Drumquin are itching to get season underway

HAVING languished in the Junior ranks for nearly two decades, Drumquin are keen to make the most of their forthcoming campaign in the heady heights of Division Two.

That’s the message of Darren Mullan, who remains at the helm of the Wolfe Tones alongside Declan Armstrong and Stephen Ferguson, the trio who overseen last year’s surge to the Division Three title.

They get their first Intermediate campaign in 18 years underway this Friday night against Eglish at Páirc Chormaic and Mullan says everyone involved with the club can’t wait to get started.

“It’s been a long time so there’s a lot of excitement around the village, the boys have worked hard and have done everything we’ve asked of them. The whole camp, including the players and managers are really looking forward to it as it’s been a long pre-season.”

“We’ve a strong panel of players, there’s good, strong characters there, and we’re more than confident going into the start of the league, but we’ll just take each game as it comes and see where it takes us.”

Drumquin participated in the expanded Jim Devlin Cup competition, which brought Senior and Intermediate teams together, testing themselves against Gortin, the Rock and Trillick. It was a useful endeavour, even if their game against Trillick ended in a bruising defeat.

“It was always going to be tough but it was useful for us to get up to speed with the new rules. We’d a couple of challenge games as well.

“I think it was a great idea by the County Board to include Intermediate teams this year – we were taught a harsh lesson against Trillick, but it’s about learning, taking the positives and negatives and working on what we can do better.”

Mullan was a stalwart of Tattyreagh during his playing days but is married into Drumquin and has lived there for more than a decade. Declan Armstrong is also from Tattyreagh, while Stephen Ferguson managed the Tatts to back-back-back championship titles in 2017 and 2018 alongside Stephen McHugh.

Mullan got involved with Drumquin, coaching at underage level, before taking the senior job alongside Armstrong and Ferguson, and they had a hugely successful first season in charge. Time will tell how they fare at Intermediate level, but it’s a good place to be.

“Intermediate is always very very competitive. You’ll always look at the teams coming down from Division One and think they’re going to be up there, but there’s so many teams that if they get it together they can push on. For ourselves we just take each game as it comes and we’ll see where it takes us.”

Five other Division Two contests go ahead this weekend, each of those pushed back to Sunday evening so as not to clash with the Tyrone U20s All-Ireland semi-final contest with Kerry earlier in the afternoon. The matches involving clubs with players in the U20s squad have been postponed.

Division Two has a strong look about it this season especially given the relegation of those once formidable powerhouses and fierce local rivals- Clonoe and Coalisland- from the senior ranks last year.

The Fianna open with a lengthy trek to Glenmornan to tackle Owen Roes, while the Rahillys are away to Rock.