Getting the match-ups right is vital to any game and Enda McGinley’s decision to put Eoghan McCabe on Sean Quigley paid dividends for Antrim on Saturday night in Brewster Park.
It has taken a while for the St Gall’s ace to break through on to the senior team and he took some time away from the Saffrons after initially joining Lenny Harbinson’s squad back in 2019.
While playing as a link man around the middle third for St Gall’s, McCabe has reinvented himself as a tough-tackling corner-back under McGinley’s tenure with Antrim.
He was thrust into the role for the first time when the Saffrons secured promotion with a victory over Waterford last summer and he held onto his place for the Ulster SFC defeat to Armagh in the Athletic Grounds.
Last Saturday was another acid test for McCabe and he passed with flying colours with Quigley’s four-point haul all coming from placed kicks.
“It was always going to be a tough one coming up here,” said McCabe.
“Fermanagh have been playing Division Two, Division Three the last number of years and we’ve been stuck at the bottom, so we knew it was going to be a big challenge.
“But we were confident, some of the football we’ve been playing, we’ve been feeling good. It was a tough encounter, a bit of scrappiness there but once we kicked into gear we did ok.
“We played Fermanagh in a challenge game and I was marking (Ciaran) Corrigan, so I was thinking I could be marking him. But I was told I was going on Quigley so it was just a different challenge and I embraced it.”
At the start of any campaign, competition for places is fierce. Portglenone’s Niall Delargy has stepped away from the panel for 2022 and Declan Lynch (Lámh Dhearg) and Eunan Walsh (Aghagallon) are still recovering from injury.
However, Moneyglass defender Paddy McCormick has returned to the Antrim squad as has Ballymena’s Paddy McAleer and Creggan’s Marty Johnston.
Having spent the first part of last season on the bench, McCabe is determined to hold on to a starting berth.
“When I got the call-up last year I grabbed it with both hands,” said McCabe.
“Last year I was on the bench for a wee while and broke into the team and like every game you just want to stay in the team.
“James McAuley and myself would be good mates on the panel and we’re push for each other’s places. He said to me last week that it was the first time we were starting together because we were pushing each other out.
“So there is good come competition and then there is the likes of Paddy McCormick can come and there are a load of boys who can come in.
“It’s only good for the squad and everyone knows it’s nothing personal if you’re taken out or put in. It just puts pressure on you to perform – and that’s a good thing that you have that pressure and you have to live up to it.”
With promotion from Division Four secured last term, Antrim got their 2022 campaign off to the best possible start with an impressive nine-point win over the Ernemen in Brewster Park last Saturday night.
They’ll be hoping to make it two wins from two when they host Limerick in Corrigan Park on Saturday afternoon.
McCabe says he is enjoying football under McGinley and his backroom team of former Tyrone star Stephen O’Neill and his club colleague and former Antrim defender Sean Kelly.
“They’re brilliant - it is just simple things,” added McCabe.
“You’re coming in and you’re kicking football for half an hour before training, getting the touches in – left foot, right foot.
“The coaching is not overly complicated, it’s just simple stuff done really well, just doing the basics really well. It’s really enjoyable, just to get you thinking. It’s all about driving standards and trying to get things as close to 100 per cent as possible.”
