Northern Switchgear Antrim Senior Football Championship
THE last bit of climb to the summit is always the toughest. There are no guarantees Roger Casement’s, Portglenone will get ever there – but they are close.
The fact that they’ve never won a senior championship in their 82-year history probably makes the last part of the mountain even more difficult to negotiate.
Derry man Barry Dillon guided Portglenone to the semi-final stages in each of his three years in charge - 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Now the baton has been handed to club native and former Antrim defender John McKeever to try and reach a county final.
In 2019, Lamh Dhearg’s greater experience saw them come through a famous semi-final trilogy with Portglenone.
In 2020, Kickhams Creggan pipped them at the death in their semi-final in Ahoghill.
Portglenone were leading by a couple of points with only a few minutes remaining, but the Kickhams hit two late goals to end their rivals’ hopes of a first county final appearance since 2009.
More misery lay ahead for Dillon’s charges in 2021.
They led Aghgallon by five points in extra-time and somehow managed to throw away another semi-final in extra, extra-time.
For Dillon, last year’s semi-final defeat was the most devastating of the three he was involved as Portglenone manager.
The game should have gone straight to penalty kicks after it finished all square after extra-time, but after an administration mix-up at pitch-side, it was declared – wrongly – that another period of extra-time would be played.
Aghagallon finished the stronger and edged home.
Afterwards, Portglenone sought clarity from the county board and even though competition rules were infringed, they didn’t lodge a protest and Aghagallon went through to face Creggan in the final.
As time passes, no-one really remembers the finer detail or the desperate heartache of semi-final games. Antrim’s history books won’t show that in each of those last-four defeats Portglenone never had all their key players available on the big days.
In the club championship, injuries and suspensions need to be kind to teams, especially those trying to knock down doors for the first time in their history.
For instance, ex-county ace Niall Delargy was red-carded in Portglenone’s quarter-final win over Lamh Dhearg and ruled out of last year’s semi.
Had he been free to play against Aghagallon, the teak-tough defender might have been able to contain Eunan Walsh who hit a game-winning 1-6 in what turned out to be a one-point victory for Kevin Murray's side.
The margins are desperately fine. When you look at the Portglenone team-sheet, they tick all the boxes.
Well, almost.
What they don’t have is a Paddy Cunningham or a Tomas McCann. If they did, there might well have been a different ending to one of the last three Antrim championships.
The hope, from a Portglenone perspective, is young Aidan McAleese can add a few more scores to their attack this season and that Dermot McAleese, Delargy and Niall McKeever bring their A game to the championship table.
These is no sense either that Portglenone have missed the boat. Their footing on the cliff face of the Antrim championship is still confident and true.
They appear stung rather than demoralised by last year’s semi-final defeat to Aghagallon.
Dermot McAleese remains the heartbeat of the current senior team at Casements. He was arguably Antrim’s best defender during Enda McGinley’s two years in charge and the 28-year-old forward-turned-defender has brought his inter-county form to the club.
“I think we’re a good enough team to reach a final but for whatever reason we haven’t been good enough on the day in those semi-finals,” McAleese says.
On paper, Portglenone’s group looks as good as it gets especially with big hitters Cargin and Creggan on the other side of the draw.
Portglenone will face St Brigid’s, Moneyglass and Ahoghill in the group stages that gets underway at home to St Brigid’s tomorrow evening (6pm).
“In terms of this year, we’re looking no further than our first game against St Brigid’s,” McAleese adds.
“Of course, we’d love to get back to a semi-final and try and get over the line but we’re wise to the fact every game will be tough.”
Like Dillon, his former manager, McAleese probably regards last season’s semi-final defeat to Aghgallon as the toughest.
“It was a real sucker punch for the boys. What do you say about it? We should’ve been seeing the game out at that stage, but we didn’t.
“Our game-management just wasn’t up to scratch. You just hope that we learn from it and if we’re in a similar situation hopefully we’re better prepared for it.
“It was a hard one to take but the boys have responded, they’re hungry and they want to put it right. Our first real chance to put it right is against St Brigid’s, so we can’t wait to get going and hope we can better last year’s performances which is the whole idea.”
McKeever is great friends with Peter Canavan, both of whom are also teaching colleagues at Holy Trinity, Cookstown.
Canavan has been recruited to assist McKeever at his home club this season. The two-time All-Ireland winning forward took his first training session last week and McAleese was blown away by Canavan’s intensity.
“It’s great to get a wee bit of insight into how his mind works,” says McAleese.
“He’s a driven character and you could see that with some of the stuff he was doing the other night. There’s just loads of learning for the boys and they’re taking it all in.
