By Michael McMullan

THE biggest challenge for three-in-a-row Antrim champions Dunloy has been their nine-week break since their county final win, insists James McKeague.

Two years after hanging up his hurl, McKeague, a four-time championship winner, is in his first year as club chairman and is well-placed to delved into the inner workings of a team aiming for success.

“The 12th of December, under lights on Sunday evening in Armagh, that’s, for us, is the biggest disappointment (that it’s so late in the year),” he said.

Off the field, the challenge is keeping the locals engaged in the senior hurling team that is the focal point of the local community. From a hurling point of view, it’s about making in-house games as competitive as possible.

“The players are fit, hungry and raring to go. It’s match practice you need at this stage. Games are key, so that has been our biggest challenge.”

McKeague is excited about a new crop of talented hurlers coming on the scene and while he didn’t expect to be leading the club so soon, he feels it is important to give something back.

“The GAA has been very good to me,” he stresses. “When I was playing hurling, there were men who lifted and laid you the full length of the country. I think it is very important that people give back into their community.

“It is a great club to be involved in and I am fortunate enough to be chairman. There is a fantastic group of people, from our committee and our coaches that really do all the work within the club, I am just part of it.”

He speaks of how the club have opened an indoor training centre to allow youngsters to play sport 12 months of the year.

“Every now and again, there is a generation and an exceptional crop of players that come through and we have been fortunate that those fellas have landed in Dunloy,” McKeague said of a group that were aged nine or ten when the centre opened in 2010.

“We were fortunate to have the facilities to hone the skills and keep them hungry with training over the winter months.”

He speaks of the massive amount of work over the last two decades at underage, after the club had taken its eye off the ball.

“When we were winning (Senior) Championships handy some of our focus was on our underage and that can happen.

“There has been a concerted effort at our underage of bringing young boys through for football and hurling, to get the best out of themselves and enjoy it.”

The last time Dunloy were Ulster Senior champions, McKeague was anchoring the defence from full-back in a team that contained current manager Gregory O’Kane.

Now, they lead the club on different fronts with the same goal on the other side of the line.