Mulhall targets run in Leinster for Fenagh

Darroch Mulhall believes his Fenagh team should have Leinster Intermediate Football Championship success in their crosshairs, given the manner in which they have turned their season right around.

After suffering relegation from the Division Two ranks earlier in the year, Fenagh managed to regroup and strung together a brilliant run in the Talbot Hotel Carlow Intermediate Championship that culminated in 1-14 to 1-6 triumph over Kildavin-Clonegal in the decider.

Such a remarkable turnaround is testament to the character of this Fenagh team and Mulhall who, along with coach, Paul Whelan, only took the reins of the team from former manager, John Hickey this season.

Both Mulhall and Whelan were brought in from Athy in an effort to see Fenagh repeat their Intermediate Championship title win of 2022 and make an immediate return to the senior ranks having suffered the drop last year.

It was a bold move by the club, and one that was ultimately rewarded with a second county title in three seasons, subsequently setting them up for date with Garrycastle of Westmeath in the opening round of the AIB Leinster Intermediate Championship in Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday at 4pm

Mulhall has previous history with Garrycastle after losing to them as player in a Leinster Senior semi-final in 2011 but he is hopeful that the team he now leads can now carry their championship-winning form into their provincial campaign, telling The Nationalist “I’m just so proud of the players in the way that they put their shoulders to the wheel.

“After the league, they all just collectively said ‘no, we’re much better than that.’ “When I met the guys back in November, I said to them that a county championship is the minimum. There’s definitely a Leinster in this team, once they hold themselves to the standards that they can reach.

“And, over the last two or three weeks, once they won it [the county title], you could nearly see the switch in them the following Thursday, as they were saying ‘what’s next?’ “I said to them before the county final, that regardless of what I’ve won, it’s the ones that I’ve lost that have stung the most.

“I still get goose bumps when I think of the ‘what if’ moments over the 15-16 years that I got to play with Athy. So I told them, do not come back in here with any regrets or any ‘what ifs’.

“If they bring that same attitude and mind-set into Leinster, then anything is possible.

“They’re a really good bunch of guys and all they have to do is to do themselves justice on the pitch and that should speak for itself” he insisted.

Mulhall will be the first to admit that his tenure in Fenagh got off to a most inauspicious start, as an absence of some of his most experienced campaigners played a major part in the team’s relegation to Division Three.

“This year has been a roller-coaster to be honest and the league was a massive eye-opening experience” he said “There was a lack of experienced players. The likes of Dion Wall and Ciaran Whelan coming back from the hurling, Eoin McDonagh coming back from London and Sean Murphy who was unavailable for most of the year and just came back in August.

“These are massive players, massive personalities who just kind of galvanised everything over the last seven or eight weeks up to the final.

“The whole spine of the team was nearly consisting of the Under 20 squad that I had managed in November-December just to get familiar with the younger group.

“For such a young core coming through, there was suddenly that pressure of being a central player, being part of that spine.

“But when that pressure was gone, I think they all thrived. They all just grew once the pressure and the expectation of being a spine player dwindled. You could see that the quality of their play in the championship increased as the weeks went on” he explained.

Indeed, as the more experienced campaigners began to trickle back into the fold, Fenagh quickly put behind them their league disappointment, and set about a strong championship run that was ignited with wins over St Mullin’s and Naomh Eoin.

Yet it was not all plain-sailing from there, as Mulhall’s men suffered a heavy 4-13 to 0-12 reversal at the hands of Kildavin in Round Three, forcing players and management to take another hard look at themselves.

“That was definitely a watershed moment for us” recalled Mulhall. “We had a couple of guys missing and we were beaten by 13 points. We were humbled. Four goals scored and they all came from our mistakes.

“We had a big clear-the-air meeting the following Wednesday. Anything that was lingering in my head I put out and anything that was lingering in their heads, they put out. We had a serious session after that and we haven’t looked back since” he smiled.

Fenagh quickly got back on track, beating Ballinabranna 3-16 to 3-8 in the quarter finals, before edging out Grange 1-12 to 1-10 to set up a another encounter with Kildavin in the title match, Mulhall’s boys exacting revenge for their earlier loss in the competition with an eight-point victory this time around.

“To keep such a talented team, with such a youthful and talented forward line, scoreless for 37 or 38 minutes, it was a real justification for the game plan” said Mulhall.

“That was probably the most enjoyable 60 minutes of the whole year, watching that game.

“The players are now not just settling for the win. They want to show that they’re such a cohesive team and the pinnacle of that came in the final against Kildavin-Clonegal” he said.

Now looking ahead to their first step on to the provincial stage this season, Mulhall said “We’ve a clean bill of health. Everyone’s 100 per cent.

“Sean Murphy went off in the semi-final with a bit of a niggle, but he’s back flying. Eoin McDonagh, our centre back, actually broke his toe on the morning of the semi-final, but kept going and he’s over the other side of that.

“We had a good challenge game on Wednesday night against Crettyard from Laois who are also in Leinster, so that was a really good tough game just to keep the momentum going.

“Now, I just think our team has to do themselves justice. They know what they can achieve, it’s just a matter of raising the bar that they’ve set for themselves.

“They’ve met this challenge head-on and they’ve exceeded any expectation that I’ve had in terms their performance and how they did it. If they can keep that trajectory going, then there’s no stopping them” he insisted.