Brady hoping for knock-on effect

ST GALL’S captain Colin Brady believes their All-Ireland club title success will have massive repercussions for Antrim football.

St Gall’s become the first Saffron club to lift the national football crown, which built on the progress achieved by the county side in reaching the Ulster final and NFL Division Four decider in 2009.

Despite being bereft of their sizeable St Gall’s contingent, Antrim are continuing to make waves this spring as they sit top of Division Three with a perfect record after four games.

Brady is hoping that the trend of collecting silverware can continue.

“It’s a massive boost for Antrim football and it’s turned out to be a pretty good year for Antrim football. Antrim football has always been looked down on. As a team we haven’t always performed to our abilities and we’ve known that over the years. We knew we were better than that and we’ve a top class management team in place now.

“Hopefully we can go and improve on what we did last year. I suppose we’ve still got to look at it for the county and say we’re disappointed we didn’t win anything. We’ve got to win trophies, and we’ve another year to try do that.”

Brady was one of five St Gall’s players who started for Antrim in the Ulster decider defeat against Tyrone last July, but he admits it will be a tough task to force his way back into the reckoning given the county’s current good form. “The boys are doing very well at the minute so it’s going to be a struggle for us to get on the team. That’s the way it should be and that’s the strength in depth the best counties have. The fellas went into Division 3 and wanted to kick on. Liam (Bradley) doesn’t settle for second best, and there’s no reason why we should have gone into that division and felt staying up meant it was a good year.

“They’ve made it very hard for us to get back into that team and that’s great for Antrim. I haven’t spoken to Liam yet about coming back. I’ll speak to him soon and sort something out.”

Brady also hopes that young sharpshooter CJ McGourty can transfer his club form onto the intercounty stage. McGourty was dropped from the Antrim squad in controversial circumstances last year but after a starring role in St Gall’s victory, he is now poised to link up with Bradley’s side again.

“CJ’s been excellent. His free-taking and point kicking are up there with the best. He’s a still young lad, who still’s got so much potential for both club and county He’s an integral part of our team but everyone chipped in.”