Antrim turn it around

21 Jul 2010

After beating Carlow and Dublin to reach the All-Ireland quarter-final, Antrim have already been the story of the hurling season. Christy O’Connor looks at the challenges that Antrim have faced in the past.

When Antrim travelled to Cork just two weeks before their first round championship match against Offaly, only 17 players were on board the bus when it departed Belfast for the 250 mile trip south to Midleton. As the bus made it’s way down the Fall’s Road, one of the players, in half-jest, wrote on a piece of paper, ‘Hurlers wanted for game in Cork’, and stuck it on the window. It was intended as a joke but just two weeks from their championship opener, it was no laughing matter.

When Antrim played the Midleton senior side that evening, they didn’t have a goalkeeper so Paul Shiels – their captain and midfielder – occupied the position. Four more players travelled down by car on Saturday to make up the numbers for the remainder of their weekend programme but the lack of bodies was still a major concern. In the recent history of Antrim hurling, numbers have often been an issue with regard to squad stability and a host of experienced players had already left the panel. They looked doomed for their first championship match but Antrim played their best hurling in eight years and a dubious Offaly free in injury time took the game to extra time before Offaly ran out narrow winners.

Antrim will always have to deal with their sense of isolation and the demoralisation it can engender but they prospered under Dinny Cahill in the past when their All-Ireland quarter-final performances in 2002 and 2003 were the county’s best championship displays in over a decade. Then the decay set in again. Cork annihilated them in 2004 and confidence crashed. Cahill lost the dressing room and he walked away in the middle of the following year’s championship before they were relegated.

When the championship format was changed in 2005, Antrim complained about losing their safe passage to an All-Ireland quarter-final after winning Ulster. They were guaranteed three qualifier games but lost two of their three qualifiers that season by an aggregate total of 53 points. After getting promoted from the Christy Ring Cup in 2006, Terrence ‘Sambo’ McNaughton and Dominic ‘Woody’ McKinley took over and they gutted the panel. They infused the squad with young players from the minor teams they coached in 2005 and 2006, both of which narrowly lost All-Ireland quarter-finals. They made progress in their first year in 2007 by defeating Laois and frightening Clare but they shipped some unmerciful hidings in their last two seasons in charge. With such a young team in transition, they were always going to have to suffer for a while.

Sustaining focus and ambition has always been Antrim’s difficulty but they proved under Cahill in the past that they can compete when they are properly mentally and physically prepared. At the end of last season, Cahill committed to the job again. Nobody thought it would work but the recruitment of former Cork trainer Jerry Wallis as strength and conditioning coach was a massive coup. Cahill continued to show heroic commitment by travelling from Tipperary but he said that anytime he ever doubted himself, he always looked at his other selector Bob Thornhill; he was travelling from Cork.

A host of players returned before the Ulster final against Down and Antrim have really got back on track ever since. They beat Carlow and Dublin to reach the All-Ireland quarter-final. Nobody saw it coming but whatever happens on Sunday, Antrim have already been the story of the hurling season.

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Christy O'Connor has worked in the national newspaper industry for over ten years and now writes primarily for the Irish edition of The Sunday Times. A former member of the Clare senior hurling panel, he is the author of the critically acclaimed hurling book 'Last Man Standing'. He has also written 'The GAA Quiz Book 1' and the 'The GAA Quiz Book 2'.

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