By Shaun Casey

AN appearance in the Division One league final awaits Magheracloone once the championship campaigns ends, and manager Damian Feeney has been delighted with the progress his side have made.

Magheracloone won the Intermediate Championship last season, gaining access to top tier football for 2025. They certainly found their feet following two early defeats to Corduff and Scotstown (who’ll they’ll face in the decider) and have gone unbeaten since May 3rd.

On reaching the league final, Feeney said: “It’s a huge achievement. We jumped on the crest of a wave after the success of last year. We wanted to come up to senior football as championship winners and we felt that we should go and give it a go.

“There was no talk of relegation or trying to stay up, it was more of keeping the momentum going and we’ll see where we land. Thankfully the boys have all stood up, they’re a great bunch of lads, very young, all willing to learn and all very coachable.

“It was a big challenge and a huge step up from intermediate up to senior football. We’re well aware that teams with county players weren’t at full strength and we had a few county players ourselves at the start of the season.

“We were missing Dylan Byrne and Packie Doogan Burke was in the u-20s and then straight into the senior set-up, so we were down a couple of men too and it was difficult to get to grips with it early doors.”

First up is the championship and Magheracloone have a bye in the opening round. After that, they face tough tests against Latton, Inniskeen, Ballybay and Aughnamullen, but Feeney’s men are looking forward to the challenge.

“We have taken the approach, the same as last year, that we’re blooding young players through, we’re still trusting them and none of those players have let us down,” the Armagh native added.

“The reserves are in the Division One county final again on Friday night and if we win that we’ll go back-to-back. Then next Tuesday night we’re in the Reserve League final against Scotstown so the boys are getting plenty of football.

“We’re under no illusions that the championship is going to be very difficult for us with all the county players back and all the teams getting back to full strength, all we can do is give it a rattle and see where we land.”