Daire Cregg of UCD poses for a portrait with the Sigerson Cup before the draw for the Electric Ireland GAA Higher Education Championships at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
Every day is still a learning day in UCD for Daire Cregg on and off the pitch.
The Roscommon star is currently studying a Masters in Project Management as a follow up to his degree in Agricultural Science and Dairy Business, and on the pitch his football education continues with another season of Sigerson Cup football starting with a first-round clash with UCC this afternoon.
One of the stars of last year’s competition which saw UCD reach the final, Cregg credits the Sigerson Cup with accelerating his development as a footballer.
“Definitely, without doubt,” says the Boyle club-man. “In my first year of Sigerson I was only in second year in college and I was playing with men like Ray Connellan and just to see his athleticism was a real eye-opener for me.
“When you're playing against all the lads from the other colleges you really get a sense of what the top inter-county players are like. That gave me a target for my own development in terms of strength and conditioning and stuff like that.
“And football-wise, you're constantly learning off other lads too, picking up little bits and pieces has been a big help.
“I love playing Sigerson football. Just the camaraderie of it. The craic with the lads is brilliant. It's probably different this year too with the pre-season competitions gone, it gives us a chance to maybe give that bit more time to Sigerson.
“Our two managers were both good at working together last year, but when you're playing Wednesday and then have to play FBD League on a Friday, it's tough.
“Having a bit more space in the calendar this year gives us a good chance of having a right rattle at the Sigerson.”
Cregg produced an outstanding performance for UCD in last year’s final. He kicked nine points, four of them from play, but it wasn’t enough to prevent his team losing to an Ulster University side that scored three first-half goals.
It felt like an opportunity missed at the time, but the Roscommon attacker is hopeful UCD will be one of the leading contenders again this year.
“It was disappointing, obviously,” he says of last year’s final defeat. “The three goals came very quickly, one after the other, so it was a bit of shell-shock almost. Once we got into the dressing-room at half-time and calmed down we felt we were still in the game and we gave it a rattle but it didn't work out.
“We did well in the second-half but we couldn't get a goal back and that was the key to get back into it.
"We're in a fairly good situation again this year. We have a lot of the lads back from last year, probably seven or eight lads that would have started the final last year are definitely back.
“Most of the rest of the lads that were there last year are still around so we're still in a fairly good position. The standard looks like it will be high this year with all the usual suspects challenging again, but we’re hoping to be there or there abouts.”
Daire Cregg of Roscommon during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Armagh and Roscommon at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.
Cregg is also hoping that 2025 can be a big year for the Roscommon footballers. One of a number of talented forwards in Davy Burke’s panel, he believes their shooting ability will suit the new playing rule enhancements.
“For ourselves in Roscommon, we contested an All-Ireland quarter-final last year against Armagh where we felt we weren't too far away from them,” he says. “We had a red card early on and that set us back.
“We feel like we're in a really good position now to push on this year. Obviously Armagh winning the All-Ireland gives us confidence and gives every other team in the country confidence as well. We really feel like we're not too far away. It's exciting.
“And obviously the new rules are a game-changer really. We'll see how it goes but, from a forward's perspective, it's definitely going to open the game up. We've good forwards in Roscommon, six or seven really good shooters.
"Hopefully it'll suit us, we'll see. I suppose it's how you work the three up and who stays up and all of that, but I think we'll be well suited to it. We've a good side and I suppose a lot of teams will be saying the same thing but I think we do have the forward power that will give it a good rattle.”
Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup round 1
Tuesday, January 7
TUS Midlands v Maynooth, TUS Midlands, 7pm
ATU Sligo v Ulster University, ATU Sligo, 7pm
TUD v University Galway, Grangegorman, 7pm - HEC Youtube
UCC v UCD, The Mardyke, 5.30pm
Wednesday 8 January
ATU Donegal v MTU Cork, Abbotstown, 7pm
ATU Galway v UL, Liam Mellowes, 7pm
DCU v MTU Kerry, DCU, 5pm
St Mary's v Queens, Davitts, 2pm
