Clann Eireann have already created a slice of history this season by capturing their first ever Division 1A league title.
Captain Conor McConville had the honour of lifting the cup, although his grandfather Seamus had some arguments.
“My Granda, he argues, they won the league when it was split into three separate parts of the county, but this is our first all-county one.
“We’re delighted with the result and especially the performance the other night,” said the Clann Eireann midfielder.
The 2021 SFC winners fell at the first hurdle last season, losing to Mullaghbawn in the opening round.
But McConville is confident that they can bounce back this season. “I think it just wasn’t a good performance.
“We let ourselves down and probably our managers as well. I think we went 26 minutes without scoring or something along those lines. It just didn’t happen to us.
“You saw with Kerry even, it’s very hard to go back-to-back and maybe the hunger wasn’t there, but we can definitely feel it in the training this year.
“I probably preferred the knockout; you live and die by the result. Last year it didn’t go our way but the year before obviously it did. The round robin could be good.
“It’ll be good to get a wee bit of momentum in the championship and maybe work on a few things. But it’s hard to beat that do or die football.”
Clann Eireann have plenty of momentum heading into the championship but know how difficult a campaign it could be.
“We saw the other night as a great bit of championship preparation,” added McConville. “It was more or less a league final and we really wanted to win the silverware.
“We got a good performance and I think it’ll give us good momentum going into the championship.
“We won the championship from 1B, and a lot of those teams are well capable of being Division 1A teams. It’s a wide-open championship, it’s as wide open as I can remember.”
