Fermanagh held their official press night recently at the Lissan training complex and the mood was upbeat if understandably cautious ahead of their championship clash with Antrim.
“The game is both winnable and losable,” McGrath told the assembled media.
“It is true to say that we had a healthy league campaign but every manager is cautious coming into the championship as it is all down to how you perform on the day. A good league campaign can be forgotten after one poor championship match,” the Down man revealed before adding,
“You could say that It is true that we could have had a tougher draw than Antrim but then Antrim are saying the exact same thing about drawing Fermanagh.”
But the two time All Ireland winning manager said that he was very pleased with what he has seen so far from the squad he has assembled.
“I like the cut of a lot of the players on this panel because I think that they have those essential qualities that are needed to survive at this level,” McGrath explained.
“I have been around county teams a long time and I know county football may have changed but there are still eternal qualities that players need to survive at this level and when you see a player I like to think that I can make a pretty quick judgement whether that guy has the potential to be a serious county player or not,” he added.
McGrath was of the opinion that the main ingredient Fermanagh needed was a bit more self belief and he revealed that he saw it as a major responsibility of his to try and instil that quality in his players.
“You need a deep belief and a belief that you are better than the guy you are marking and that you have no problem going out to prove that. That might be confidence bordering on arrogance and maybe in a county like Fermanagh where success has not been plentiful maybe players deep down are lacking that confidence. So I am maybe trying to convince them, look fellas, you are as good as a lot of the players that I have worked with over the years, don’t sell yourselves short.”
Fermanagh still have over three weeks to prepare for the Saffron visit and while they will be installed as favourites in eyes of the media they will know that Antrim will carry with them a very real threat that could see that good league campaign of Fermanagh’s lose some lustre should Antrim prevail.