ENNISKILLEN Gaels Coach Simon Bradley feels that the club are about to embark on a new chapter following their Intermediate Championship win over Maguiresbridge on Saturday night.

This is a young side, back-boned by the team that won the Ulster Minor Club title a couple of years ago, and Bradley is hoping that they can continue to push on and improve in the years ahead.

“I think this is a new chapter for Enniskillen Gaels,” said Bradley.

“The team from the late ’90s and early 2000s has dominated everybody’s memory down there, but people are now looking forward to seeing what this group of players can do.

“Hopefully, with the redevelopment plans for the club, all that sort of stuff can go in tandem, and we can have an adventurous maybe ten years here with this group.

“The club have been brilliant this year in giving us everything that we have asked for, and that has been a huge help and I know that they will continue to back the team.”

Getting out of the Intermediate Championship was the main goal for the Gaels this season, and although delighted to have achieved that aim, Bradley is fully aware that there are big strides to be taken if they are to compete in the Senior Championship over the next few years.

“I have been saying all year, winning the championship with this team was going to be difficult because it was their first adult competition that they were really going for but they have done it and done it in some style, albeit they shifted four goals.

“We are happy to get out of the Intermediate and back into Senior, but it is not going to be easy. There are no guarantees that you stay there – you have to play well and you have to kick on, and this team needs to kick on.

“We saw the intensity of the senior final, and that shows us where we have to get to.

“But, I’m delighted for John [Reihill] and Dara [McManus] that they have got over the line after a couple of disappointments in the Intermediate.”

And Bradley says that as a group, the squad are eager to succeed and to continue to improve.

“The players are hungry for success.

“They listen to everything you tell them, they are doing everything you ask them to do, and they are very focused on what they want to do over the next three or four years so, from that perspective, they are a pleasure to work with.

“We just hope that they stay injury-free and stay local, and we will still be looking to develop our panel and bring more players in.

“We have a good squad. When we lost two players to injury in the first half, we were able to bring another two good players in, and we had more good players on the bench. We want to continue to improve the squad,” he said.

Enniskillen will have been disappointed to have coughed up four goals, but Bradley says that their main focus this year was on the other end of the pitch.

“In fairness to our boys, we have only scratched the surface of defensive set up. We only really looked at it in the last two or three weeks because we had been looking at the other end of the pitch.

“We had only been averaging something like 1-08 in the last three years in the championship, so we knew we had to score more and that was our focus.

“But we are under no illusions about what is needed – defensively, we have to be tighter, more organised and more disciplined for Senior Championship,” he added.

Targeted goals

There were no such problems in an attacking sense, with Enniskillen hitting 5-17, and Bradley admits that they had targeted goals.

“We did feel that, with our inside forward line and our potential to win the ball in the middle of the pitch, that we had an opportunity to seek goals. Five was a bonus, but we did think that there would be an opportunity for goals, and we worked on that in training.”

And, as he eluded to, the forwards were given a platform by the hard work in the middle of the park through Brandon Horan and Eoin Beacom.

“Eoin and Brandon really stood up. Obviously, losing Niall Carson was a blow for Maguiresbridge, but they had plenty of experience in there, so for two young lads – they took the role and responsibility on, and they allowed the rest of the players to go on and play,” he commented.

Maguiresbridge Manager David Teague felt that Enniskillen’s strength in depth told on the night.

“It was very disappointing. We were going there to win the game; we felt we were well capable of doing it, but the quality in their 15 and the people they were able to bring on just showed in the end,” he said.

The ’Bridge did cause the Gaels problems as they scored four goals, but at the other end they conceded five. However, Teague says that they stuck with the game plan that had served them well, to date.

“People were saying that we would have to be more defensive against them, which is probably true, but we had six days to prepare and we weren’t going to change our game plan that we have been doing the whole year, which is backing ourselves. We did that, and we did cause them plenty of problems.”

For some of the Maguiresbridge players, this was a third Intermediate final defeat, but Teague is adamant that they are capable of winning.

“I feel that there is an Intermediate Championship in these boys, and I hope the older boys stay on. We know the level that Enniskillen are at, and I don’t believe that anyone coming down are as good as them,” he said.