Dunloy take on back-to-back Derry champions Newbridge in Saturday’s opener in Owenbeg just three years on from playing in the Ulster Intermediate Championship
As the newly-crowned Antrim senior football champions, Dunloy are seeking to improve on a horrendous recent record on the provincial stage.
It is 20 since St Gall’s won the first of their two Ulster Club titles and the west Belfast men would go on to win the All-Ireland crown in 2010.
Cargin have since assumed the throne as the dominant force in Antrim club football, but they were unable to make much headway in Ulster.
Indeed, over the last 10 years, the Antrim senior champions have won one game in Ulster with Cargin beating Naomh Conaill of Donegal on penalties in 2022.
Lámh Dhearg (2017) and Creggan (2021) also lost their Ulster openers to Cavan Gaels and Clann Éireann respectively while the provincial club series was cancelled in 2020.
Dunloy also lost out in the Ulster series to Dungloe in 2022 when they were Antrim Intermediate winners.
Manager Anthony McQuillan can trace the rise of the current team from their first game back at senior level in 2023 – away to none other than St Gall’s.
“When I took this job, our aim was to win an Intermediate football championship in Antrim,” said McQuillan.
“It took us maybe three or four attempts to win it. In 2022 we won it.
“On that Championship final day, we played Glenravel and we had a superb performance – we kicked 15 points but we had maybe six or seven goal chances that day and their ’keeper had a stormer.
“After that, we thought ‘where do we go from here?’ – we’re now a senior club. What do we do?
“We just went out, we trained. We were away to St Gall’s in the first round up in Milltown.
“We said we’ll give it a go and see what happens and we ended up beating them by a point and there was no turning back from that point on.
“We started to believe we are as good as any team in this county. If we can beat St Gall’s – we can beat anybody.”
Their Ulster Club SFC journey this time around at senior level begins with a tough trip to Owenbeg on Saturday to play back-to-back Derry champions Newbridge.
Although Sean O’Leary’s were edged out by Clann Éireann in the quarter-finals last season, they defeated a fancied Magherafelt team in the Derry decider and McQuillan knows his side must raise their game once more.
“I was reading a few reports during the year and people were saying Newbridge won’t win two-in-a-row – I thought that was madness,” added the Dunloy boss.
“How could a young team win a Championship and then not be counted the following year?
“They are definitely a good side. They’re very fast, very direct, very quick. They’re going to be a hard team to play against on Saturday.
“But we just have to prepare ourselves the best we can and be ready for them.”
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