St Gall's target championship

St Gall's hurler Karl Stewart

NEW ST Gall’s hurling boss Darren McKeown believes that his side will be a more potent beast by the time their Antrim Senior Hurling Championship opener comes around in August.

McKeown was involved when the side reached the All-Ireland Intermediate final just a few years ago, and also came in for a spell towards the end of the following season.

Now, himself and Conor McAreavey have taken over the reins from the outset OF this campaign and are gearing up for what they hope will be a two-pronged assault on the division two league and the senior championship.

So far, despite little time to prepare, his side have recorded four wins and a draw from their five games to date and have looked the real deal in their surge to the summit of the league ladder.

But the boss reveals that their preparations have been minimal at best.

“We were only really appointed as managers right before the opening match against Rossa, so we hadn’t exactly time to put much in place before then.

“Almost all of our players play football at some level for the club, the vast majority with the senior team. So it can be extremely difficult to get things organised. We’ve been lucky to get a session a week in, and then playing the games at the weekend.”

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published Thursday May 24. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or click here to purchase the pdf for just 90p.