Joe McDonagh Cup – Round 5
Antrim v Carlow
Date: Sunday 24 May
Throw in: 1pm
Venue: Corrigan Park, Belfast
By Brendan McTaggart
The Antrim team has been named for Sunday’s Joe McDonagh Cup game and Davy Fitzgerald has made a couple of changes from the side who defeated Westmeath. Ruairi McCormick comes into the defence with Paddy Burke missing out while Joseph McLaughlin gets the nod in attack – Seaan Elliott the man to make way while both he and Paddy Burke aren’t named in the match day squad.
With Carlow already qualified for the final and the chances of Antrim making the final fairly slim, there isn’t much riding on this game. We would need to see Down defeating Westmeath which is a possibility but we also require London to do us a favour against Laois. Even then, if those results were to somehow go our way, we would be joined on six points with three other teams. The best placed team on score difference would finish second so we would need to defeat Carlow with a fair bit to spare.
Is this what it means to clutch at straws?
The Westmeath game was a strange one. We looked to be home and hosed but our performance levels dropped to let the Lake County back into the game. It’s not the first time it’s happened this year, if you look at the matches against London and Laois we had periods where the opponents got on top of us. Against Laois it was the winning of the game for the O’Moore County as we struggled to break their momentum while against London the Exiles finished strongly. We held a nine point lead at one stage but we managed to see that game through.
The pleasing aspect of the performance last week was how we finished and managed to wrestle control once again. At the end of both halves, to hit an unanswered 1-5 in a relatively short space of time, showed just how clinical this Antrim team can be.
Jack McCloskey retains his place in the 15 after a bright game last Saturday. The Loughgiel man looked sharp and was involved in much of the good Antrim produced. His and all of forwards work rate was exceptional and really pleasing to see. Chasing in numbers, delivering turnovers in dangerous areas and deflating the opposition while giving your team a shot of adrenaline. Jack, Conal Cunning and Conal Bohill went through a mountain of work while the stats on Ryan McCambridge GPS would have been off the charts by the time he was taken off late in the game.
Games historically against the Barrowsiders can be eventful. Who could ever forget that game between these sides in 2017 in the inaugural McDonagh Cup? An Antrim victory but a match that saw Joe Maskey, Michael Armstrong and Neil McManus sustaining injuries. When you throw in a couple of red cards and a second half that lasted 50 minutes, calling the match eventful might be an understatement.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since that game. Antrim generally have had the upper hand in recent times, hopefully that same trend continues on Sunday.