Bernard McGeehan revealed that this weekend’s Senior Championship semi-final is the ‘toughest’ challenge in his managerial career.
Ghaoth Dobhair, favourites for the Senior Championship, is the task that lies ahead for McGeehan and Sean MacCumhallis on Sunday, a feat they haven’t managed to surpass since 2004 – when they beat Ghaoth Dobhair in an SFC quarter-final on their way to a final.
Defying 11/4 odds last week to beat St Michaels 2-10 to 0-13, the odds are considerably greater for McGeehan’s side on this occasion (10/1) and a former SFC finalist himself, McGeehan was all but happy to acknowledge the task that stood ahead of them.
When asked was this his toughest challenge to date, he replied: “It is, there is no doubt about it, out of all the games I have managed. I think in every Championship game we have played this year, we have been the underdogs, bar maybe the Killybegs game.
“This game is taking it to another level, they have been one of the favourites for the Championship and all you have to do is look at their team sheet and understand why.
“They have been very focused down there this year, they have a deep squad, so absolutely it is our biggest challenge, and we’re under no illusions that is the case, but we are going to try and ask a few questions of our own to Ghaoth Dobhair that maybe they haven’t been asked this year,” McGeehan said.
MacCumhallis have been in good spirits all week since they reached their first semi-final in 14 years last Saturday and McGeehan insisted they were trying to enjoy the moment.
“We’re trying to enjoy this week because all of them are playing in their first senior semi-final,” he said. “Sometimes you can get caught up on these things too much and I was lucky enough to play in a couple myself and I probably didn’t enjoy them as much as I should have.
“I have told the lads to enjoy the feeling, embrace the moment, and come Sunday we will try and get our game faces on,” he added.
“The mood is good in the camp, we are looking forward to it, we know we’re up against it, but we’re looking forward to putting our best foot forward.”
McGeehan and his men were quietly confident going into last weeks quarter-final tie against St Michaels, but the MacCumhallis manager was rather apprehensive when discussing Ghaoth Dobhair, who won their quarter-final by a 16-point margin against Division 2 champions Realt na Mara.
“No disrespect to St Michael’s but I think we’re facing a totally different beast this weekend,” he said.
“Ghaoth Dobhair has been the best team in Donegal this year by a country mile, we have been chatting about this team for the last three months, they’re a very focused bunch.
“We’re trying not to get drawn up too much on Ghaoth Dobhair, we will go on that pitch on Sunday and be as competitive as we possibly can be, but we know the size of the task is enormous.
“They are raging hot favourites for the championship and are a contender for the Ulster title.”
Essential last week for MacCumhallis was their fast start against St Michaels but McGeehan insisted his team will need a more ‘balanced’ start this time around.
“In a game, it is obviously nice to get a good start, but I always say to the boys, it is very very hard to win a game in the first ten minutes but sometimes you can lose a game in the first ten minutes,” he added.
“It is all about striking that balance and a good start this week entails that we’re well set-up and we stay in the game for as long as possible and see how it goes from there.”
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