Griffith College Éanna head coach Darren McGovern believes the club have the continuity in place to make a strong fist of defending their Men's Super League crown but admits that the strength in depth within the division will make it a formidable challenge to go back-to-back.
Éanna won their first ever InsureMyVan.ie Super League title in April by beating Pyrobel Killester in the final at the National Basketball Arena and will begin the bid to retain the trophy against Ballincollig on 5 October at the MTU Arena.
The title-winning squad remains settled with the only change seeing Matthew McClain depart after finishing his scholarship at Griffith College while Donolly Tyrell has arrived as the new recruit.
"The core of the team is there so we do believe the continuity is there. We just need to build on our pre-season performances there on Saturday and get ready now for Ballincollig in a couple of weeks' time," McGovern told RTÉ Sport.
Éanna head coach Darren McGovern looks ahead to the new Super League season and expects it to be a very competitive year ahead. #rtesport pic.twitter.com/SB29lm0oH3
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Éanna found form at the right time last season as they attacked the post-season with vigour on route to glory and from that experience McGovern says the league phase will be about maintaining consistency to keep themselves in contention to qualify for when the prizes are handed out.
"If you're in the top eight come the end of the season, you've your chance to become Super League champions," he said.
"It means people can have form at different times of the season so you could have a poor start to the season. Like we weren't the best at the start of last season being 2-2 from the first four games and we went out of the cup a couple of weeks later.
"So things weren't in the best place for us then but January came around and we all looked at each other and we decided that we would really step it up and that was the key and that was the difference for us to make sure we would become champions."
Ballincollig, champions themselves in 2023, will provide a stern test in their opening match and McGovern cited the Cork side's tradition as well as freshness in terms of head coach and style of play adding to the challenge for Éanna.
"They'll be formidable for sure, they've made some really good signings," he said.
"They'll be huge opponents and obviously the new arena down there, it's really nice to play in. It'll be a really interesting match-up."
McGovern also predicted an unpredictable season with up to eight or nine teams, in his view, harbouring realistic hopes of going all the way.
"It's going to make the league tighter so unless somebody is a clear outright winner by beating everybody consistently then they'll obviously be the deserving champions but I think it's going to be a year where you're going to see a lot of losses for really good teams but that's based on other teams being really strong as well."
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