By Shaun Casey

AFTER the county championships were wrapped up and Ulster loomed on the horizon, Emyvale stood out above the rest competing at junior level. Of the nine clubs involved, they were the only one that had actually gone all the way before. Twice.

The class of ’09 and ’13 brought the Paul Kerr Cup back to Emyvale and now in 2025, Owen and Brendan Lennon are hoping to guide the Monaghan champions back to provincial glory.

They’ve already got one win under their belts with a first-round victory over Carndonagh. It certainly wasn’t straightforward, and they needed extra-time to see off the Donegal men, but they got the job done.

Now, it’s Cavan’s Munterconnaught that stands in their way of reaching a third Ulster JFC decider. Semi-finals are for winning and Brendan Lennon is hoping their pedigree in the competition will count for something this weekend.

They’ve already collected the two trophies that were on offer domestically, clinching the league and championship double, losing just two games throughout the entire season.

“Our target at the start of the year was to win the junior double and we hadn’t looked elsewhere. We hadn’t really had time to think about Ulster because we had the championship final, then the league final, then we were straight into it,” said Lennon “You don’t really get much time to focus on the opposition, and we picked up a couple of injuries before Ulster too which isn’t great, but that’s where your panel comes into it and we have a good panel.”

On paper, Emyvale have more than enough quality to compete well above junior level, but unfortunately, getting all their best players and star names on the field at the same time is a struggle at times.

Ryan McAnespie is on the mend having just gone through surgery following a hamstring injury picked up in Monaghan’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Donegal back in June.

Michael Hamill is also currently on the sidelines, although Emyvale have been boosted by the return of Karl Gallagher from the AFL and he was one of seven scorers that contributed to their 1-16 to 2-12 victory over Carndonagh.

“There was a lot of pressure on us within Monaghan because we were red-hot favourites to win the championship, and that was before Michael Hamill and Ryan McAnespie and these boys got injured,” Lennon continued.

“We’ve been playing all year without those boys, but the shackles are off to a certain extent. You want to keep the boys focused and stick to what they have been doing well throughout the year.

“You have to take it game by game as well and we’d love to get a real run in Ulster but that’s asmassive task, because you’re coming up against so many top-class teams at this level.”