Cuchullain’s hoping to make Ulster appearance count

By Michael McMullan

CUCHULLAINNS have been knocking on the door in Cavan long enough to know two things.

Winning the Cavan titles has to be enjoyed, but they also need to take a serious look at their forthcoming Ulster Intermediate Championship campaign.

Cuchullains take on Irvinestown on Saturday in Kingspan Breffni as part of a double-header with Kingscourt’s clash with Erne Gaels.

“If you’re training this time of the year, you’re in a good place,” said midfielder Philip Smyth at the recent Ulster Championship launch evening.

“The week after the final was great and we had time to enjoy it. We had a good lay-off, we’re three weeks now from it so we’ve got a lot of time to settle after it.”

By the following Tuesday, they were back in training and this week will be about tapering back ahead of Saturday’s encounter.

Before the championship thickened up in Cavan, Cuchullains were tipped for glory but it has been a bumpy road to get there.

They found themselves in the 2017 senior relegation where Lacken sent them to intermediate after a play-off.

After dusting themselves down, they reached the intermediate final the following year, losing to a Mullahoran team who went all the way to the Ulster final.

“We’ve been in semi-finals since,” Smyth pointed out. “A couple of years we missed getting out of the group, but we’ve been there about the last few years.

“We had two semi-final replays in 2022 and 2024. We had the final loss in 2018 and in 2020 and 2023 we didn’t get out of the group.

“We have been fairly close apart from those two years. Really, we felt it was this year or bust for us and we were delighted to get over the line finally.”

The story has been about never being a million miles away without being able to claw themselves to another final to give them a chance.

Smyth points to both their management’s impact and getting the hard yards on the training field as their golden passport to ending the trophy drought.

“We knew we were in a good enough place,” he added. “We were in Division One and we did relatively well in the league.

“Things began to come together and the younger lads that got a bit older.”

After years of the scales tipping, this season was relatively smooth in the group stages.

After two wins, they had a battle before getting over Drumgoon who ended up in the relegation final with Lacken.

“We were down by six points in that game,” Smyth said of their 1-17 to 1-15 win over Drumgoon.

“That was one we dug out. In previous years things might have spiralled from being down like that.

“Maybe that was a case where we knew we’d matured a bit, or we knew we were fit to win those type of games.

“You could look at that as a turning point. I don’t think there was any major emphasis put on any part of the year as being a significant part, we battled through pretty well.”