked 0-3 after coming on and again against Dromara, it was Murphy who kicked the winning score.
“We have the starting 15 but I think our bench is brilliant,” McKenna added. “They give us a real lift when they come on because we’ve got quality players on the bench which we haven’t really had in a long time.
“It’s probably the first year we’ve had a squad where everyone is fighting for positions. That’s one of the main things, that bench coming on and giving us that lift and pushing us on. The game is never over for us until it’s over really.
“There are boys across the board that are coming on and making a difference. Even Aidy (Treanor) there, he wasn’t starting and then he ended up getting a starting position and he’s taken a place from someone else.
“That player is on the bench then and they can come on and make an impact. There’s just that fight for places throughout the year and it’s paid off for us so far.”
Collegeland may not know a whole lot about their Donegal opposition but that provides them with a chance to really focus on themselves. “I wouldn’t know too much; I don’t think the players will worry about it.
“The management team will do their homework in the background and maybe at our last training session, we’ll talk a wee bit about them,” the Collegeland skipper continued.
“Usually, we try and focus on our own performance and our own tactics because that’s what has worked for us so far. We’re not really going to change it up now. We’ll focus on what we can do and go from there.
“There’s that bit of unknown because we’ve never seen them play and there is that side of it where you’re going in blind. But we’ve had that strategy of just working on our own tactics and focusing on ourselves because we know we’re good enough to beat any team on our day.
“It’s very exciting and there’s a real buzz around the team and the community because we’ve never been this far before in Ulster. It’s the same as any championship game, we’ve not looking too far ahead, this match is all we’re focusing on at the minute.”