St Eunan’s could not only beat Derry champions Glen but also have the potential to go all the way to the Ulster final.
That is the considered view of former Donegal star Manus Boyle who tipped Rory Kavanagh’s young team to beat hot favourite Naomh Conaill in the county final.
But the ease of that victory has pushed them further up the ladder as they entertain the conquerors of Slaughtneil on Sunday.
Boyle knows a thing or two about Ulster having played in a number of campaigns and was part of the Killybegs team that lost a provincial final to the Nudie Hughes-inspired Castleblayney Faughs in 1991. He believes the Letterkenny side won't fear the Maghera outfit when they meet at O'Donnell Park.
"I think that with the squad they have and if they have a great chance of not only beating Glen, but of going all the way to the final," said Boyle.
"It is four games and Eunan’s will have their homework done on Glen and if Eunan’s can play to the level that they can and I think if they continue to develop to the same level that they did in the second half of the county final. There would be very few teams who could live with that and that includes Glen."
Glen were first-time winners of the Derry senior championship this year, while St Eunan's do have a relatively recent success under their belts have conquered Donegal in 2014. Their Ulster campaign that year ended in semi-final defeat to Omagh, but Boyle believes that the club's more senior players and the manager himself can bring that experience to bear on this year's provincial competition.
“From Eunan’s perspective they do have experience of being in Ulster in 2014 and Rory Kavanagh has that experience as well as a few of the more senior players and that is always a bonus," he said.
“The difference is that you are playing a county final every Sunday and you have to be at a certain level every Sunday which is not an easy thing because teams can be up on one Sunday and then be flat the next Sunday and often for no apparent good reason and the games are on the bounce.
“And that is where the importance of St Eunan’s big squad and the obvious quality of that squad that they have.”
“In 1991 we had a good team, but we had fishermen which meant our training schedule was all over the place because the lads were away at sea and four or five of the lads coming back the day before the final. We had no team strategy and today is totally different in that even if your players are in Dublin or Belfast you are gathering somewhere in between to train and that makes a big difference”
He added: “I just think that the strength of the St Eunan’s squad could be the difference on Sunday. They just have so much talent that has played at county level at some grade or other and the majority of their subs the last day were inter county players at some grade or other and that extends to their reserves and there are very few teams with that level of quality."
Despite the difficulty in getting a full squad together, Killybegs still managed to go very close in that final against the Monaghan champions going for their second Ulster title.
“We probably should have won it and it was a very wet day and as an individual I did not play well on the day," he said.
“Maybe that was the culmination of 1990 as there was no rest and there were NFL games and you did not have the option of not playing. It was totally different times.
“The Ulster Club Championship was not the competition it is today. Thanks to the Ulster Council and it is now a super competition.
“We were quite close but 'Blayney were better suited to it and Nudie Hughes destroyed us in the first 20 minutes but you could have driven a cortege up the middle of our team that day and we were torn apart."
Looking ahead to Sunday's, Boyle feels that St Eunan's are well equipped to put it up to a Glen team which, like them, has enjoyed success at underage level and claimed the scalp of serial winners in their county final.
“Glen have beat a great Slaughtneil side and Derry club football is of a very high standard and Derry’s county football is probably no reflection on their club football.
“Their club football has been exceptional in the past decade and club football seems to have a special place that other counties do not have.
“They are formidable, but it is a great chance for St Eunan’s to have them on their own patch and that has to count for something, and it is worth two or three scores early on.
"St Eunan’s may be relatively young but they have all played at a high level and they have been Ulster champions at underage level and that is bound to give them great confidence.
“They have all been in development squads and look at Niall O’Donnell’s experience, Rory’s experience himself and their biggest asset of all is Shaun Patton. That is immense as his kickouts are just so good.
“They are very well coached and disciplined and their tackling has improved and that showed against Naomh Conaill.
“They made Naomh Conaill look very ordinary and Naomh Conaill are anything but that.”
