Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup round one
ATU Sligo v St Mary’s University College (Thursday, The Dub Arena, 8pm)
ST Mary’s get their Sigerson Cup campaign underway this evening against ATU Sligo at The Dub and manager Gavin McGilly says this is the time of year which students count down the days for.
“The players really look forward to it, because it’s a big part of student life here,” said McGilly.
“Students who come to the college always look forward to representing the Ranch in the Sigerson Cup and we place a lot of importance on it every year.
“I think it’s an ideal stepping stone between U20 level and senior inter-county. I know how special it is for those players to put on the Ranch jersey, and we try to go as far as we can every year.”
Players to watch for St Mary’s include midfielder MacDarragh Hynes, who made his mark in helping Kilcoo retain their Down senior title; Oisin Conaty, who featured for Armagh in their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Monaghan last year; Mayobridge goalkeeper Charlie Smyth, who is renowned for his long-range accuracy from dead balls; and Luke McKeever, who scored 1-1 for Armagh in their Dr McKenna Cup opener against Donegal last week.
The Ranch’s 2023 campaign came to a bitterly disappointing end at the last-eight stage, as they lost out to University College, Cork in a penalty shoot-out.
Before that, however, they claimed a comfortable 1-11 to 0-6 win over this evening’s opponents.
Despite that, McGilly is expecting a much tougher test against a side who boast Ross Chambers, Dylan Walsh, Ross Doherty and Daire O’Boyle from Sligo’s U20 All-Ireland final starting 15 last year, which lost to Kildare.
“We know that we’re coming up against a good Sligo team, who are backboned by a lot of the U20s who won back-to-back Connacht titles,” said McGilly.
“They’re definitely a stronger opposition now than they were last year. The nature of the Sigerson Cup is that there will be a lot of turnover of players and it will be two different teams than it was last year.
“It’s a bit of an unknown quantity in terms of who they have, what we have; you don’t really know until the ball is thrown in.
“But that’s the beauty of the Sigerson Cup – it’s the unknown, and you just have to hope that your team is ready.”
Tuesday Queen’s University, Belfast 1-10 DCU Dochas Eireann 2-6; University of Galway 1-10 TU Dublin 2-8; Maynooth University 4-11 MTU Cork 2-9
Wednesday ATU Galway 1-5 University College, Dublin 1-22
Ulster University v University College, Cork (Abbotstown, 7.30pm); University of Limerick v ATU Donegal (Connacht Centre of Excellence)
Thursday ATU Sligo v St Mary’s University College