Gill determined to keep Newtown in the shade

‘THE SHADOW’: it’s a great nickname for a corner-back, isn’t it? Even better were the circumstances in which it was earned by Portumna’s Michael Gill.

“It was a long time ago when I was 17 or 18,” remembers Gill, “and I marking one of the more established lads of the time one evening. That night, he got up to go to the toilet, felt there was someone behind him, and told all the lads that he thought it was me. I was christened The Shadow and the name stuck.”

On Friday a Newtownshandrum corner-forward will be looking over his shoulder as the sides clash in the All-Ireland club SHC final at Croke Park.