By Shaun Casey

RONAN Devlin was “apprehensive” about taking over as Cargin boss for the upcoming season, having now made the transition from trainer to manager.

Devlin coached the Antrim side for the last four seasons during Damian Cassidy’s tenure and was handed the bainisteoir bib once the Derry legend stepped away.

The pair helped the Erin’s Own club win three consecutive senior titles but lost their crown to Creggan last season.

“They asked me to hang on and if you want for a better term, step up. We’ll see how that goes, it’ll be sink or swim. I have to say I was probably apprehensive about it because I’ve never done it before.

“I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve brought another man in with me, Fabian Muldoon, and we’re kind of sharing the training. It’s nice, I actually get to step back a wee bit now and not just take all the training, I’m enjoying that side of things.

“Where it’s going to get tough then is when you have everybody back and you have a full complement of a full panel and they’re all vying for places, and you have to get used to picking somebody and dropping somebody even more to the point.

“That’s when it all changes. That’s the bit you can’t look forward to, but it’ll be a nice problem to have I suppose.”

The Antrim League has already got underway, and Cargin have made a decent start, drawing with Lamh Dhearg on the opening day before defeating Aghagallon to sit second in the table.

Devlin isn’t too concerned with winning at the moment. No team is at full strength and Cargin are trying to find a few players to make the step up.

“We’re badly hamstrung with county players missing. But at the same time, every team you’re playing has men missing so it’s very hard to judge anything.

“What you’re kind of doing is fulfilling (fixtures) and getting boys game time. While it’s hurting you in some respects, there’s fellas getting games that otherwise might not have got games if everybody was available.

“So, it kind of works for you in that way. We’re hoping somebody maybe surprises us and puts their hand up and says, ‘look at me for later in the year.’

“Because they made us start so early you nearly need to revaluate and use it for a different purpose. I wouldn’t be too concerned about winning the league, we’re just trying to gradually improve.

“We’re one night on the pitch a week, on a Wednesday night is all we’re doing. We can’t do very much because I want a bit of volume in the legs in terms of strength. So, if you actually go and run the legs off them on a Wednesday, you’re interfering with the training you’ve already done. We haven’t done very much.”

“In Cargin, they’re blessed enough. They have good footballers there and most of them have been around three or four years and they can see what way we have been doing so any wee changes we’re going to make will be incremental.”