Leinster Hurling Championship – Round 5 – Sunday 25 May
Antrim v Offaly
Venue: Glenisk O’Connor Park, Tullamore
Throw in: 2pm
Referee: Michael Kennedy (Tipperary)
Brendan McTaggart looks ahead to Antrim’s winner takes all contest with Offaly in the Leinster Championship…
Antrim’s 2025 season hinges on 70 minutes in the Faithful County on Sunday afternoon with the threat of dropping down to the McDonagh Cup looming large.
Given the nature of the Leinster Championship, there has been an air of inevitability about this with both sides struggling thus far. It’s a winner takes all scenario and one that in the recent past, this Antrim team have generally come out on the positive side of the result. If we cast our minds back to games against Offaly in a relegation play off in 2022 and more recently, defeating Carlow under similar circumstances at Corrigan Park last year in what was Darren Gleeson’s last game in charge of the Saffrons. Those with any sort of Saffron coursing through their veins will be hoping that this side can rise to the challenge one more time.
Having already faced Offaly this year, Davy Fitzgerald and his backroom team will have a fair idea on what they are due to come up against on Sunday afternoon. It was largely an afternoon to forget back in February with the Faithful men coming away with a 15 point win but it’s fair to say Antrim didn’t acquit themselves to the best of their ability or compared to anything they have shown in most outings under the Sixmilebridge man’s tenure. It was 70 minutes littered with individual errors and mistakes but that was the beginning of the Fitzy era where we have been told on multiple occasions, there was a chance it could have got worse before it got better.
I said in a preview after that Offaly game that perhaps Antrim as a county don’t have the players to play the game Fitzgerald is looking to bring. Fitzgerald’s response to that was something that has made plenty of airtime over the intervening weeks and months. Just to clarify, this wasn’t a dig at the Antrim manager, merely an observation. I knew how long he was in the job at the time, what he was trying to do, perhaps I was a little early with the observation but it’s still one that hangs over this season. But, I am an Antrim man through and through. I have travelled the length and breadth of the country following them through Kehoe Cup’s, Walsh Cup’s, Division 2 campaigns, Christy Ring Cup’s, McDonagh Cup’s, Promotions and disappointments and as I have said to Fitzgerald himself, there won’t be a happier man alive to be proved wrong if, if not when, he turns things around. He has the perfect chance to stick two fingers up in this journos direction on Sunday afternoon.
The team itself has been named and while James McNaughton and Keelan Molloy have made welcome return from suspension and injury, neither make the starting 15. I’d be surprised if one, possibly both men are named in the 15 before throw in while there is also places on the subs for Jack McCloskey after his excellent performances for the U20s, the young Shamrock has that x-factor about him that could be the ace in the saffron pack.
Despite that defeat in February, Tullamore holds better memories in the recent past. Antrim have defeated the Faithful County in league and McDonagh Cup on their travels while it at O’Connor Park where they achieved promotion back in 2020 – defeating Kerry in a rescheduled league final.
Sunday is a massive task, make no mistake about it. Offaly as a county are on the crest of a wave with success both provincial and at the All Ireland stage at underage. They have the cogs in motion and are reaping the rewards of hard work put during Michael Duignan’s time as county chairman.
For Antrim to get anything from this game and maintain their Liam McCarthy status, they’ll have to play to a standard that they have shown briefly throughout this season so far. They showed against Kilkenny for long periods and briefly against Wexford that when they get it right, they are a match for anyone.
It will take 70 minutes of that and more. All roads point towards Tullamore, it’s time to get our Saff on one more time.
