Tailteann Cup would be massive for Fermanagh football – Declan McCusker

“I’d like to win it!” McCusker said. “I think if we apply ourselves properly and everyone stays fit and healthy, I think we’re good enough to win it.

“There are some serious teams in it and it’ll take a couple of outstanding performances to do it but I think we’re good enough. It’d be massive for Fermanagh football if we could.

“There’s lots of motivation within the Tailteann Cup, you’re getting back to Croke Park if you get into a semi-final, which is massive for teams like us, playing there is a huge occasion.

“You want to get to Croke Park and there’s not too many Fermanagh teams that have lifted silverware in Croke Park so that would be a massive incentive for us. There’s plenty there for us to play for and we’re fully motivated and up for it.”

Kieran Donnelly’s men have started with plenty of intent too with back-to-back victories over Wicklow and Carlow to kick off their campaign and McCusker hails the introduction of the Tailteann Cup.

The 33-year-old has been on the county scene since 2011 – his debut came on a “dark day” in a humbling qualifier loss to London in Ruislip – and he feels that the second-tier competition gives many teams hope for the summer.

“It is an All-Ireland and it has to be because we can’t let half of the counties . . . it can’t dwindle off so that half the counties are playing for nothing once the league is over, they have to keep that up and it’s really important,” he said.

“There are so many teams going into the Tailteann Cup with ambitions of winning it and thinking that they have a good chance of winning it whereas if you were in the back door of the All-Ireland, they know they haven’t a hope.

“There’s teams in the All-Ireland that haven’t a hope of winning it, it’s important to have a secondary competition where teams go into it thinking, ‘We can lift silverware at the end of the year’.”

The Ederney St Joseph’s defender has a different perspective on the game since the arrival of his daughter Maisie, now five months old, and he is enjoying his football more than ever.

“She was born in the middle of pre-season but she’s wild good, she sleeps through the night and has done from about three weeks old and touch wood, she keeps that up,” the primary school teacher said.

“If she was up during the night and affecting my sleep, I don’t know if I’d be able to play. It probably does change your perspective too. Even if had a match before, you’d probably be sitting thinking about it all day. Whereas you don’t really have time to do that, you’re feeding her and her schedule is nearly more important so it’s probably less pressure. It’s not that I care less but it’s not the be-all and end-all. It’s definitely been a good thing for me this year.”

McCusker’s side face Laois tomorrow with a quarter-final berth on offer for the winners with Fermanagh sights set on a return to Croke Park, and maybe some silverware.