Bunting enjoying his time with Bredagh

By Shaun Casey

BREDAGH are flying high at the top of Division Two but the job is far from finished and Deaglan Bunting, who manages the team alongside Kieran McGourty, knows there’s a lot of football still to be played.

Of the first nine games, Bredagh have picked up eight wins with their solitary loss coming against An Riocht, but Bunting’s side have had the comfort of playing the majority of their games on home turf.

With the second half of the campaign getting underway on Friday night, with Bredagh making the trip to St John’s, who are bottom of the pile, they’ll be keen to continue their winning form and pick up another two points.

“We’ve probably been a wee bit lucky, of our first nine fixtures, six of them have been at home,” said Bunting. “That has given us a slight advantage but it’s a really competitive Division Two league.

“There are some clubs with really big reputations and in our last four or five games, there’s been a kick of the ball everyone. The likes of Castlewellan, Bryansford, Glenn, Rostrevor, An Riocht, Saval, Longstone have all been up in Division One over the past few years.

“It’s a really tough second part of the season coming up. We’ve played well up to this stage, but we know that it’s only half the job done and we need to try to finish it off as best we possibly can.

“With the amount of travelling for Bredagh, a Belfast club, there’s a lot of journeys and a lot of it will come down to mentality and that’s what’s going to be required in the second half of the season, but I’d back the players to do that.”

Bunting and McGourty only took charge of the side two weeks before the season started last term, so with a pre-season under their belts in 2025, the pair have really begun to find their feet at the Bredagh club.

The team reached the last eight of the Down Senior Championship last year, seeing off Loughinisland after extra-time to get to that stage, but eventual finalists Burren halted ended their campaign, winning by three in the quarter-final.

“We lost six players to America and Australia last year, but we got a
few of them back for the championship and we got the county hurlers and footballers back too and had a good championship run,” Bunting added.

“I think it was the furthest Bredagh had got to in a long time in the Senior Championship and we were unlucky to be beaten by Burren. We were eight or nine down at ten minutes, but we were outstanding after that and realised we could compete at that level.

“It’s small steps and we know the players a lot better this year. We got a pre-season with them and hopefully that’ll leave us in a better place than we were last year.”