Fermanagh’s Barry Mulrone admits that it has been a disappointing conclusion to the 2018 season for the team as their campaign was ended with a heavy defeat to Kildare on Saturday evening.
Fermanagh had been hoping to put the disappointment of the loss to Donegal in the Ulster final behind them and progress through to the Super 8s but Mulrone accepts that they were second best against Lilywhites in Navan.
“It was a very disappointing finish to the season,” he said.
“We felt we didn’t do ourselves justice in the Ulster final and we had a second chance against Kildare to prove ourselves but we fell well short. The goal after the Ulster final loss was to get into the Super 8s but it didn’t materialise and Kildare were by far the better team on the day. They were very clinical throughout the game while we missed chances in the first half that we should probably have converted.”
Indeed, Fermanagh had as many scoring chances as Kildare in the first half but went in at the break trailing 1-13 to 0-05.
“I seen somewhere that we had 18 scoring chances in the first half, the same as Kildare, but we didn’t execute well enough. We know that our conversion rate hasn’t been good enough, and it is something that definitely needs to be worked on.”
Mulrone, who enjoyed a strong championship campaign, felt Fermanagh had regrouped well after the final defeat.
“There is a lot of emotion put into an Ulster final and it can be tough to get yourself lifted back up after that. I thought though that we trained well for the two weeks after the final defeat, it went as well as it could have. We could have had an early goal but it came off the crossbar and they then got a goal which was a blow. As I say, they were very clinical.”
The Devenish man believes though that it has been a good year for Fermanagh.
“The goal set out was to get ourselves into Division Two and to get ourselves playing against a better standard of teams. We also wanted to win in Ulster and we did that against Armagh and Monaghan but although it was a good experience to get to the final it was very disappointing not to have got the win and probably one that will always live with us. Overall, though, when you look at it, it was a successful year.”
The half back has also thoroughly enjoyed working under Rory Gallagher and his management team and the knowledge they brought to the set up.
“I’ve probably learnt more this year than I have done in my entire inter-county career and I don’t say that lightly because I’ve played under some good managers. The amount they make you think about the game, about your own personal performance and what you put into the whole thing, it has brought me on leaps and bounds. I’ve really enjoyed it, they are great lads to work under,” he commented.
And Mulrone has no doubt that Fermanagh will develop their game further next season.
“Everyone has this perception that Rory is all defensive, but he is an attacking manager, he and Shane would be attack minded while Ryan would be more the defensive side of things. 
“I suppose the thing you need to sort first when you get into a team is that defensive solidity and the next phase now will be to work on our general play up front. At times it has been good but at other times against the bigger teams it hasn’t and it is not just the forwards,  everyone from the full back line up has to attack as well. It is definitely something that can be brought on,” he added.
Those defeats to Kildare and Donegal were hard to take but it shows Mulrone and his team mates where they have to get to if they are to challenge them and posting bigger scores is one thing that he acknowledges they need to do.
“Realistically, against some teams if you are defensively good enough you can win games by kicking 13 or 14 points but against the bigger teams you need to maybe be kicking 1-16 or more. Unfortunately we haven’t done that as often as we would have liked this year but hopefully we can push that on next year.”
Now it will be a well earned rest from inter-county football for the Fermanagh players as they return to their clubs while Mulrone will also have other things to keep him occupied.
“It has been a long year so you need a bit of time to relax with the family and we have our second child due in January so it is something to look forward to.”