Antrim joint manager Dominic McKinley

Bord na Móna Walsh Cup

Antrim vs Meath – Round 1 @ Trim, Co Meath

Date: Saturday December 30 – Throw In: 2pm

Referee: Alfie Devine (Westmeath)

By Brendan McTaggart

While the majority of the county will be casting their thoughts to New Years celebrations this weekend, the Saffron hurlers will be turning their attentions to the beginning of their 2018 season.  A trip to Trim and a date with the Royal County in the opening round of the Walsh Cup lays ahead as the Saffrons look to build upon the foundations laid in 2017.

An unbeaten league campaign, promotion back into Division 1b and another outing in Croke Park is the summary of the Saffron efforts last season and while some will point to the humbling defeat to Carlow in the Christy Ring Cup Final as their abiding memory, it’s also worth noting what else had transpired during the campaigns.

The meeting with the Barrowsiders in Headquarters was the fourth time the sides met in the space of a few months.  The Saffrons getting the better of their rivals on two occasions, memorably in horrible conditions in Newry to seal the league crown and eventual promotion to the Liam McCarthy competition.  One draw and the subsequent defeat.

Progress has undoubtedly been made and while it seems incredible that the league season is beginning less than a week after Christmas, the life of a county player means there is little or no ‘off season.’  Individual gym regimes and nutrition controls were laid out at the end of the county season last year to ensure fitness and conditioning is maintained if not improved for the start of the coming season, an area that team manager Dominic McKinley thought that they were lacking in last term: “We won’t be focussing as much on the conditioning side of things at the start of the season this time around.  Don’t get me wrong we won’t or haven’t been neglecting it but we felt that the players weren’t far away at the end of last year, but they can always improve.  That’s why we got the individual plans made out, so we can get ourselves into the best place to start and compete with the tougher competition this year.”Former Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy is acting as an advisor with Antrim this season

With Liam Sheedy now part of the Saffron set-up, McKinley told us that it’s not only the Antrim players who are benefitting from the Tipperary native: “Liam’s a straight talker and tells you exactly what he’s thinking and that’s good to have about us.  You’ve heard already about ‘no magic wand’ for Antrim hurling but we as managers and coaches are learning from him as well.  He’s been there and done that on the biggest stage so it’s great to have him on board.”  Sheedy’s involvement is dictated by his work commitments at home and while he has had some involvement this year already, McKinley is hoping for more as the season evolves: “He’s had an impact already.  There’s been players brought in who possibly wouldn’t have bothered were it not for Liam’s involvement and even the players who didn’t want to join Liam wanted to find out why.  It’s good to find out these things so that we can improve moving forward.  From my own perspective when I was playing, I would have loved to have been playing under a coach the stature of Liam, I’d have jumped at the chance and I get the feeling that a lot of the younger members of the squad are feeling the same.”

The fixture computer has certainly been far from kind on the Saffrons.  An away fixture to All-Ireland Champions Galway lays ahead but McKinley says his side are looking forward to the challenges in the forthcoming season: “There’s two ways anyone can look at playing the likes of Galway.  You can run from the challenge or you can face it head on.  As a sportsman, these are the types of matches you want to pit yourself against and it’s one we’re looking forward to.”

With the injection of fresh talent into the Saffron squad this year, McKinley remains optimistic on the Saffrons chances in the season ahead.  More recently though with their participation in the Walsh and McGurk Cup’s, the Saffron manager told us that it’s an opportunity for all members of their squad to get game time: “We’re heading down this Saturday and we have a team in mind.  The McGurk Cup starts for us next week against Ulster University and it’ll be mainly the U21 panel with one or two of the senior squad who might not get a run out on Saturday.”

Antrim will be missing the services of John Dillon, Donal McKinley, Matthew Donnelly and Eoghan Campbell and although McKinley wouldn’t reveal the starting 15, he admitted it would have a youthful look about it:  “The Walsh Cup itself is a good opportunity for us and a competition that we’re always glad to be participating in.  It’s not easy preparing a team so early in the year and with the snow to contend with now it’s making it more difficult but we’re looking forward to a good run out.”

Saturday will be the first time the Saffrons will meet Meath since the infamous Christy Ring Final in 2016 where after a countback, ‘scoreboard gate’ and a reply, the Royal men were celebrating.  McKinley admitted that the match cropped back into his own mind recently but only as a reminder as to how good Meath are: “They are a good side and on the face of it they deserved their spoils over the two eventual games but that’s in the distant past as far as we’re concerned.  We know it will be a tough game but we have an idea of who we’ll be starting.  We’ll probably start one or two of the younger lads to see how they fair with the physical nature that a match against Meath would bring.”

The second match in the group sees Antrim travel to Parnell Park on Sunday week for a meeting with the Dubs but for now, the Saffs will be hopeful of a winning start to their 2018 season.