Moycullen begin their second Superleague season on Sunday with a mouth-watering tie against last year’s league and cup champions, Killester from Dublin, at 3pm in the Kingfisher gym in NUIG.
A year ago, this young Galway side might have feared such vaunted opponents, but with the team a year older and a good showing in their pre-season games, head coach Enda Byrt is looking forward to the challenge.
“You want to play the best teams first, I’ve always believed that, and Sunday will be a great opportunity to see where we really are,” says Byrt. “We have all our Irish players back from last year and adding Mason Ambler (from Atlanta, Georgia ) will bring a whole other dimension to our play this season.”
The Moycullen outfit certainly look to have the capabilities to mount a serious play-off challenge, and Byrt will hope a solid off-season will pay dividends in what is hoped will be an interesting season for the team that was named the best supported side last year.
Sunday will test the team’s continuing maturation as they face the well-oiled machine that is Killester - the team to beat for the past five years in Ireland.
“They have a fantastic tradition of winning,” says Byrt. “They undoubtedly have some of the best players in the country and are led by an outstanding coach in Mark Keenan, but we learned a lot from our ups and downs last year and I like the energy our guys have displayed so far.
“These guys are ambitious and that showed with some terrific wins at the end of last year, including that triple over-time game against Hoops in Dublin and another against Ulster Elks in our last home game.”
Moycullen will look to their new big man, Mason Ambler from Atlanta, Georgia, to lead the way, but he will be by no means alone inside as young Stephen Tummon has continued to impress during the preseason.
Fresh from a summer with the Irish senior men’s team, Cían Nihill will again provide the main threat from the perimeter and, with Dylan Cunningham beginning to develop into a senior player, Moycullen can hope for more of a scoring punch from the wings this season.
In the back court, the lightning quickness of James Loughnane will hope to keep Killester head coach Mark Keenan sweating and, if Loughnane can find the form he was in at the end of last season when he was the player of the tournament in NUIG’s historic intervarsity win, it will go a long way to helping Moycullen cause the upset.
Since returning from his studies in the University of Limerick last year, Michael Dowd has turned into one of the leaders of this team and his composure and experience will be crucial.
However to beat a team of Killester’s quality all 12 players and the Moycullen crowd (including mascot Shooter ) will have to be in top form. They came close to a major upset when the teams met in Dublin some nine months ago. A few lapses in concentration cost them on that occasion. Now, a year older and with higher team ambitions, this could be the perfect opportunity to shock the league in the first weekend.
