By Michael McMullan

AFTER an ‘indifferent’ league campaign, the hurlers of Glenravel regrouped to win their sixth Antrim junior championship and this weekend make a first step into the Ulster arena in seven seasons.

The Con Magees were hit by a late goal as Castleblayney pipped them in the 2014 semi-final.

The Farney side hit their crucial winning goal in stoppage time of their three-point win on their way to lifting the title.

Steering the ship this season is Sarsfield’s man Ciaran McKernan, who answered Glenravel’s call looking for someone to put them on the right track.

“It’s a running joke that it’s men from the Glens that are asked to come to Belfast to get their hurling up and running…but this time it is the other way round,” said McKernan, who is assisted by club secretary Henry Duffin and Archie Rea, a long-serving Glenravel stalwart.

Glenravel lost four of their seven league games, including a 2-18 to 0-9 defeat at the hands of Glenarm who they’d later overturn in the championship final, but McKernan saw enough from his squad to convince him that silverware was within their grasp.

“At the tail end of Covid, the league was indifferent but we knew once we got a look at lads we could put in a challenge for the championship and it’s so far so good,” he said.

In the group stages of the championship, they again went to down to Glenarm – this time on a 5-21 to 2-13 scoreline – but did enough elsewhere to finish second and book a semi-final spot with Lamh Dhearg.

Despite having all their footballers back on board, a late penalty wasn’t enough for the Hannahstown men to derail Glenravel. And waiting for them in the final was none other than Glenarm. Would it be third time lucky?

“I knew the way the championship was structured that we’d end up playing them and it is always good to get a close look at your opponents and play them a few times,” McKernan points out

He looked for the trends and Glenarm’s predictability was their ‘downfall’. Goals from Cathal Hynds and Declan Traynor shot Glenravel to a 2-12 to 0-9 win, against all the odds.

“They never changed a thing and we knew what we were going in to,” he adds.

“We specifically trained to play Glenarm for a number of weeks before it. Some days it doesn’t come off, but that day it came off.

Every man – and even the two or three subs that went on – knew what they had to do.”

The focus now turns to Ulster and this weekend’s clash with Naomh Colum Cille, who were 2-10 to 1-3 winners over Omagh in the Tyrone decider.

“They are a big strong unit up and the middle and, on the day, it can be anybody’s,” he said.

And well he knows it. Just ask Glenarm.