THE biggest compliment you can pay Ryan McGarry is that nobody talks about the Antrim full-back role as a problem position any longer.
The Dunloy defender almost fell into the role - and Gregory O’Kane and Darren Gleeson are glad he did.
When Dunloy’s regular full-back Conor McKinley suffered a fractured shoulder during an Antrim League game against Loughgiel Shamrocks, McGarry moved from midfield to the edge of the square and he hasn’t looked back since.
He helped the Cuchullain’s retain the Volunteer Cup and once their All-Ireland adventure ended, it was a no-brainer for Gleeson to continue playing him at full-back.
“When ‘Woody’ broke his shoulder I had a funny feeling when I looked over to the sideline and Gregory [O’Kane] just gave me the nod to go into full-back and I’ve been there ever since.
“I had a few games in there before so it wasn’t completely alien to me. There are similarities between wing-back and full-back with the high ball but I’m more comfortable now. It did take me a few games with Dunloy to get used to it. It probably wasn’t until the county semi-finals that I was starting to feel more comfortable.”
The 2022/23 season has been like no other for McGarry. Among his marking portfolios have been Brendan Rogers (Slaughtneil), Colin Fennelly (Ballyhale Shamrocks), Martin Keoghan (Kilkenny), DJ Foran (Waterford) and Paddy Purcell (Laois) and Conor Cooney (St Thomas’s) for periods.
Up until this season, he would have been one of those players who flitted in and out of Antrim’s starting line-ups.
“I was given the number three jersey against Kilkenny in our first League game this year and I was just glad to be playing because other years I hadn’t been playing as much. I would have played anywhere just to get on – I would have played in nets!”
McGarry had joined the Antrim senior panel when Gleeson took the managerial reins. Not many players would have waited four seasons to be regarded as a regular starter, but the 23-year-old showed patience and heaps of ambition to reach this high point in his career.
“When I started I was only 18 or 19 and it was hard because I was physically small,” McGarry said.
“I had to develop physically, especially being a back. If you’re a forward, you can get away with being a bit lighter. It has taken me three or four years of learning. I was very green because the step up from club to county is massive.”
When he began his Antrim senior career he was 80 kilos. He’s now up to “86 or 87 kilos”.
“It wasn’t the extra weight; it was more the power that I needed. You’d be doing two gym sessions twice a week and you can see the development in the other boys who came in the same time as me, how big and strong they’ve got, especially Keelan [Molloy] and ‘Coby’ [Cunning], even Seann [Elliott]. If you’d seen Seann three or four years ago there was nothing to him.
“And with the minor and U20 teams doing similar programmes it’s filtered down, and it maybe means it’s not as big a jump for someone at 18 or 19 to go into senior as it used to be.”
To McGarry’s right, Cushendall’s Paddy Burke has nailed the number two jersey.
The other corner, however, has experienced a bit more turbulence with Gleeson trying Phelim Duffin, Niall O’Connor and Stephen Rooney there.
Speaking ahead of Antrim’s Leinster SHC round robin opener against Dublin at Corrigan Park on Saturday, McGarry lauded the influence of Burke alongside him.
“Paddy just makes life easy for you. If a ball goes in front of you, you know he’s going to be there. If the ball slips in behind you, you know he’s going to be there covering for you. And if you’re in trouble you know you can give him the ball and he can break out. He’s just a really, really good player.”
