This article is from page 93 of the 2008-02-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 93 JPG
ON THE lengthy trek from Belfast to Limerick, Jody Gormley, former Tyrone footballer and current An- trim manager looked ahead to the Clare challenge and believed his side would find some resistence in Ennis.
VSS UUh CBMs ae aee day night well past midnight, before trevelling to Cusack Park on Satur- day morning and walking all over Clare later that afternoon. The ease of Antrim’s victory eventually sur- prised Gormley.
“The opposition was poor but we weren’t to know that coming down the road,” he said on Saturday. “Our fellas are working hard at the minute and you could see that out there. It’s
a long journey up the road, but we’ll be going back with a smile on our faces.”
The movement of Antrim and their ability to string passes together pleased the manager. “Early on in the first half we had some great moves that ended up with scores, we’re making progress which is what it’s all about. Clare gave us a tough game here last year in the Tommy Murphy Cup and we prepared for this chal- SONSXomMWA LOMO otclmmexeNoatommne meee DU ITC ma
Having also beaten Wicklow and Kilkenny to date, Antrim have the foundation to emerge from Division 4 and according to Gormley, the mo- tivation is there to progress.
‘We had a poor season last year and we re treating every game as though
we have to win it. The Tommy Mur- phy Cup threw us a lifeline because it gelled players together for the rest of the season. It worked well for us. Boys knuckled down and we’ve con- tinued to train hard over the winter. We’re glad to get onto the grass and we’ve started well but we’ve Offaly next and a lot of people are saying Offaly shouldn’t be in Division 4, that they’re too good for this divi- sion. And I’d imagine Offaly will be a step above the three teams we’ve played so far. They’re a big, strong team with some very powerful for- wards, so that’ll be a new challenge for us.”
Off Gormley goes for the journey home. A different set of ambitions than those he left behind in Clare.