By Niall Gartland

REIGNING Antrim champions Creggan have got off to a winning start in Division One with victory over Ahoghill at the weekend, but manager Gerard McNulty says they’re very much playing the long game this season.

Nine of their players are involved with intercounty set-ups in the county, while a few others are either absent or injured, so it’s unlikely that they’ll be anywhere near approaching full strength until the championship comes into view.

McNulty isn’t complaining about the situation – he says it’s an opportunity for other players to stake a claim for selection – but he does appreciate that they have a target on their backs after reaching the Holy Grail in Antrim for the first time in 67 years.

“There’s a bit of extra pressure and winning a second one generally gives a team that bit more status.

“There’s a different dynamic, there’s no better motivation for teams than the chance to take down the county champions. Teams will be hell bent to beat us, and they’ll want to see where they are in the overall pecking order.

“We won’t be going out to get beaten but I wouldn’t say the league is where our priorities are, there’s a full season ahead.

“We’re missing a lot of players through county involvement but that’s fine and I promote the county all the time. Eight lads are on the football team, big Conor McCann is on the hurling, and Sean Duffin is on the u-20s.

“That’s nine lads we don’t see at training but we’ve a lot of players pushing for places.

“A couple of years ago we won the reserve league with a young team so it’s about time those players go ‘right, it’s about time to start proving ourselves.’”

Elsewhere, Liam Quinn is on the comeback trail from a cruciate injury, while Conor Small recently underwent surgery so probably won’t be back until August at the very earliest. Last year’s captain, ‘wee’ Conor McCann has moved to Australia with his wife and it remains to be seen whether he’ll be involved later in the year.

One man who is involved is their strength and conditioning coach Martin McElkennon. His reputation precedes him, but Creggan have kept his involvement over the last three years fairly low key.

“I think Martin’s at a different level, and what I like about him is that he challenges the other coaches and the management team. He’ll regularly ask ‘what are you doing to make things better?’

“He’s very experienced and has been around a lot of top teams, like the Tyrone minors, Monaghan, Derry. He still talks fondly about Eamonn Coleman and calls him the master.

“This is his third year now. Good strength and conditioning coaches are hard to come by, and I know he’s been approached, but he wanted to stay part of things.

“That’s a reflection on Creggan and the people of the club, that he came back, they’re a fantastic bunch of people to be around.

“Everyone’s doing their bit right from the top.

“Olcan McAteer was our chairman in the last four years and he was class, and now it’s Terry Robb and it’s a like-for-like replacement. If we ask for anything at all that’s for the betterment of the team, they’ll say yes, none of these guys are in it for themselves.”

READ MORE…An emotional Creggan championship win. Click here…