Hueston hails Drung's 'never say die' spirit

JFC final preview

Kevin Óg Carney

Paul Hueston is convinced that Drung have enough ingredients to give Division two hotshots and co-JFC finalists Denn a lot to chew over in this Saturday’s championship decider at Kingspan Breffni Park (6pm).

Hueston is Drung’s captain and is likely to be at the heart of a mean defence which has acquitted itself exceptionally well so far this year. However, he firmly believes Saturday’s underdogs are well endowed all around the field with leaders abounding:

“We’ve a good mix in the team with good experienced lads and a crop of younger lads that includes some who have played underage football with the county.

“There’s a serious gel in the team and I think we’ve shown a great spirit all year that has helped us get to the final and now we’re there we’re aiming to win it.”

A key cog on a team “with about ten captains on it”, Drung’s official captain was a substitute back in 2008 when Drung last won the JFC by conquering Mountnugent in the decider. It was a great day for the Hueston clan as Noel and Fergal Hueston collected medals that day too while father John delighted in seeing so much of the time and energy he devoted to Drung back then duly rewarded.

Hueston, the captain, is more than hopeful that if the Dalcassians “give a good account of themselves”, they can upset the apple cart in trying to face down the red hot match favourites from Crosskeys and its surrounds.

“We’re hoping to get off to a good start, to show the fitness and discipline to stay with them and give it our best shot in the last part of the game just as we’ve done all year ‘cause we’ve finished games strongly.”

For too many years, Hueston has reflected on successive championship seasons with Drung which have been “decent” but haven’t produced anything more lucrative than quarter-final hard luck stories – four out of the last five years.

So what has made the difference this year?

“It’s hard to put your finger on it but Noel (Fitzpatrick, team manager) is a great motivator and has driven us on.

“The numbers at training have been good all year and all the lads seem to have a great hunger built up by the break from the Covid and they bought into everything Noel asked us to do right from the beginning of the year.

“Our goal at the start of this year was to make the semi-finals of the championship but we’ve done better than that and made the league semi-finals so it has been a good year already.

“Our whole focus is on the county final now and we’re only concentrating on ourselves. It didn’t matter to us who won the other semi-final.”

So there’s no knowing Hueston’s stance on where Denn stand in the pecking order. But the defender who, is neat and tidy on the ball and utterly determined – in the mode of his team manager’s modus operandi as a player from yesteryear – says that Drung’s clash with a team he does rate, on the record, earlier this year told a tale:

“Killeshandra were a different type of animal; a higher class of opposition than we had come across before and we knew we needn’t to step it up if we were to go places in the championship.

“But we’ve grown stronger as the year has gone on. We’ve shown a lot of mental strength in coming back against the odds in different matches, like the play-off against Redhills.

Hueston talks as good a game as he plays it and he reflects candidly on Drung’s defeats in the championship to Drumalee (0-7 to 1-8) in the first round; then against Mountnugent (3-13 to 4-13) in round four. He says the team’s policy is to take the positives from the campaign and he is happy to detail how the white and red brigade “turned the corner” after the loss to Mountnugent.

“We learned more from the defeats,” Hueston explains. “We worked hard at finishing the games strongly and there was a never-say-die attitude built up. The attitude in the team was to keep plugging away ‘till the very last whistle.”

A stalwart of Saint Finbarrs’ and Trinity Gaels’ underage teams in years gone by, Drung’s team-captain confesses that his collection of silverware to date is limited to an U14 league medal picked up with the aforementioned Saints.

If Hueston doesn’t double his county medal collection this Saturday, it won’t be for the want of trying.