New Rainey coach Graeme Eastwood excited to put plans into practice

Rainey are one win away from progressing to the final and Eastwood admitted he was always going to find it difficult to turn the Magherfafelt club down when they came calling.

“I don’t think it was a hard decision: I played U14s, U16s, U18s, U20s, seconds and firsts at Rainey,” he said. “I think when they come looking at you and having conversations, it's always one you don't take lightly and you always try and make the best decision that you can.

“We did have a couple of conversations a couple of years ago – it just didn't feel like the right time – but this summer obviously felt like the right time and, you know, personally, it's nature, being closer to home.

“It's a club that has serious potential. I feel the facilities are top-notch with gyms and floodlit grass pitches and 3G pitches and indoor arenas, especially with the centenary year coming around the corner as well as Paul Flanagan going to be the Ulster Branch president in that centenary year as well, so it felt like a really good time to be involved.

“I would know a lot of the boys, whether that be [from] my time coaching at Rainey Endowed or my time coaching the firsts and seconds at Rainey before I left in 2013.

“It felt weird at the start,” he added. “You're standing in the middle of the pitch with a whistle and you're dictating things and you're just looking around, and this is where it all began for me as a young fella.

“The boys have worked really hard over the summer. I feel there's a lot of really good new faces off the pitch installed this year that are driving things and obviously it's been a clean slate coaching-wise, and Ryan Hughes obviously came with me from Dromore.

“Ryan was my captain there for two seasons and I suppose in a selfish way it was great for me, he knew all my attacking systems and how he wanted to play and I had a great relationship with him so I'm delighted that he's on board.

“I feel it was a really good time, to be involved at Rainey and especially with a couple of big things coming around the corner.”

Eastwood has a clear vision for the future and is excited by the energy within the club and “fresh ideas” after changed to key positions.

He said: “We want Rainey boys back playing for Rainey. There's a couple of players that didn't play last season for whatever reason that committed for this year and a couple of players that had left to go to different clubs had come back.

"We've obviously added a couple of new faces in the scrum-half (James Wright) and an inside centre (Nathan Burns), so there's been a lot of work done probably since March even before last season finished to just try and get the ball rolling and try and meet as many players as possible and try, and plan as best as we could.

“We have a new president, Dylan Davies, and new secretary and new chairman. There's a lot of new faces and I suppose everyone takes those roles with the great work that was done from the officers behind them, so again I just felt like it was a really good time to be involved.

"There's a lot of fresh ideas across the board on and off (the pitch) and I suppose it's up to us now in a couple of weeks to see if we've got pre-season right and got the right momentum going into the first game of the All-Ireland away to Enniskillen.”

Eastwood revealed the senior group was viewing the upcoming season in two parts after meeting in June to plan their approach for the 2026/27 campaign.

“When the senior group met, we met early June and we set our goals out and we split the season in two – pre-Christmas and post-Christmas – and we said to get ourselves prepared for the All-Ireland that we had to have a good Ulster Shield campaign,” he said.

“We knew that all three teams are going to be in our league (AIL). Have we probably shown our best account of ourselves in any of the first two games? No, we obviously are playing two of the teams twice within five weeks of each other, so we obviously didn't want to show our full hand.

“We also wanted to make sure that the start of that kind of new regime, for people who were coming to watch us, that we put on a show.

"We made sure that we put on something that people wanted to come and enjoy and watch the game of rugby that we're trying make exciting again and obviously get people back to Hattrick Park to support us, not that they weren't supporting us, but we obviously want to give supporters that breath of fresh air as well and let them see the work that we've been doing.”

All four sides can mathematically make the final going into the last round of games, with Enniskillen and Malone – locked on seven points – meeting in Co Fermanagh, while Rainey – on five points – visit Ballyclare, who have three.

On Rainey’s trip to the Cloughan, Eastwood said: “Rainey’s last silverware was the Ulster Senior League, the Stevenson Shield, and it's been a while since we've maybe had a chance to compete for silverware as a club.

"We've spoken about that on Tuesday night that we have an opportunity here to go on the road again and dominate possession and dominate territory like we did in Malone (last week), but try and just convert more chances; whether that's being accurate in green zone or we're asking our ballplayers to make right decisions in green zones.”

“However, silverware is silverware and I think if we can go into the All-Ireland season with something to look forward to at Christmas it just gives us that wee bit of kickstart and it just shows us that all the hard work we've done since June was worth it.”