The Divison 1 is certainly a bit of an unknown, with a few teams who could claim they will be there are thereabouts at the end of the season but let us look at the favourites and the potential party poopers.
McGuigan's on paper does look like the favourites, with Marty Conroy, Gerard McGuigan, Skippy Morgan, and Diddles McArdle all veteran players along with Pat Byrne and Paul McArevy. They are certainly going to be hard to beat. Hustlers are up next and they too look strong in a few players but have not filled their full quota of players. Maybe this was a tactic (only have seven players signed) that allows players a double chance on the night by being almost sure of two games. Sean Murray, Niall McVerry, and Kevin Magee are strong players but they will need the others to step up and pull them through if they want a realistic shot at the title. Bears is next up for analysis and they shout consistency on every level. Neil Heaney, Dermot Lonergan, Eugene McDermott, Raph Crummy will be ably assisted by Paul Murphy and co and definitely will not be afraid of McGuigans are any other would-be potential winner. The newly formed Magees bar, is another to watch with Stevie Noades and Paul Tuite, the stand out names, other names like Lowry and co are lesser-known but be sure the captain Garry Boyle will be shrewd with his choices and people like Anthony Morgan and himself can change the way a game is panning out. Dromintee has entered and again just needs to be seen and played against to see how good they are. John Daly leads them with Ant Reynolds and Connor McCormack confident on results. Bosco A with Eamon Hurley, Damien Brady, and Seany McCaul along with the super steady player, Darren Devlin will definitely be in the running, the unknown being the others in their team can blow hot and cold or just not turn up. Nans have a full squad and the wizard Andrew Chan is balanced with the smart and wiley Mark Pentony. Another great couple of players are, of course, Pat McClenaghan and Mal Maguire, Seamus Morgan, no walkover either, so Nans will be making a push for silverware as long as they don't fold in on themselves. St Monninas with the veteran Tommy McGuiness and the slick Mark Shevlin is well supported by Connor McQuaid and Mickey Teggart and their hammering of Hustlers last year confirmed they are not in it just for the craic, they can make the play offs. CWC B plays out of one of the Premiership big gun pool venues and Tommy Rooney, Emmett McParland the two Kelland brothers but more importantly Mike Nugent (a top player) will be gunning to win the lot!
There are a lot of good teams and whoever gets the run of the balls and that bit of luck, will be in with a shout. Every team has top players but it's winning on the night that counts and that boils down to concentration, teammate support, and taking the right shot when the chips are down. When you go through the names and the make-up of the teams, past results stand for little, and any one of the nine could be winners at the end of the league. McGuigan's may feel it's in the bag but every other team is knocking on the door! It's not over til the fat lady sings!
Next up is Division two...
