McCormack hoping Sleacht Néill have a deeper pick

By Michael McMullan

SLEACHT Néill hurlers take on Banagher in Saturday’s semi-final with their Derry and Ulster titles on the line.

Manager Paul McCormack hopes the extra depth created during the league season will be a help when he looks to his squad.

The Emmet’s are league champions and also were winners of the Early Season League, a competition played without county players.

“I suppose just a reset and to try and start fresh and give everybody a clean slate,” McCormack said of the champions’ approach to his third year as manager.

It was about getting as many players action that didn’t feature during their run to the All-Ireland semi-final at heel of 2025.

“There’s a huge pool of players in Sleacht Néill and that’s credit to the systems in the club; the structures and young men are looking to play for the senior teams.”

Last season’s group format allowed McCormack to tinker with his squad without leaving players ineligible for reserve championship hurling.

Last weekend’s comfortable win over Na Magha was knockout and forced a different selection approach, while they did start without Brendan Rogers, Chrissy and Karl McKaigue.

“With county players away and schools’ players, we’re blessed and fortunate to have the amount of players in the club to play in those early season games,” McCormack added.

“Competition drives standards and a lot of them want to play and get into the senior panel. We want to encourage the younger men to be better than where they’re at.

“To do that they need to play and need to take part in our in-house training to get up the standards that the senior men have set so successfully over the last number of years.”

The long-term look is having more players capable of playing senior hurling when the championship cut and thrust begins with Banagher this weekend.

“It’s complex in terms of trying to fit all the pieces of the jigsaw together in order to find our best team,” he added.

“Have we depth in the squad that is better than the last few years? Who knows, that’ll be proven in time.”