SWATRAGH’S new manager is taking a cautious approach to the season even though there are many signs to suggest that the Michael Davitt’s club could become a real force.

They beat Lavey in the opening round of the championship, they have a team filled with young talent, and AFL player Anton Tohill has returned from Australia and could soon grace the field for his club.

Kevin Madden is the Swatragh manager and takes the team along with Sean McGuckin.

He explained what the ambitions are for the side: “I think that when you take a team that has not got past the quarter-finals of the championship, albeit they have shown great promise, then your immediate goal should be to try and achieve better than has happened in previous years. But you have to be realistic.

“From our point of view it is about preparing for the next game and trying to get a game plan in place. That is how we are going to approach it. We want to finish as high up the group as possible but we have a tough game against Claudy this weekend. We want to win that then we have Sleacht Néill in the last game that will decide where we rank.”

Swatragh-Sleacht Néill games are a big deal. The latter team may have enjoyed a superb run of success in the past eight years, but their parish neighbours will be keen to test themselves in this game.

“It is one derby that I am not familiar with,” the Limavady man said.

“I have been around enough clubs to know what local derbies are like. They bring a ferocity of their own. But we are not looking any further than Claudy.”

Getting a result against Claudy would be important for Madden. He pointed out that Swatragh have never won a game in Owenbeg.

“It is important that we adapt to playing on that pitch and we take our game to Claudy. We play as much as possible on our terms and want to have as much of the ball as possible. We have to treat Claudy with respect that they deserve. They didn’t have a great result against Sleach Néill the last day.

“They didn’t have a particularly good league campaign. But sometimes that can be a dangerous team to discount. Claudy won’t fear Swatragh. We know we will have to play well to win the game, and do something that Swatragh have never done before.”

This is Madden’s first season in charge of Swatragh. He was formerly involved with Banagher in Derry but he says that he has been impressed by the team he has taken on.

“It’s so far so good in terms of the impression the boys have made on me. There is plenty of good talent there. For me it has been about pulling that talent into a disciplined game plan. We are work in progress. Swatragh haven’t been past the quarter-final in a championship in maybe 10-15 years.

“We know we are in the discussion for a team competing winning the championship but for me it is about trying to bring the best out of what we have. The way I have assessed it is that we have some really good footballers in Swatragh. When they turn up, they can give anybody a game.”

Swatragh opened their championship with a win over a Lavey team who would have been expected to get a result having been in the final three years ago.

“The conditions didn’t help either of the two teams. From our point of view it was about respecting what Lavey were going to bring to the table and trying to make ourselves difficult to break down. We targeted those things. It wasn’t a high scoring game. We knew that our managment of the ball, particularly in the last quarter, was going to be important. Our discipline in the tackle was going to be important as well. We did those two things particularly well.

“At the same time, we created lots of chances that we took. It is only one game. It is not a knockout championship this year, you just want to finish as high up the group as possible. So it was a good start.”

The Swatragh team includes some very talented players. Madden noted that the team is built around families such as the McAtamneys, McWilliams, and Kearneys.

“There is a big family dynamic there which is great.”

Another famous family in Swatragh is the Tohills, and the news that Anton Tohill has returned from the AFL recently has been well documented in the press.

Tohill has played one match with Collingwood this season having signed a one-year deal with the club last December. He is back in Ireland and could feature for Swatragh very soon.

“He has been training and we are hoping he will become available. He hasn’t been training with the squad but he has been at every single session. I would nearly say he has been the first man on the pitch every night. He has been a real presence around the place, although he hasn’t got fully involved in the training. He is well-liked and well respected. His coming home has lifted the team.”