National Hurling League – Division 1B

Antrim v Wexford

Venue: Chadwicks, Wexford Park

Date: 24 January – Time: 4pm

Referee: Thomas Walsh (Waterford)

By Brendan McTaggart

Antrim’s national league campaign begins this weekend with a journey down to the sunny south east and a clash with Wexford.  After maintaining their status in the division comfortably in 2025, the 2026 campaign sees a tough schedule for Davy Fitzgerald’s men with the Banner men coming ‘up the road’ next weekend and a date with Dublin soon after.

But, that’s the joys of playing at the top table in hurling and contests against the best in the country certainly whet the appetite.

After the disappointment of relegation from the Leinster Championship, Fitzgerald has rejigged his back room team where Arron Graffin stays but it joined with St Paul’s native, Paul Donnelly and one Seoirse Bulfin.

Bulfin is a Limerick native with Bruff his home club and as we found out, has a long and successful past with Fitzgerald.  Despite being part of the Meath management team (coach and manager) after taking the reins at Westmeath, Seoirse told us that he felt he would always end up working with Davy again: “We’ve been working together since 2003.  Started off in LIT and I stepped up to Waterford with him in 2011.  Five years in Waterford, five years in Clare and then Wexford before we took a break from each other.

“I was delighted to get back working with him.

“When we finished up in Wexford we had a good old chat, I always had an idea I’d work with him again but I’d already committed to working with Meath.”

An eight and a half hour round trip is far from easy, throw in the fact that Seoirse has a young family with three daughters, there was more than himself involved in the decision making: “I didn’t need much encouragement.  He (Davy) had always spoke so well of the players and I’ve came up against Antrim a bit over the last couple of years so I’ve seen the talent and quality as well as the passion they have for hurling.

“It didn’t take much encouragement and when I looked at the logistics and spoke to my wife at home, I decided to give it a go for a year and see how it goes.”

The ‘Davy Project’ is now a little more than 12 months in and while everyone is keen and hopeful of progress on the pitch, Seoirse was impressed with what he has walked into: “When you go into a new place like how I have with Davy just being here a year, it takes a bit of time to get the way of playing and mindset in synch with what you’re maybe after.  You could see from the first session or two that there’s been an awful lot of work done.  The players don’t have to think as much about what they have to do, they’re just doing it. 

“For me, the one thing that kind of stood out was the even level of hurling throughout the panel.  Everyone of them are well able to hurl and that’s great when you come into a set up like that.  It makes our job as a coach easier, that’s for sure.”

With a couple of noticeable absentees from the panel, Nigel Elliott and Eoghan Campbell (retirement) with Niall McKenna and Ryan Elliott choosing to step away from the panel this year, the Bruff native has no concerns over the quality at their disposal this season and highlighted the fresh blood coming through the ranks.

When we discussed the make-up of the panel, Seoirse added: “We’re down a couple of lads who were part of the panel last year but there’s plenty of young lads who are putting their hand up here.  They’ll get plenty of opportunities over the next couple of weeks.

“Joseph McLaughlin is an exciting talent along with Jack McCloskey who’s just back from a bad injury in the summer but there’s loads others.  The likes of Ruairi McCormick, Cormac McKeown and Eoin McFerran.  It’s an opportunity for these lads in a starting jersey.  As the saying goes, possession is nine tenths of the law.  Hang on to it and don’t give it back easy to some of the lads who are coming back.”

With our participation in the Walsh Cup restricted to just the one game due to adverse weather conditions, ‘frustration’ was the word of the day: “Walsh Cup wasn’t ideal” said Bulfin, “some managers are giving out about the likes of these games but look, if you’re not involved in this, you’d be playing challenge matches.  And no matter what you hear, playing in the likes of the Walsh Cup is a step up from a challenge match.

“It was fairly frustrating but you could see it coming and thankfully they made the call fairly early.

“The conditions were horrendous.  The rain was pelting it down but the wind, it made it difficult to hear ourselves out there for the likes of puck outs and even communicating in the back line you know but we did an awful lot of good things in the game and hit a lot of bad wides in the second half, maybe taking the wrong option.”

Since that game against Kildare, Antrim have been focusing on in-house games and while they have been hampered with players participation in the Ryan Cup with Jordanstown and Queen’s, Bulfin added that it’s been all positive: “We have a couple of in-house games but there’s lads playing in the Ryan Cup with five or six lads in with Jordanstown and two in with Queen’s – Wango and Cormac McKeown.  You have to be fair to them and the competition.  It’s not ideal but every county are in the same position.

“We’re preparing as best we can, the lads are training well and there’s a great vibe with huge amounts of positivity.  A great bunch to work with and very driven.”

With the Saffrons home matches being moved from Corrigan Park while the Whiterock Road venue undergoes maintenance, Pearse Park Dunloy has been nominated the home of choice for the 2026 season.  “From what I’ve seen and my own experience of Dunloy” added Bulfin, “it’s a great set up but it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day if it’s Croke Park or Dunloy or any of these places.  We’ll prepare the lads to go out and play a certain way and certain ideals, go out with a set of principles and how we approach things and work hard but the one thing I can guarantee is these lads will go out and they’ll fight and they’ll battle, whatever happens after that, happens but that’s my big aim.”

The importance of staying in the division is paramount for the progression of Antrim hurling.  Bulfin shared the same opinion when he added: “It’s important to maintain our status in Division 1b.  It’s a very competitive league and while it’s a tough start (away to Wexford and home to Clare and Dublin), we want to maintain our status, hold our own and go into the Joe McDonagh where we’ll be there or thereabouts.

“We have our own personal goals that we won’t be disclosing but that’s where we’re at, that the kind of feel that we have right now.”

To call it the ‘sunny south east’ in the month of January may be a step too far but if there is a time to play a team with the caliber of Wexford, the first match in the league schedule would be close to being the first option.

The bookies will have Antrim as second favourites against a side who we performed well against for 40 minutes in the Leinster Championship before the rub of the green went against us.  Will there be signs of progress?  That will be difficult to measure given the time of year and timing of the match.  No one will be casting judgement at the final whistle on Saturday evening.  The word coming out of the camp is this group have developed their fighting ability and increased their desire for the Saffron shirt.  As an Antrim fan that’s what we want, a team we can throw our lot behind.

The 2026 journey begins.