Cuchulainns no longer ‘also-rans’
Cuchulainns have enjoyed quite the run over the last 12 months.
A first Intermediate Championship in 20 years was followed by a provincial run that took them all the way to the Ulster final. Those successes of 2025 were confidently backed up this term with their first ever ACFL Division 1 title.
Along the way the Cross and Mullagh outfit notched up wins over the Cavan’s football elite- Crosserlough were felled in the league semi-final, while a thrilling final saw them overcome Gowna.
Given this sustained run of form, the Celt suggests that Cuchulainns may have forced themselves into the discussion as championship contenders. But manager Niall Lynch is having none of it.
“I don’t know if people would even put as contenders. We wouldn’t have been favourites for the Intermediate Championship for the past couple of years, so you would hardly go from not being favourites for Intermediate to being contenders for senior championship,” he surmises.
“But look, we’ll give it a good run. The boys have gained a bit of confidence from the league semi-final and final, which were knock-out games against seasoned senior teams,” he says before adding: “We’ve a lot of work to do to get up to the standard of competing in the senior championship.”
The thrilling win over Gowna was all the more noteworthy as it was achieved without either Ryan Tobin or Niall Carolan. The latter is now playing football in the States for at least some of this championship season.
Asked for a defining match which put Cuchulainns on this upward trajectory, Lynch takes us back to the latter stages of the Cavan Intermediate Championship. They demolished neighbours Killinkere in the semi-final, and then had six points to spare over Butlersbridge in collecting the cup. For Lynch, those performances instilled “a much greater belief” within the group.
Then in Ulster they played “one of the games of the season” to hold on against Tyrone champions Clonoe. The provincial final ultimately saw them succumb to Glenullin.
“Unfortunately we were devastated in the Ulster final not to give a better account of ourselves,” he recalls of the bruising defeat in dreadful conditions.
While Lynch is eager to harness the confidence gained from their many recent victories, he’s determined to learn lessons too from the defeat to the Derry champions.
“Glenullin were a seasoned Division 1 team in Derry and they probably had more fight on the day than we had. We had plenty of heart for the battle, but they seemed to be able to dig it out a bit better.
“It was something we reflected on as a group and we really wanted to improve from last year. Our guys aren’t happy just being ‘also-rans’.”
First up for Cuchulainns in their Senior Championship adventure is Laragh on Saturday evening.
“They have a new manager in Danny Brady, lots of experience, won championships as a player and manager – look we’ll have our work cut out.”
A heavy workload isn’t something that will worry this Cuchulainns crop.
“The age profile of the group, in the near future some guys will be retiring, some guys will be looking to go travelling, so you really have to give it everything when you have a group – and at the moment we have a group of very ambitious players, and we are just hoping to do our best in this championship.”