Dual players savour result
EASKEY captain Rory McHugh reckons that losing to CoolaneyMullinabreena in the group stage of this year’s Connacht Gold Intermediate Football Championship was a wake-up call for last year’s finalists.
The midfielder said: “We knew that we were well prepared coming into this final and maybe in other years we were coasting through the groups and then getting caught in the knockout stages.
“Maybe it was a good thing that we lost to Coolaney-Mullinabreena [in a Group One fixture], it gave us the kick up the a*** that we needed.
“In other years we lost games in the group and then couldn’t recover for the semi-finals.”
Of the 19 players that Easkey used in last Sunday’s final, eight of them started the recent Sligo Senior Hurling Championship decider against Naomh Eoin, a game that Easkey (with players from their west Sligo neighbours St Farnan’s) won. McHugh had both hurling and Gaelic football commitments and he also hurls for Sligo.
With two county titles in the one season, Easkey are keeping the fires brightly lit on two fronts – Gaelic football and hurling. They are also the only Sligo club to contest AllIreland finals in both of these codes. Andrew Kilcullen, another of Easkey’s dual stars, was named Sligo captained Easkey to victory last Sunday and his teammate was named Player of the Match.
GAA’s Player of the Match (POTM) last Sunday at Markievicz Park. This accolade goes along with his POTM prize from the county hurling final triumph.
He stated: “I felt like we controlled the whole game [against CoolaneyMullinabreena], but you never know because they could have got a late goal or something could have happened so I wasn’t happy until the final whistle was blown.”
“We’ve have a few years of losing