“John and Tommy Devlin have come in and they’ve been a breath of fresh air. John is Portglenone through-and-through; he must be down at that pitch seven nights a week. It’s been really good so far.”
Things started to turn ever so slowly for the Casements in 2001 when they gained promotion to Division One after a 50-year absence.
It was another 12 years before their U21s landed the Antrim championship. A year later, in 2014, they were crowned intermediate champions.
But there was no sign of a senior championship breakthrough. They needed to find their feet first.
St Gall’s remarkable domination was drawing to a close around that time while Cargin and Lamh Dhearg were jockeying for position to knock the Falls Road men off their perch.
Portglenone at that time were much further down the food chain.
But they’ve built themselves into a championship contender with regular semi-final appearances, which reaffirms that they are now a fully-fledged member of the chasing pack, arguably ahead of St John’s and Lamh Dhearg now and tucked behind Cargin and Creggan.
This season’s Division One league standings would appear to reflect the natural order of things too, with Creggan finishing top ahead of neighbours Cargin and Portglenone claiming third spot, winning 12 games out of 17 and falling to just one defeat.
“There are maybe four or five of us who are late 20s/early 30s and the rest are early 20s, so the age profile is good,” McAleese says.
“You just hope we’ve learned from those difficult defeats over the last few years. To be fair, we haven’t had any boys emigrating, we’ve only lost one or two to retirements over the last couple of years and we’ve brought in a few younger players each year. So I think there are opportunities there. I’m not going to say we’re going to win one but I just know we’re definitely not far away.
“Creggan had to wait 50 years or more from the last time they won one. I’m sure it was difficult for them to bridge that gap. We’re trying to do something similar – the first one is always the hardest.
“But it just shows you what can be done. For so long, St Gall’s and Cargin were unbeatable. Creggan have shown it’s possible [to make the breakthrough]. But we have to look after ourselves and make sure we’re putting in the work to get those opportunities.”
McAleese had wretched luck with injury and illness last year but managed to fight his way back to full fitness for the latter stages of the club championship having suffered a broken jaw in only their second group game of the championship and then having to overcome a bout of COVID.
Portglenone, it must be said, are getting the best version of Dermot McAleese these days after he made serious gains at county level under McGinley and Stevie O’Neill who’ve since stepped away from the Antrim post.
“Working with Enda and Stevie over the last couple of years, the amount of learning you do… you bring yourself on playing and training with a better standard of player, and the more you can expose yourself to that, the better you’re going to be. It definitely helped me over the last couple of seasons especially.”
But for the next few weeks, and possibly months, McAleese’s full focus is on trying to raise standards with Portglenone.
He still remembers the buzz, the flags and bunting around the village when the senior team reached county finals in 2005 and ’09.
“My brother [Gerard] would have been playing back then.
“They are the days you dream of and trying to get the club back to. That’s the reason why we’re playing. Portglenone has never won the championship.
“Like every other club footballer, that’s the target. It would be the best thing ever if Portglenone were to come through but they’re not easily won or even getting to a final. But that is the holy grail for us.”
VERDICT...
THEY say the league table never lies. Well, in Gaelic football it often does with absenteeism ravaging teams during league campaigns.
That said, the top three placed teams – league winners Kickhams Creggan, Erin’s Own Cargin and Roger Casements Portglenone – are fancied to be in the championship shake-up in 2022.
It’ll be interesting to see how Creggan handle the defending champions tag, new territory for them, but you could argue they are a stronger unit than last year when they pipped Cargin in the semis and eased past Aghagallon in the final, with Liam Quinn and Conor Small fit again – two players that would be close to starting berths in the Antrim attack.
Due to their heavy presence on various Antrim panels, Cargin were shorn of some of their best players during the league but still finished second.
They’ll be hurting from last year’s semi-final exit but should feel renewed and slightly less pressure on their shoulders after their three-in-a-row exploits under Damian Cassidy.
Ballinderry man and Cassidy’s former assistant Ronan Devlin takes over as manager and, crucially, gives Cargin continuity.
Aghagallon are missing a chunk of their first team players with key attacker Adam Loughran playing football in America. They hope to have a better deck to choose from before the group stages conclude, but given these absences, it’s a big ask of them to repeat last year’s run to the final.
St Brigid’s continue to make gains under Anthony McGrath and might cause a surprise. St Gall’s are under new management – Paddy McShane and Sean Burns – but the Milltown men face a long road back from the glory days and are over-reliant on Mickey Pollock in attack.
Lamh Dhearg will always fancy themselves – but is there another championship in them having annexed one in 2017? St John’s are an erratic team but can always put a run together if they get all their players out.
And can Portglenone go one better and reach a county final? The signs are good for Creggan, Cargin and Portglenone.
