‘We want to do our club proud’ – Edendork embrace Ulster challenge

EDENDORK return to action for the fourth successive weekend to take on St Brigid’s of Antrim in the Ulster Club Championship quarter-final, and having come through a county final replay against Errigal Ciaran ahead of their provincial debut, the tight schedule has brought its challenges in terms of recovery and injuries.

Centre back Ben Cullen is a major doubt for Sunday’s clash, having picked up a knee injury in the victory over Clonduff, while others are struggling with niggling problems.

“Our ultimate aim is recovery, to get the boys recovered as quickly as possible, so that we can get out on the pitch and get up for St Brigid’s next Sunday,” said manager Brian McGuckin.

“We spoke directly after the game. Obviously last week had to be celebrated, and we allowed the boys to celebrate for a couple of days.,

“But we had to focus on Clonduff, recovery started on Monday night, everybody bought in, and the aim was to win.

“I think our celebrations had taken a toll on us, so we’ll hopefully be in a position to put in a good performance next weekend.

“The game took its toll, we had a few muscular injuries, and we just hope that they recover fast.”

It was comfortable in the manner they disposed of Clonduff, but McGuckin accepts that his side must find another level if it is to go deeper into the series.

“I thought we played reasonably well, but there are areas of our game that we need to improve on if we’re looking to go any further in the competition.

“But it was all about going out and putting in the performance required to win, and we did that.

“It was a tough turnaround, there’s no doubt about it, but the fact that we won the game, that’s pleasing, the boys were all very keen to put their best foot forward and to perform as well as they could.”

After escaping the pressurised environment of the Tyrone championship, Edendork revelled in the freedom of the provincial arena as they carved out a 0-17 to 0-12 win at Pairc Esler.

“Most definitely, there was a wee bit more freedom there.

“Although we tried to analyse the opposition as best we could, you’re not going to get analysing as well as you could analyse a Tyrone team.

“So the game was played definitely with a wee bit of freedom, and I’m just delighted that we came out the right side of it.”

For first-time Tyrone champions, an Ulster Club adventure can be seen as bonus territory, but that’s not the way McGuckin sees it.

He wants his players to grasp the opportunity and represent the county with honour.

“We don’t look on it as being bonus at all, and that’s being completely honest.

“We feel that having won the Tyrone championship, we want to represent Tyrone with distinction.

“We’re looking it as we’re going into a competition where we’re representing Tyrone, we want to do our club proud, we want to do Tyrone proud, we want to go as far as we possibly can in this competition.”

Injuries have taken their toll, and the greatest concern surrounds centre back Ben Cullen, who was forced off with a knee injury at Pairc Esler.

“It took it all. Our squad is now being stretched to the very limits, and there were players who got game time there tonight who haven’t got a minute all year.

“But Paudie Donnelly has been a quite astonishing servant for Edendork, and for him to go out and perform like that as a 38-year-old, after getting no game time from the Ardboe game, he deserves a serious amount of credit.”

In more than a decade and a half of service to the Edendork cause, Conor Mallon feels that for the first time, he’s part of a team that has structure and purpose.

After claiming a maiden county title. A winning start to the provincial series has opened up another new world of opportunity for the Tyrone champions.

And it’s all about building the capacity to establish control, as they did at Newry.

“I’m playing senior 16 years, but it just feels this year that there’s been something brewing in that team,” said Mallon.

“We’re very tactical, but I think Tyrone football is very tactical. I don’t watch enough of the other counties to know.

“For many years we have been going out, and thinking that if you play the football, you win the game, thinking that the best players on the day are going to win.

“But that’s not the way it works, we have always had the players, we have always had the talent and the hard work, but you have to have that tactical side along with it, or you’re not going to win the big prizes.”

The addition of Conleth Gilligan to the Edendork management set-up has added vital knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of Ulster club football.

A provincial and All-Ireland winner both as player and coach, with Ballinderry and Kilcoo, Gilligan’s insights are nuggets of the precious variety.

“It’s very hard to get control in the new rules, but we’re trying our best, and that’s probably ‘Deets’ coming into the equation. He loves control, he’s a control freak, so we try and listen to him as much as we can.

“You’re not going to get control the whole game, especially against really good teams, but we manage to get it for long periods, which was great.

“First ten or fifteen minutes, we tried to take the sting out of it, and I thought we did that well, we were composed.

“We probably knew that they didn’t have as much legs as we do.

“We were very composed up until the last five, ten minutes, when it turned into a bit of a basketball match. I think we are a composed team.

“I think Donaghmore was probably our best game in the championship, where we controlled the game.”

Niall Morgan, a match-winner in the Tyrone SFC final replay, once again came up with a couple of two-pointers, while Darren McCurry mailed a 0-8 tally at Pairc Esler.

But it’s the scores that come from elsewhere that make all the difference, according to team captain Mallon.

Niall and Darren are quality players, but we rely on scores from everywhere, and that’s the great thing about it.

“I’m sitting at corner back, but I usually chip in with a score.

“We have sores from all over, and that’s great, it takes the pressure off Darren and Niall.

“It’s hard to beat having a lot of boys in the team that are able to take scores, and you’re not going to win anything without that.”

Edendork had just a week to celebrate ,recover and prepare for their provincial debut after beating Errigal Ciarn at the second attempt to win the O’Neill Cup, while the Down champions had a three-week run-in to their first Ulster Club SFC appearance in 26 years.

But Mallon said: “The body of work is done, we have the training done, so this week it was all about tactical stuff and recovery, trying to get the minds right.

“The first ten, fifteen minutes, we didn’t know where our bodies will be, but your muscle memory takes over.

“To be honest, I thought we looked the fitter team.

“They had a couple of weeks break, bit sometimes that doesn’t work in your favour. We have a lot of young boys driving the thing on.

“We got dealt a few blows, we had a few injuries before the start of the match, but our squad depth is unbelievable.

“It was just about managing that game, trying to take the sting out of it and trying not to make it into an up-down match.

“In the last five, ten minutes it turned into that, but thankfully their shooting boots weren’t there and we got over the line.”