Andersonstown SC Antrim IHC semi-final
St Gall’s v Clooney Gaels (Dunsilly, Friday, 7pm)
 
THE lights will be on at Dunsilly on Friday evening as St Gall’s and Clooney Gales will bid to outshine the other with a place in the Intermediate Hurling Championship final up for grabs.

Both teams head into this last four clash in decent form having navigated their respective group and will be aware a stern test awaits.

St Gall’s finished second in Group One having been pipped to top spot by Glenariffe which was the only side to defeat them over their four games, whilst their Ahoghill rivals this weekend sailed through to the semi-finals with a 100 per cent record in Group Two.

It has all the makings of a closely contested game with St Gall’s aiming to continue their progress under manager Chris Dornan who has been overseeing an upturn in the Milltown Row club’s fortunes this season having missed out on the knockout stage in 2021.

“We used a lot of players throughout the championship, the guts of 24 or 25 between starters and subs because we were missing a few in the first game (against Glenravel) between holidays and so on,” he explained.

“The squad is a lot younger and we have a lot of players putting their hand up for game-time, which is good.

“At the part of the year, staying up in Division Two would have been our main thing. We might have finished in the bottom half, but lost four games by one point and drew two, so there are 10 points dropped by a four-point margin over six games.”

No fewer than 36 players were used in the league from some just out of minor right through to the more experienced members like Joe McDaniel and Aodhán Gallagher, with two teams competing in Divisions Two and Four.

That allowed for regular action for players and also gave an opportunity for those reserves to develop and stake a claim to be used for the first team, driving up competition for places and acting as a big benefit across the board.

“Last year I would maybe have had a squad of 30 for a league game, but that results in 10 boys (unused subs) wasting their Sunday, not getting a game and eventually peed-off with that,” he continued.

“We looked at the numbers, realised we have 50 players on the books so if I took 18 with me (in the first team) the rest were eligible for the Division Four team.

“That meant the boys who may not have thought they were getting any hurling got game-time and that was good.

“I told them not to be disheartened if they don’t make the senior panel because John Hopkins managed that team and he would report back who was going well and off the back of that, they would get their chances.”

That competition for places seems to have done the trick for St Gall’s who now find themselves 60-plus minutes from a return to the Intermediate decider for the first time since 2018 when they won it before annexing Ulster.

There was a crack at senior level for a while before dropping back down a rung, and the signs are that they are ready to push on again having unearthed some fresh faces to compliment those who have been the backbone of the squad in the past.

“My first year was the year of Covid (2020) and we pushed St John’s hard in the quarter-final of the Senior Championship, but they beat us by four points,” Dornan recalled.

“We were close, then had a lot of retirements and injuries. It’s not quite a new tram as there are still a lot of the old faces there like Jackson (McGreevy), Tomás (O’Ciarain), Ryan Irvine and Aidso Gallagher, so there is a sprinkling of that experience.”

Clooney also has bags of experience with the O’Connells and Grahams backbiting their squad, while they have also some emerging talent too and Colla McDonnell’s hat-trick of goals in the win over St Paul’s a fortnight ago will have done his chances of starting.

St Gall’s continued their preparations on their bye week a fortnight ago with a training weekend in Ballycran and Dornan feels it added spring in the step of his players, but insists Clooney will be favourites on Friday - a status he felt they were in at the start of the year in terms of winning the overall prize.

“They were favourites at the start of the year,” he insists.

“I’d have had Creggan and Sarsfield’s second and third in whatever order, so it was those three I felt would be in the shake-up as we didn’t get out of the group last year.

“But we have prepared well and the weekend in Ballycran was very useful for us.

“The lads have a spring in their step so hopefully, they can take it into Friday.”

The other semi-final takes place in Cushendall on Saturday at 3pm between Glenariffe and Cushendun, while both Junior semi-finals will be decided at the same time as Rasharkin host Cloughmills and Glenarm welcome Armoy.