Brothers in arms eye All-Ireland glory

Editorial Department • Published 18 Feb 2010 11:02 0 Comments

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Ronan Gallagher.

The Gallagher brothers, Ronan and Rory, will be looking to help their club, St. Gall's progress through to the All Ireland Club final. On Sunday the Belfast club take on Galway side Corofin in the semi-final of the competition at Parnell Park and goalkeeper Ronan accepts that it is going to take a big effort if they are to make it to Croke Park on St. Patrick's Day.

"We need to be at least at the level we were against Loup in the Ulster final and probably even better than that," said Gallagher. "They (Corofin) beat the Leitrim and Mayo champions fairly easily so they are far and away the best team in Connaucht. Defensively they are very strong so our forwards need to be on their game although in fairness our forwards have been playing well and they are all injury free and they're chomping at the bit," he added.

St. Gall's have been up there with the top clubs in the country over the past five or six years, and they are hoping to get back into the final which they last appeared in 2006. However, Gallagher states that they cannot afford to look any further than the challenge that Corofin will provide.

"Corofin reached the semi-final stage last year so they will be keen to get over this hurdle this year and it is also our goal to get to the final. We've been here before four years ago and there is a big hunger to get back to the final and to go one step further this time. However, we'll not be thinking about that, our thoughts are only on Corofin," he commented.

St. Gall's preparations for the semi-final have been disjointed because of their hurlers also going for All Ireland glory. The hurlers though suffered defeat in the final last weekend.

"Things have been going ok for us. Training has been grand although it has been difficult with a number of the boys also involved with the hurlers. We had a good enough session on Monday night and hopefully things will go well on Sunday," he commented.

And the goalkeeper is also keeping an interest on how things are progressing with Fermanagh.

"Obviously Rory and I were training away with Fermanagh up to last week but it is time now to focus on the club and hopefully that will be the case for another couple of weeks after this weekend. In saying that Fermanagh is always in the back of your mind and I'm looking forward to getting back to that," stated Ronan.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 18 Feb 10

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