Sport

St Gall's set sights on Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Sevens

Michael Pollock, left, CJ McGourty, and Sean Burke, right, celebrate St Gall's success in the All-Ireland Football 7s Competition in 2012
Michael Pollock, left, CJ McGourty, and Sean Burke, right, celebrate St Gall's success in the All-Ireland Football 7s Competition in 2012 Michael Pollock, left, CJ McGourty, and Sean Burke, right, celebrate St Gall's success in the All-Ireland Football 7s Competition in 2012

St Gall's are aiming to put the shock of their Antrim Championship quarter-final exit behind them in today’s Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Football Sevens tournament.

The Sevens tournament, now in its 43rd year and traditionally held the day before the All-Ireland SFC final, has been a happy hunting ground for the Gall’s Men.

They claimed a record sixth title last year with a narrow one-point win over Brysanford, and St Gall’s manager Carl McCabe believes there won’t be any negative after effects of Erin’s Own Cargin breaking his side’s eight-year stranglehold on the Antrim championship.

“We’re always up for the Sevens – there have been years it would’ve been ideal not to come down to Kilmacud but this year of all years it almost helps being out off Antrim - there’s still one league game left to play against Cargin but that’s down the line,” said McCabe.

“There’s a serious element of competition within the group to get picked as one of the 10. The disappointment with Cargin still lingers and some lads still haven’t got over it but going down to the Sevens is a changed environment - it’s a different game and they’re looking forward to just enjoying it as opposed to being madly psyched up for it.”

Whoever wins the seven-a-side tournament will have to play six matches in one day, and McCabe claims St Gall's have become accustomed to the unique demands of the competition.

“My belief is that it’s a completely different game – obviously the team that outscores the other is going to win the game but in terms of fitness and strategy there is a bit of method to it and these boys are fairly adept at it.

“[But] even last year they were very, very lucky to get out of the group stages. Anything can happen on the day, you have three group games and you can have all the tactics in the world, but some teams are arriving after falling out of a car or a bus and others have been down since the Friday night, so you have to expect the unexpected.”

If St Gall's are to win their fifth title in eight years, they will have to see off a strong line-up of 24 teams that includes All-Ireland Club champions Corofin.

The Galway side were defeated by St Gall’s in a penalty shoot-out in 2012’s Sevens final but they didn’t have to wait long for revenge, turning over their Ulster opposition in the following year’s decider on a scoreline of 2-06 to 1-08.

Commentating on the Corofin threat, McCabe said: “We’ve a fairly recent tradition against them in the Sevens coming off the back of the Senior Club semi-final in 2010 [which St Gall’s won] and obviously they’re coming in as All-Ireland Club champions so they’d be a formidable opposition for anybody – but as I say you’ve your group to negotiate first so we can only look at what’s front of us.”