Fermanagh will play Armagh in the NFL Division 3 Final at Croke Park
Fermanagh’s unbeaten league campaign was ended in Cusack Park by an Ennis team fighting for their division 3 status.
Pete McGrath had used the opportunity offered by assured promotion to shake up his selection, giving Aidan Breen, Che Cullen, Conall Jones, Eoin McManus and Ciaran Flaherty starting places.
However, it was the Banner men’s greater hunger which was to dictate the outcome of the game. Fermanagh captain, Eoin Donnelly, wasn’t happy with the result, acknowledging Clare’s sharper desire.
“Disappointed to lose, to be honest,” said Donnelly. “We put in a lot over the league campaign and we wanted to finish off with a win against Clare. But Clare had a lot to play for and maybe that was a factor in it. At the end of the day we didn’t perform like we knew had to. They were a strong team and they showed that. Whenever we didn’t bring a performance they were always going to make it difficult.”
One positive for the Ernesiders was their late kick which saw them make life uncomfortable for the watching Clare support. That sprint finish has been a characteristic of the team’s play all season, and is based on a punishing training regime over the pre-season period.
“We finished strong,” said Donnelly. “I don’t know what kicked us into life, but it’s just unfortunate it didn’t happen a bit sooner. If we knew what the trigger was maybe it would be nice to be able to hit it a bit sooner. It is encouraging. It shows that there’s fitness in the squad and the hard work that we have done means that we can finish games out strongly.
“Although at the same time Clare were eight or nine points up and maybe they took the foot off the pedal to a certain degree and let us back in to it. In the context of the match, they maybe had the game won when we started to play.”
Now though, it is knock out football from here on in, and Donnelly is delighted to see the sun high and the ball dry.
“We’re getting into the business end of the season now,” said the Fermanagh skipper. “There was a lot of hard work done over the winter and now you’re getting into the longer evenings and this is where the championship football starts. We know the [NFL Division Three] final against Armagh is going to be a championship style game and good preparation for the Ulster championship. It will definitely get us to the intensity level a championship game is going to be at.
“In a way it is good to have that match, rather than having a seven, eight week gap without any sort of competitive football. Boys want to be playing football, so you always need that carrot there. It’s a big game in Croke Park, where you want to be playing, so to get a game in Croke Park at this time of year is only going to whet the appetite for later on in the year to try and get back to it.”
Before that though, domestic action beckons, and Donnelly is looking forward to pulling on the black and amber of Coa for the first time this season on Sunday.
“I’ve been looking forward to getting back with the club as well. That’s your bread and butter and it’s great to get back into it. We are hoping to achieve something with Coa this year. We’ve a tough opener against Brookeborough who we’ll be facing again in the championship later in the year, so it’s a good test for us to start the league off with,” said Donnelly.