GORT na Mona manager Niall Ward says that Covid has had an impact upon his team ahead of this year’s championship.
A number of his starting squad contracted the virus this year, and while they have recovered they are still suffering from negative effects, which is a concern ahead of their championship opener against St Gall’s on Sunday (2pm).
Ward said: “We have had two or three guys who are struggling. They have come back in and they have found the running and physical activity difficult. The effect of the virus has knocked them back by two or three weeks which is isn’t great.”
The club had to be closed down for a few weeks because of an outbreak. Some players caught the virus but were asymptomatic. Yet a handful, as Ward said, are struggling.
The manager is hoping that the effects won’t cause his team problems as they head into this weekend’s senior championship.
“The club is in transition. We played St Gall’s last year in the championship and six of the team are no longer there. At the start of the year we decided we were going to go with the younger lads. They have had a season of Division One football without relegation. But it is going to be a hard task as we are playing St Gall’s and Creggan.
“We want to be as competitive as we can but we know it is going to be tough.”
Another challenge for Gort na Mona is that they are a dual club. Furthermore they don’t have a big panel and there is a crossover of players between the footballers and the hurlers.
That is something that Ward is wary of.
“It does have an effect. We will see them once one week and twice the next week.
“The way the league structure was the dual players had two games a week for maybe two months. So they were very much running on empty at the end of the league.”
However, the players are keen to compete at senior level in football.
The team are going into their third year of playing Senior Championship Football.
“We are trying to get them to enjoy the challenge. They are finding now that this is the standard of the best teams in Antrim and they are aspiring to get to that level.
“They will play a seasoned St Gall’s team, but it is still a team with guys who are running around with All-Ireland Club medals. The Creggan team arguably could have won the Antrim Championship last year. When you are playing at senior level you have to expect to play the best.”
For Gort na Mona to maintain the standards that top clubs in Antrim it is going to be a challenge., but the club are optimistic.
They opted to play with younger players this year so that they could get the experience of playing senior football. There is also a talented u-17 group coming through the club and they will bolster the senior team in years to come.
“We also want to hang on to some of the older lads like Padraig McHugh or Dermot McVeigh. They can help the younger players. We want them to see how close they are to being able to compete with St Gall’s and Creggan.”
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