Baxter: 'Everyone has stood up to the mark'

JFC final build-up

Denn manager Stephen Baxter has experience of winning a Junior Championship, having guided home club Ballymachugh to the title in 2017, and he knows that nothing comes easy in this grade.

From that point of view, he was surprised that his team had so much to spare over a good Shannon Gaels side in last Sunday’s semi-final.

“We’re delighted with it, I wasn’t expecting that sort of performance from the lads, I thought it would be closer than that. We came into it with the utmost respect for Shannon Gaels and rightly so,” Baxter told The Anglo-Celt after the semi-final.

“They have quality all over the place and they are bringing young lads through. There is a lot of talent at junior level and it’s testament to all the teams at that level that they are working so hard on their underage. If you look at the Shannon Gaels management team, they were going to be very well prepared as well.

“We got off to a good start, we took our scores and it was probably the best performance we had this year and that’s the most pleasing thing. Two weeks’ rest probably did us the world of good as well.”

The combination of youth and experience has worked well for Denn. Up top, the likes of the Donohoe brothers, Cavell Keogan and Ben Conaty are in the first bracket whereas in other areas, including on the bench, there are plenty of seasoned campaigners.

It all adds up to a potent mix.

“Youthful enthusiasm or whatever you want to call it, it’s brilliant. But we talked about everyone needing to stand up to the mark and they did.

“In fairness to Martin Cahill, he’s a good lad behind the scenes as well. We have a panel there of around 40, it was an absolute nightmare when the tickets were scarce. In fairness to the lads, they kept working hard, there’s no blaggards behind the scenes. One of the things that took me to Denn is that they are all good lads, good country lads, they are all working lads and they did that on the field as well.”

Things didn’t go according to plan for Denn in recent years and the motivation was sky high this time around.

“I think there were injuries last year and the boys felt they let themselves down so it’s to my benefit really that I got the rebound from that. In fairness, it’s such a young team, the amount of underage work going on in Denn is great.

“You see it every night when we are training, there are always young lads out on the field and there is always coaching going on as well.

“I love standing back and watching coaches, you always learn something. There’s good people in Denn and to see it coming through is absolutely brilliant.”

Ironically, the lockdown worked in Denn’s favour to an extent because some players who had intended travelling for the summer ended up staying at home, which boosted the squad.

“It probably has because there were a couple of lads talking about going away and you can’t blame them, they are young lads, but they ended up hanging around and they worked hard in that period as well in fairness to them.”

Is the short run-in going to prove challenging?

“I’ll tell you next Sunday! The boys are in good shape but there were a few boys pulling up with injuries and sore there towards the end. It is a quick turnaround but as I said to the lads, you have to enjoy this week, it doesn’t come around too often.

“We’ll prepare and look after ourselves and see who we get and we’ll pay the absolute utmost respect to them. They’re level-headed lads and all that has happened throughout the year between Covid and all the other stuff, you don’t worry about the final. We’ll go and enjoy it.”