Kerr feels Antrim league progress is not a true indicator

By Michael McMullan

ST Gall’s goalkeeper Chris Kerr isn’t reading too much into his side’s league form ahead of Friday’s Senior Championship opener at home to Moneyglass.

The former All-Ireland champions finished second behind Creggan in the league, but Kerr feels the 16-team competition lacks a cutting edge.

“We’ve done well but to what extent,” Kerr wondered, who experienced the Armagh leagues during his time with Ballymacnab.

“You don’t really know where you are by the end of the (Antrim) league because of the lack of intensity in it.”

Kerr feels Armagh’s structure of Divisions 1A and 1B is a better fit, as it’s benefitted the county team with clubs facing off at their own level.

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St Gall’s have been building on the back of recent U21 progress. Having won the title two years ago, they lost out last season.

“There’s a lot of young boys that played a lot of (senior) minutes so it’ll obviously do them the world of good,” added Kerr.

“In the league, sometimes our full-back line was a full U21 full-back line.

“I was playing goals and I was old enough to be all their dads.”

St Gall’s are under the management of former star Terry O’Neill, assisted by Sean Kelly and Colin Brady from their All-Ireland winning team, with former Omagh man Carl McCabe also on board.

They are paired with last year’s intermediate champions Moneyglass, St Brigid’s and Cargin in this year’s group stages.

“Two years ago, we were in a group with Aghagallon, St Bride’s and Creggan. We lost all the games by one or two points,” Kerr recalls of them needing a play-off to stay in the Senior Championship.

“We finished fourth or fifth in the league but there was the potential for us to be relegated from the league and championship because we got a difficult group.”

Competitive edge

Moneyglass needed play-offs to stay out of relegation in the league this season but Kerr believes the competitive nature of play-offs
will have brought a competitive edge.

“We played them in the league and were maybe 10 points up at half-time,” he added.

St Gall’s needed a two pointer from Gerard O’Neill to grab a 2-17 to 3-11 victory back in May. Kerr feels Moneyglass will need respected ahead of Friday’s encounter.

“Hopefully we can do enough on the night to get two points on the board,” he said.

“We’re not the St Gall’s team of old, where we would have really fancied ourselves against anyone.”

St Gall’s haven’t won the McNamee Cup since 2014 and were last in a final two years later.

“We haven’t been in a semi-final in seven or eight years,” Kerr added.

Alongside Michael Pollock and Aidan Gallagher, they are among the few to have experienced a county final.

“It’s a whole new team and just trying to get a championship win is massive for us at the minute,” Kerr added.

“The younger lads coming in now, they won the U21 Championship two years ago and got to the final last year.

“We’ve got some talented boys but it’s just trying to knit it all together. You’re just hoping on the night that everything comes together.”