INJURY brought Paul McNally’s season to a painful and premature end, but he’s no less invested in Carrickcruppen’s bid to win a first Ulster Club IFC title.
An ACL rupture suffered in the Armagh quarter-final win over Tullysaren ruled the attacker out of the remainder of what proved to be a triumphant campaign, and he’s set for another watching but highly supportive brief in Sunday’s provincial quarter-final clash with Ballinderry at Celtic Park.
“It was disappointing to miss out on it, but I was delighted for the boys to get over the line and progress on into Ulster, and hopefully we can give it a good rattle,” said the 23-year-old.
Eoin Woods turned on the style in the narrow county final victory over St Paul’s, hitting 1-3, and the consistently high levels of performance of Eoin Kane, Cathal O’Grady, Micheal Hughes, Jack Cunningham and All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Blaine Hughes have been central to the rise of the St Patrick’s.
Cookstown joint-manager Jason Quinn doesn’t underestimate the challenge of Four Masters in the Ulster semi-final
“It was tough on my mum and dad. I knew I was self-destructing. And I also knew the next phase of that, if I had carried on, it was not being here. I was in a very dark place...” - the life and times of Caolan Mooney
But a strong Ballinderry side coming of a Derry IFC final replay win over Faughanvale will present the Orchard champions with their stiffest test to date.
“It’s going to be a tough hurdle, but we believe in ourselves, and we’re going to give it our best shot, give it as much as we possibly can,” said McNally.
Carrickcruppen are no strangers to the Ulster IFC arena, having been involved three years ago, but they’ll be looking to atone for a poor showing on that occasion.
“To be honest we made a disappointing showing of ourselves, went out in the first round and probably didn’t take it as seriously as we should.
“This time it’s going to be different, the full focus is on giving it a good rattle and trying to get over the line.
“Three years ago it was our first championship win in 12 years, maybe 15, and the over-excitement because of that championship win maybe made us not think as seriously about Ulster as we should have.
“But this time it’s going to be different, we have learned from our mistakes from the last time.”
An extended run in the provincial series would be a welcome bonus, but the newly promoted club’s chief objective is to establish itself as a senior force in the seasons ahead.
“We want to stay in senior, it’s where we believe we should be.”
