It has been all about championship this year for Seamus Ryder (pictured right) and his Erne Gaels charges.

Last year they won the Division One title and followed it up by reaching the SFC final where they were well beaten by Enniskillen on the day.

The focus though in 2023 has been about getting back to another final and this time going a step further.

“That has been the aim since last year, we focused on the championship. The boys weren’t that worried about the league but championship focused the mind.

“We had a stop start league with lads away on holidays and injuries and stuff so it was hard to gauge where we were at but I think there was two or three games left in the league and we just knuckled down. We had a five or six week window where we put a big block of training in, we had a few challenge matches and we just focused and we were well tuned in by the time that first championship match against Belnaleck came round,” he said.

The Erne Gaels boss does feel though that his squad is better equipped this year.

“That was the only thing about the league, we got to see a couple of lads in different positions and we knew the likes of Ultan O’Reilly, Aoghan Kelm, Odhran Johnston who were only 19 or 20 last year would be a year older and a year stronger so there would be an automatic improvement there. But then others have also stepped up. Luke (Ryder) stepped up, Ben McCann hasn’t played much in championship but has really helped push it on in training, Paul McCaffrey didn’t feature much last year but has knuckled down and been a big asset,” he commented.

Ryder accepted his side didn’t perform in the final last year but he believes the experience of having played on the big day will help his side while he also thinks that the quick lead up to Sunday’s final is also preferable.

“We didn’t perform well last year but you have to give credit to Enniskillen last year as well, there was a reason why we didn’t perform, it was because they performed so well and took our key men out, and that can happen.

“I think the experience of last year will help us but there is a different opponent, a different lead up to it. I think last year it ended up a three week break and I don’t think we are great after a long break, but this year we are straight into it and I think that suits us,” he stated.

The Harps got the better of the earlier championship meeting between the sides but Ryder knows this will be a different game.

“It was tough conditions and I’m not going to lie, we wanted to win that day, but we know that we didn’t start well and left ourselves too much to do, a bit like the final last year. When you give these teams big leads it is hard to claw your way back.

“We’ll take a bit from it but it is a completely different game, there will be different scenarios in play and probably different personnel in different positions.”

That game was followed by a slender win over 13 man Ederney before they avenged last year’s final defeat by knocking Enniskillen out last weekend to reach the final. Ryder believes that both those games are ones that they may have lost year.

“I felt that Ederney managed that game brilliantly when they went down to 13 men and we found it hard to get momentum. When you look at that game, they scored a goal to go two up and maybe another year or earlier this year we would have crumbled and not won that game but we went up and from our net four shots scored four points and that helped us. Then we got a late winner when Ultan stepped up.

“Against Enniskillen we got a good start but they got it back to a point and again maybe last year we would have panicked and let them get the lead but on Sunday there was no panic at half time.

“We where were we wanted to be, we were a point up. We knew it would go down to the wire and we were comfortable in that.”

Erne Gaels biggest test though comes this Sunday when they take on a Derrygonnelly side who have dominated football in Fermanagh for close to a decade.

“I can’t ever remember beating Derrygonnelly in the championship. We have beaten everyone else who has been playing in the senior championship this last two or three years, it is just Derrygonnelly left so it would be a nice final step to take on Sunday,” he said.

And Sunday is all about winning for Ryder, no mater what way it comes.

“We will look to get our match ups right and just win, whatever way we can win.

“Whether it is a shoot out or a tight game we just have to adapt to it and come out on top of it,” he concluded.