By Brendan McTaggart

Ryan Elliott has cemented his place as Antrim’s number one in recent years and the prospect of playing in Croke Park again is one that excites the Dunloy shot stopper.  Known as ‘Jimmy’, Elliott has been one of Antrim’s top performers and he gave us a rundown on the Saffrons form in 2022: “We had a lot of disappointment in the league, there’s no point in dressing over it.  We ended up where we didn’t want to be, we didn’t want to be in the relegation play-off.  We came close to a lot of teams but ultimately, we didn’t get the points on the board.

“We’ve knuckled down though.”

Having played in Headquarter’s in the 2020 Final, the goals for this year was simple.  Retain top tier league status and book a place in Croke Park: “Our target was to stay in Division One and we’ve done that, we wanted to make the Joe McDonagh Final and we’ve done that.  Maybe we haven’t played our best in the Joe McDonagh but we’re in the final now.

“That’s what the aim was at the start of the year, to get back to Croke Park but there’s not much point in getting there if we aren’t going to win.  That’s the most important thing.”

It’s been an extremely testing season for the Saffrons that has seen the depth of their squad tested to it’s fullest with an extensive injury list.  Performances could probably be best described as battling at times instead of the fluency we have been accustomed to and while Elliott acknowledged this, the team knows they have the capabilities to reach another level: “We’ve played in glimpses and haven’t really clicked yet, hopefully that comes on Saturday.”

As fate would have it, the last round of matches in the round robin stage proved to be a dress-rehearsal for Saturday’s final.  Antrim were in the privileged position of being able to make changes and pushed Kerry all the way with two late goals putting them within touching distance.  Despite this, the Antrim ‘keeper said they didn’t do themselves justice on the day: “We went into that match and we wanted to win.  We were disappointed not to have won regardless of who was in the 15.  We train together, we are one team and we didn’t play to our ability. 

“Darren’s raised the standards of the whole group and we’ve (players) increased them as well.”

With performances in Division One over the past two seasons has come a certain element of expectation within the Antrim squad and raising hopes of heady days in the Saffron support.  Elliott doesn’t see the expectation as pressure however: “We maybe do expect a lot from ourselves but that’s where we want to be, we want to be the best that we can possibly be and days like Saturday and playing in the senior All-Ireland is what we train for.”

Saturday brings a repeat of the 2020 final which saw Antrim win the McDonagh Cup for the first time.  Kerry looked to be out of the picture after suffering defeat to Down in the opening round of matches in Tralee and then Offaly in Tullamore but have reached the decider after Offaly suffered defeat to Carlow.  Elliott wasn’t too surprised with how the last round of results transpired, calling it the nature of the competition: “It was and it wasn’t.  You learn to expect anything in the Joe McDonagh with all the teams much of a muchness.  We played Carlow in Corrigan and they put it right up to us.  Looking at that match, we knew they’d do the exact same to Offaly.  We weren’t exactly sure how that game would turn out but we know Kerry inside out and they know us.  Next Saturday will be a different test for both teams.”