ERRIGAL Ciaran veteran Ciaran McGinley has vowed to all he can to help the club’s crestfallen young players over the disappointment of losing Sunday’s All-Ireland senior final to Cuala.
Losing to the impressive Dubliners was certainly no disgrace but what will stick in Errigal’s craw is that they failed to do themselves justice in the first half and, despite a brilliant rally in the second, felt just short in their first senior final.
McGinley (37) gave no indication of whether he would be back in harness for next season. He is one of a number of veterans – including Aidan McCrory, Peter Harte and Tommy Canavan – who might have called it a day had Errigal landed the Andy Merrigan Cup.
“The younger lads are going to have to pick themselves up,” he said.
“It’s been a great journey for all of us and I’d be very conscious of being around for the younger lads now for the next few weeks and making sure everybody realises, when the dust settles, that there’s massive learnings to be taken from this.
“We’re the first Tyrone team to get to this stage and there’s lessons to be taken from that. It’s going to be hard for our club to get back here and the younger lads are the ones that will drive that on. They can reset and think about the improvements they need to make for next year and every day is a learning day.”
Errigal came through 10 knockout championship games – all but one ended with only a kick of the ball between the teams – in a thrilling campaign that took them all the way to Croke Park.
For whatever reason, they started slowly and the game had been lost before the Tyrone men settled and turned the tide.
“We just left the hole too big for ourselves,” said McGinley.
“We didn’t get out of the blocks and whenever they had the momentum we didn’t break it early enough and when we did have the ball we made silly errors that we haven’t been making in this championship run this year.
“We spoke at half-time and we decided to salvage a wee bit of pride. We thought we could make a match of it in the second half and we did but it’s not the result we wanted. We’re proud but to come so far after this journey and not get the right result is a hard place to be.”
McGinley said that the Errigal management and players had done their research and prepared for what Cuala would bring on Sunday. However, first half goals from Cal Doran, Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne and David O’Dowd ripped the pre-match script to shreds.
“You do your video work and we knew what we were coming up against,” he said.
“They didn’t surprise us in any elements of their game but what was disappointing was that whenever we needed to anchor down we didn’t find that bit of calm in the first half. They play very direct and their key runners had a big influence on the first half.
“It wasn’t down to our lack of ability that we didn’t stay with them, it was down to the fact that we didn’t spot the runners and our pressure wasn’t where it was for the Crokes game.
“But we rightified it for the second half and decided we’d go on the front foot and salvage a little bit of pride but they’re an excellent club, they’ve got big names and whenever you leave yourself in such a hole, any mistake is like a two-point wing against you every time. The gap was just too big.”
