Dunnaman will start the new Mid Ulster League season with a new managerial team at the helm, as Christopher Mulligan, assisted by Adrian Hodnett and Darragh Campbell, look to guide the Mourne Esplanade outfit out of Division Two.
Pre-season preparations have been typically limited for Dunnaman, with the majority of Mulligan’s squad tied up playing Gaelic football for Ballymartin, Atticall, Longstone and An Riocht. “Most of our boys are dual players, so there’s a lot of Gaelic going on coming into championship time. It can be difficult to navigate in terms of implementing your style of play in pre-season, and in pre-season games, it looks like we’re only going to have one or two pre-season games then we’re straight into the season. Those boys could be training two nights a week and then a game on a Friday, it’s a lot of football, so you have to understand that and try and protect them as best you can,” Mulligan, who has taken over from Ryan McMillan, explained.
It’s something Dunnaman have had to deal with since the club’s formation back in 2014, so it isn’t a cause for concern, with former Kilkeel Athletic player Mulligan saying: “Pre-season doesn’t worry me too much, they’re a fit team, so the boys can get their soccer feet on quickly enough.”
The Mourne side have scrapped their reserve team this year, meaning there’ll be more young additions to an already youthful-looking Dunnaman side. Teenagers like Padraig Clarke, James McComiskey, Callum McKibben, Declan Fearon and Dylan Marsh will have an important role to play, guided by senior players like James Reilly, Aidan Colgan, Rian Cunningham, Shane McDowell and Ryan Mackey.
Michael Harper will lead the line up front, and he, alongside Dunnaman’s other forward players, will have to fill the void left by Jack Rodgers. Last season’s top scorer, Rodgers, has left the club to join Windmill Stars. “I think possibly it’s one area (attack) where we can afford to lose a player, but he’s (Rodgers) still a quality player and you’d rather have him than not have him. It is a void to try and fill, but I’m confident that another one or two can step up and take on the role,” the new manager explained.
Mulligan, who joined Dunnaman as a player seven years ago, described the upcoming season as a “transition year.” “It is going to be a transition year, trying to blood a lot of younger players into the team and get them a bit of experience of Mid Ulster League football. There’s about 24–25 boys in the group at the minute, and the good thing about that is, there’s 15 academy players there – boys that have played for the club from the ages of 14, 15, 16 right up through. There’s a good core group of younger players coming through there with a blend of more experienced players. On average, it’s a pretty young team – even the players I’d count as experienced are still young, they’ve played a lot of senior football right from the age of 17.”
Despite the age of Mulligan’s squad, last season’s first team assistant coach has no doubts about their quality and wants his team to go one step further than last season – setting his sights on Division One promotion in what is the club’s second season in Division Two.
Dunnaman were in the conversation for the Division Two title at a point but dropped off the pace towards the end of last season, losing out to Damolly and West End Hibs in the promotion chase. Mulligan said: “We tailed away towards the end of last season because of an accumulation of injuries and we were unlucky in some games too, but we weren’t far off it (promotion) – we’re quietly looking to build on that. I’ve seen a lot of the players in underage teams, and I know their capabilities, they should be there or thereabouts. Come the end of the league campaign, we could be in with a shout. It’s definitely the aim going forward, we have a good enough team there to go up and, I believe, to hold our own in Division One.”
Read the full preview of the Mid Ulster League in the current issue of the Mourne Observer. The preview includes analysis of Annalong, Ballyvea, Dunnaman, and Valley Rangers Reserves.
To read the digital edition, download the Mourne Observer app – for apple click here – for android click here
