Glenelly’s Kennedy hoping to gain momentum

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

By Niall Gartland

GLENELLY skipper Rory Kennedy anticipates another battle royale when they take on Drumragh in Sunday’s Junior Championship first-round clash at Loughmacrory.

They’ve played twice this season already as a result of the newly introduced Division 3A, in the first instance losing by three points, and in the second, playing out a draw at Clanabogan.

Time will tell whether St Joseph’s can go even better and claim a victory over the Sarsfields when it really counts, but they can take confidence from last year’s championship run, where they arguably exceeded expectations by reaching the semi-finals, where they fell short against Aghaloo. Speaking ahead of Sunday’s showdown, Rory Kennedy is feeling cautiously optimistic about their chances, even if their recent league campaign was a mixed bag.

“Drumragh beat us by a kick of the ball in our first game against them, and we ended up drawing against them in the second. It’s definitely going to be a tight game but we’re looking forward to it and hopefully we get the result.

“We’re disappointed that we weren’t in the mix for promotion, we didn’t get the results we were looking for, but we stayed in Division 3A which is good. We’ve lost a few players from the squad this year and had injuries but I suppose every team is in the same boat.

Glenelly enjoyed a memorable run in last year’s Championship, ultimately falling just short in their quest to reach the Junior Championship final for the second time in the club’s history. Kennedy hopes they can pick up a similar degree of momentum in this season’s campaign but they can’t afford to look beyond Drumragh.

“Getting those two wins back-to-back was massive,” said Kennedy. “It’s alright getting wins here and there but to get two on the bounce was really encouraging. It’d be great to push on again this year, and we’re hopeful that if we can play to our potential we can give anyone a good game”. Kennedy also hopes that playing in Division 3A will stand to them in the do-or-die world of the Championship.

“It was good playing in Division 3A though, I found that the quality was a step up from previous years. All the teams are top-quality and we got to play them all twice, so it was a really good experience for us, even if we’d have liked to have pushed up the table a bit more.”