IT’S championship season once again, and for Dunloy’s Keelan Molloy that signals the start of the madness.
This year, the club’s hurlers and footballers will be targeting a famous double of Antrim titles after just coming up short last season.
Antrim kingpins Cargin, who have won seven of the last nine SFC titles, proved too strong for the Cuchulainn’s in the football decider and they retained their crown with a five-point victory thanks to two goals from Conchuir Johnston.
In hurling, Loughgiel Shamrocks stopped Gregory O’Kane’s men in their tracks, halting a famous five-in-a-row charge at the semi-final stage.
Dunloy will be keen to get their hands back on the Volunteer Cup, but that’s next week’s worry.
First up, all the focus is on football and they start with the visit of St James’s, Aldergrove this evening in a group that also includes Lamh Dhearg and St Enda’s.
“Everybody looks forward to this time of year, that’s what you’re working for, and it comes around pretty sharp to be fair,” said Molloy, who kicked 0-3 in last year’s county final.
“We’re training away and looking forward to it. We start this week with football and then we have a hurling and football match every week for the next 10 weeks, we have that with our club anyway.
“That’s if you’re going the whole way, so it’s week about between the football and the hurling. Your aim is to get as far as you can in both, so if it works out that way then we’ll be pretty busy.”
Home advantage is huge when it comes to the round-robin series of the club championships and getting off to a good start is key. Molloy is glad his team get to start with a home game.
“We start off at home on Friday night and we’ll be looking to get a win there and that gives you a bit of breathing space,” he added.
“If you get beat, you’re under pressure from the start, so we’ll definitely be targeting a win.”
One of a number of dual players on the team, Molloy is relishing the chance to have another crack at the Antrim SFC, which Dunloy haven’t won since 1936.
“We didn’t really expect to get as far as we did in the football last year,” explained the 2020 Joe McDonagh Cup winner.
“We were disappointed after the final because we knew we didn’t show what we were doing all year. We came out the wrong side and it’s something we’ve talked about all year, it’s our aim to go that step further and there’s plenty of motivation there to right the wrongs.”
On league form, Aldergrove could arguably go into the game as favourites, having operated in Division 2A, while Dunloy finished at the top of Division 2B. But with the county hurlers back in their ranks, Dunloy will surely carry that tag.
They will be without the injured Conal Cunning, however. He broke his arm in a challenge game two weeks ago.
“Aldergrove got a few results in the top league, and we were in the lower one,” continued Molloy.
“Vut we had a bit of a disjointed team during the league because of the county hurlers. It’s hard for us to get a good run.
“We played Aldergrove a couple of years ago in intermediate and they nearly caught us at the death. We had to kick a couple of late points to get through, so it’ll be a tough task.”
Antrim SFC round one (first-named teams at home)
Friday (7.30pm)
Group 1 Dunloy v St James’
Group 3 Portglenone v Ahoghill
Saturday (5pm)
Group 1 Lamh Dhearg v St Enda’s
Group 2 Tir na nÓg v St John’s; Cargin v Rossa
Sunday
Group 3 Glenravel v Moneyglass (2pm)
Group 4 St Brigid’s v St Gall’s (2pm); Aghagallon v Creggan (5pm)
