UNDER a baking evening sun and the Black Mountain seemingly within touching distance, O’Donnell’s GAC is a hive of activity on the finest of Monday evenings.
Situated on the final descent to where the Whiterock Road meets the Falls Road in west Belfast, McRory Park is playing host to the Antrim senior footballers’ press night.
The county board couldn’t have picked a better venue or better weather.
Arms folded and squinting into the sun, Martin Johnston is about to join the rest of the group for the lightest of training sessions amid the scores of young autograph hunters.
The big Creggan Kickhams defender took a year out last year but is glad to be back in the Antrim fold again. It was the best decision he made.
His father passed away in the summer of 2014, on the eve of Antrim’s Ulster Championship semi-final match against Donegal.
Marty and his elder brother Ricky were forced to withdraw from the match-day squad.
“Unfortunately,” recalls former Antrim boss Liam Bradley, “for family reasons, we lost them for the Ulster semi-final against Donegal.
“I think if we hadn’t have lost the two Johnstons that day we certainly would have given Donegal a better game.
“Alright, we held them well in the first half, but we would have been better with the two Johnstons in the team. Everything we had prepared for went out the window that Saturday morning. We’d lost our centre-back and full-back. They were big, big losses.
“In actual fact, their father watched them play and beat Fermanagh in the first round game. That was the last he saw his two boys play.”
Later that summer, Marty and Ricky came on as substitutes in Antrim’s All-Ireland Qualifier defeat to Limerick.
They both disappeared from view in 2015.
Their reasons for stepping away for a season were obvious enough.
“I thought it might be a bit much to be playing with the county,” says Marty.
“It was for personal reasons after my father passed away. I wanted to get away from it for a while and get back with my club and enjoy my football again.”
The two Johnstons are now back and are two integral pieces to Frank Fitzsimons and Gearoid Adams’ defensive set-up.
“Taking the year’s break showed me the hunger I still have for playing with Antrim. It was the right decision to come back.”
Marty, who's the younger of the brothers, made his NFL debut against Derry in 2012 and his Championship debut came the following season against Monaghan at Casement Park.
This year he’s nailed down the number six berth.
Bradley, who introduced him to the senior stage, believes the Creggan man is “one of the best readers of the game” in Ulster.
“Centre-back is Marty’s best position without a doubt,” says ‘Baker’.
“Two years ago in Brewster Park, Ryan Jones was an up and coming player in Fermanagh and we had Marty lined up to mark him. And I thought he did a superb job on Jones that day.
“Ricky marked [Sean] Quigley and Marty marked Ryan Jones. The two Johnstons were excellent that day.”
It was the same day Kevin O’Boyle cleared the ball off the line in the dying embers to ensure a brilliant Antrim victory.
“Everything’s going well,” says Johnston (23). “I think we’ve been playing the best football we’ve played in the last number of years. I definitely believe that.
“The competition for places is as strong as it’s ever been since I’ve been involved, so you don’t know from one week to the next if you’re starting.
“Gearoid [Adams] has come in and has definitely added to the whole structure of the thing.”
Johnston has also enjoyed working under new fitness trainer, former world boxing champion Brian Magee and feels in the “best shape” of his career.
“We’re not lifting as many weights, it’s more explosive training,” he says. “I can’t complain about it. I love it, to be honest.
“I’m enjoying the whole build-up, everybody’s relaxed, the training is tapered off at this stage and we’re playing more football. I don’t know why you wouldn’t enjoy it.”
Having experienced the big Championship day a few times before, he admits there will be a few butterflies during the pre-match parade.
“You train all year for it and soon as the ball’s thrown in and you get your first touch the nerves go out the window.”
