‘Our boys will take a lot learnings for the next round’ – Maxi Curran

Maxi Curran praises his young ATU Donegal side’s resilience despite facing a physically dominant opposition in MYU Cork in the opening round of the Sigerson Cup

By Daire Walsh

Despite acknowledging his side were second best to their Leeside opponents on the night, ATU Donegal manager Maxi Curran was able to take some positives from a Sigerson Cup round one defeat to MTU Cork in Abbotstown on Friday night.

In a game that was initially set to take place two days earlier in the National Games Development Centre, ATU found themselves 1-6 to 0-0 adrift after facing into a stiff breeze for the duration of the opening half.

The Donegal college gave themselves a fighting chance on the resumption with three unanswered points from Luke McGlynn, Reid Kelly, and Daniel Marley before their Cork counterparts ultimately prevailed on a score of 1-10 to 0-6.

Curran felt their Munster rivals were the more ‘physically mature’ of the two sides on show in Abbotstown, but with the likes of McGlynn and Fionnan Coyle enjoying a considerable impact off the bench, he remained upbeat ahead of his charges entering the Sigerson Cup round two losers section next week.

“Our boys will take a lot out of that tonight, there will be a right bit of learning as we head for round two now next week,” Curran remarked after the game.

“Luke McGlynn played the second half there and made a massive difference when he came on. He and Fionnan Coyle added a real injection of pace in our half-forward line.

“That definitely caused Cork a few problems. I just think ultimately we left ourselves with too much of a mountain to climb after going 1-6 down and they just put us to the sword as the game went on then. There was a very, very clear difference in the physique level of the two teams.

“They were a much bigger, more physically mature team. We just watched them coming out here and there’s an awful lot of huge men, whereas we have a lot of kids.

They [ATU Donegal] are first and second years in college and that. They [MTU Cork] are maybe second and third year, so it doesn’t help matters. Listen, the best team won on the night, we’ve no complaints.”