Ulster Minor Hurling Final
Antrim v Down at Pairc MacUilin, Ballycastle
Sunday 2nd March – Throw-in 12 noon
Antrim Minor hurlers take on Down in the Ulster Minor Hurling final in Ballycastle tomorrow at 12 noon. The young Saffrons, under the management of Garbriel Crawford, and his team of coaches (Alan Rainey, Matthew Donnelly, Natty McNaughton, Kevin McCann and Ryan McAee) have already played the Ards side this season, beating them in convincingly in the end by eleven points. However it took a strong second half, and the introduction of substitute Cadhan Crawford to get them over the line. Crawford had been the star of the first round win over Derry at Dunsilly, scoring 3-6 in the opening half, before beings called ashore, along with a few others, so the management got a look at the talent at their disposal.
The following week the management made 134 changes to the starting line-up and though they held a narrow lead at the break, after playing into a strong wind in the first half, they made a few changes at the break to be sure of victory.
Last weekend Down travelled to Owenbeg to take on Derry in the final round-robin game and with Derry able to field a much stronger side that than they had done in their opening game against Antrim, things were much tougher for the Ards boys than most pundits had predicted. In a hard fought game game the two side could not be separated and so Down advanced by virtue of the fact that they had lost by less to Antrim than Derry had in that first game.
Gabriel Craword admits that he and his selectors still are not certain of their best line-out, but they are a lot closer to it having seen all of them in action.
Antrim will go into the game as favourites but they will need to be wary and Down proved during the first half that day in Ballycran that they have a lot of good hurlers.
No team has been released at the time of posting this so I have listed the two teams who started against both Derry and Down. Three of the team, Eunan Johnston, Darragh Kinney and Cadhan Crawford are in action today for CPC in the All Ireland Colleges semi-final in Dublin, so understandably the management will leave it to the last minute before making their final selection.
So we would appeal hurling fans to make their way to Ballycastle tomorrow morning and support these you men as they battle for the first silverware of the season, the Danny McNaughton Memorial Cup.
Antrim team v Derry – 9th Feb 2025
Liam Magee, Eunan Johnston, Oisin Heaney, Paddy Morgan, Darragh Kinney, Conor McCann, Niall McKeown, Daire Jemfrey, Canice McIntosh, Dylan McNaughton, Christy Leech, James McDonnell, Sean Smyth, Cadhan Crawford, Oisin Gillan
Subs used – Caolan McCollum for Cadhan Crawford, Nicholas McLaughlin for James McDonnell, Liam McGarry for Canice McIntosh, Liam Smyth for Darragh Kinney and Matthew Rice for Liam Magee
Subs – Matthew Rice, Aaron Quinn, Liam McGarry, Dylan Donnelly, Nicholas McLaughlin, Caolan McCollum, Anthony Cochrane, Ciaran McCann, Liam Smyth
Antrim team v Down – 16th Feb 2025
Liam Magee, Dylan Donnelly, Liam Smyth, Eunan Harvey, Aaron Quinn, Conor McCann, Liam McGarry, Anthony Cochrane, Ronan Taylor, Oisin Boyle, James McDonnell, Ciaran McCann, Nicholas McLaughlin, Jay McAlonan, Caolan McCollum
Subs – Ruairi McShane, Cadhan Crawford, Oisin Healey, Dylan McNaughton, Canice McIntosh, Niall McKeown, Christy Leech, Daire Jemfrey, Paddy Morgan