Joe McDonagh Cup Final Preview – Antrim v Kerry
By Brendan McTaggart
Gary O’Kane was barely 18 years old when Antrim last played in Croke Park on the biggest day in the hurling calendar. The Dunloy and Antrim man was part of the late, great Jim Nelson’s band of legends who 31 years ago dared a county to dream.
‘Pappy’ is now part of the management team and he recalls the run up to the Saffrons day with Tipperary: “It was a long time ago. There are bits and pieces you remember explicitly and there is one thing that does stick out in my mind. Slemish Moutain at Ballymena’s old pitch. There was a big field beside it, it was a greyhound hare-coursing track. I remember Darren (Gleeson) and us were down, I think it was Cushendun against St Paul’s we were watching and I was telling him about us running around that track in ’89. It felt like we were running for a lifetime.” O’Kane continued: “Everyone’s comparing this to ’89 and I suppose that’s fair enough. It’s a major tournament for us and it’s took us a long time to get back. I know we played in a couple of Christy Ring’s but since this competition came in two or three years ago, it’s major. We set out from it came about to win it and we’re in with a chance on Sunday.”
Through the most uncertain of years, Antrim haven’t lost a game since their defeat to Offaly in the final if the Kehoe Cup in early January. They have gone through the league and McDonagh Cup campaigns unbeaten, and a win on Sunday would be a great way to finish the season for the Saffrons, though it hasn’t always been plain sailing. They’ve had to dig deep on more than one occasion, showing incredible spirit but Pappy says that fighting spirit has always been there in Antrim teams and told us just how far this crop of players have come in a relatively short space of time: “The fighting spirit was always there in Antrim teams. Going back even when I was playing, we maybe didn’t have the greatest team but the boys always gave their best.
“This year is totally different. Even from when me and Terrence (McNaughton) and ‘Woody’ (Dominic McKinley) came in, Neal (Peden) as well, we still had that age old problem of getting all the best players on the field. In them days we didn’t.
“When Dominic and ‘Sambo’ moved away me and Neal said we would stay on. We saw the likes of the James McNaughton’s and Keelan Molloy’s who did work hard, coming through and if we stepped away, where would they go? It would be back to the drawing board if someone else came in. Up until two years ago we had problems getting teams out. Some might not like me saying this but I spent one Thursday and Friday on the phone ringing players to go and play Wicklow in the Kehoe Cup. On a Friday evening at 4pm I had 13 players. We pulled two boys out of a University house in Dublin from Cushendall to be subs for us. That’s only two or three years ago.”
But from there, the foundations of what they have delivered in 2020 began. Pappy continued: “Neal came in as manager and we brought Darren in as coach. Things have slowly built and we got the wheels in motion. We always had a problem with strength and conditioning, it was always looked upon as a myth and we didn’t need it. Yet all second tier counties who were above us were doing it for years. You could see the difference when you were playing a Westmeath or Laois in the McDonagh Cup last year. They were big, big men and we were only whippets compared to them.
“We’ve got that sorted and brought in a S&C man in and the boys have worked hard. This year everything has come together. The boys have done the work in the gym and we have everyone out on the pitch. The boys have really bought into it.”
When the initial lockdown arrived in March, Antrim had beaten Kerry in Tralee before coming back from the brink to deny Offaly a place in the league decider. Everything was going to plan all those best laid plans were halted. O’Kane and the Antrim management team had a plan: “Even during lockdown and the Zoom meetings we had, there was a comradery there. When the boys are fit and everything’s in place, we knew the results would come and this year’s the proof of that.
“They were doing zoom training after the first two weeks. The boys were doing their own thing and while I’m not technology gifted, I got around it and that was a credit to those lads.
“It showed us as a management team what the boys were willing to do and they had bought into everything we had set out at the start of the year. It would have been very easy for some of them to say “uck that’s a load of s**te” and walk away but the boys done it religiously every week. They were sending in reports to Brendan Murphy (S&C coach) from early on in lockdown and they were itching to get back on the field.”
Antrim have had major bumps along the road to Croke Park. Namely playing this campaign without Neil McManus and having to deal with Covid after the win against Kerry in Tullamore. Pappy said it helped in building the spirit and belief the squad have shown this year: “If that was last year or the year before, we couldn’t cope with it. We’d have folded. They’d have been going in with an aul downer ‘boys we’re going in without four or five of our best forwards’ but the boys stepped up. Clarkey, Dan McCloskey have been unbelievable. Both have come in and haven’t lost their place. We’ve preached that all year, if you train well you will hold your place and that’s what we’ve been trying to stick to.” He continued by highlighting the two wins he felt were pivotal during the McDonagh campaign: “The Kerry match was massive. They came up here (Corrigan Park) two years ago and beat us in the league. With us playing them in the league final as well, we knew we could take them if we perform but that game in Carlow, we lost our shape and started getting into our bad habits. They got ahead but we knuckled down in the last few minutes to get a draw and it was the boys who came off the bench who made the difference.
“That game helped us as a management team, to show the lads that if we waiver from our game plan then we’re going to struggle. It gave them belief in what we were doing as well.
“Coming out of Carlow with a draw, that was a big result. They were coming in here as one of the favourites for the whole thing and our boys proved that day that when things go wrong, they can turn it around. It set us up for the big game against Kerry.”
They say familiarity can breed contempt, well then playing the same team for a fourth time inside a calendar year has 2020 written all over it. While O’Kane agreed both teams know each other inside out, he was keen to stress the past meetings will have no bearing on what will happen on Sunday: “
It’s a whole new ball game. The league’s gone, the game in Tralee is gone, the McDonagh Cup (round-robin) match is gone as well. Kerry had an incredible win against Carlow. That was knockout, the best team on the day were in the final and even going into the last 10 minutes, they were down two points and came back to win it.
“They have a more boys back, they have O’Leary (Michael) back and others. This is a totally different ball game. Croke Park, a different surface, a bigger pitch and that’s the way we’re treating it.
“We have a lot of players coming in here who’ve never played in Croke Park. It’s All-Ireland final day and yes the crowd won’t be there but from now on in, all they’re going to hear is Croke Park this and Croke Park that. We need to get the players right and get them focussed on Kerry and Kerry only but we know if we look after ourselves and hurl the way we can, we’ll be ok on the day.”
31 years, a generation of what might have been and disappointments come’s to an end of sorts on Sunday. Antrim stand 70 minutes away from the biggest piece of silverware in fifty years, and Pappy told us a win against the Kingdom in Croke Park on the biggest day in the hurling calendar can have a far greater impact than winning than meets the eye: “This is where they want to be. They’ve grown up watching the Tipp’s, Clare’s, Cork’s, Kilkenny’s and they want to be part of that. It’s an All-Ireland final for us and there is a massive buzz going through the county at the minute and the boys can’t wait to get out there.
“This can plant the seeds. If you want to have a system of young boys coming through who want to play for the county, this is where it starts. This is where it’s showcased, the young one’s watching their club mates playing on All-Ireland final day, hopefully winning can be the start of something.”