O’Neills Leinster U20 Hurling Championship – Tier 2

Antrim 2-23 Westmeath 1-15

Saturday 29 March

By Brendan McTaggart

Antrim put in a strong performance in Mullingar to get their Leinster u20 championship off to a winning start on Saturday afternoon.  11 points was the difference between the sides at the end of an hour that saw the Saffrons start slowly in both halves but such was their recovery from that, it will merely be seen as a footnote to the game.

Fiontan Bradley maintained his excellent form at this level by top scoring for the Saffrons with 1-9 beside his name and just five of those coming from placed ball but he was edged out of the Man of The Match accolade by the returning Jack McCloskey.  In his first start of the campaign, McCloskey was at his electric best.  He finished with seven points beside his name and tortured the Westmeath defence with his pace and trickery and was part of an inside forward line that shone.

The two Antrim goals came in either half from Bradley and Aodhan McGarry, the latter coming seven minutes into the second half that gave Antrim an eight point lead but the concession of a soft goal for the home side gave Westmeath a glimmer of hope.  The Saffrons went through the gears in the final quarter however and finished superbly, adding 10 points with six unanswered before the long whistle.

The home side got off to a fast start and had four points on the board inside the opening five minutes – one each for Cormac McKeogh and Calum McKeogh either side of a brace of frees from Dylan Corrigan.  Corrigan would finish top scorer for his side with six of his eight points coming from placed ball.

Antrim began to find their feet in the game and restricted Westmeath to just another five points in the time that remained in the half and a period of dominance for 20 minutes that saw them turn the screw.

Four points in as many minutes from Oran Donnelly, Niall Magee, Bradley and McCloskey were answered by a Cody Ward point in the 12^th minute before the first goal of the game.  Donnelly and Bradley combining before the Cushendall man fired to the back of the net and give the Saffrons the lead.  It could have been even better with the next attack when Donnelly deflected the sliotar into the back of the net from a long delivery but he was penalised for a square-ball infringement but scores from McCloskey (two) and Thomas McLaughlin stretched the Antrim lead to five.

Antrim were creating chances and space in the Westmeath defence and could have had another couple of majors but Bradley and Joseph McLaughlin were both denied by some last-gasp defending.

Westmeath seemed to have weathered the Saffron storm and outscored Antrim four points to three in the time that remained of the first half to leave the half time score 1-10 to 0-9 in Antrim’s favour.

It was largely an excellent from Antrim who played with huge intensity.  Their slick passing and movement nullified the elements, the four point margin at half time was the minimum they deserved and gave Antrim an excellent platform for the second half.

The lead was stretched to five before McGarry found the back of the Westmeath net in the 37^th minute.  Collecting a sideline from Joseph McLaughlin, McGarry’s touch took him beyond the Westmeath challenges before he produced an expert finish.

The home side responded superbly however.  Another point from Calum McKeogh was followed by a fortuitous goal in the 41^st minute.  Ivan Smyth making the most of a spill from Eoghan Richmond in the Antrim goals and punished the error to leave four between the sides going into the final quarter.

While it may have been easy to put their head down following the sucker-punch, Antrim found another gear and were relentless to the final whistle.  They outscored Westmeath 10 points to three with just three of those white flags coming from placed ball to give Antrim a comfortable win in the end.

The pleasing aspect of the finish has to be the intensity levels the whole team showed right to the end.  They were relentless and never gave Westmeath an inch with their tackling and press all over the pitch.  McCloskey and Bradley will take the plaudits but there should be a nod in the direction of the work this side have done off the park with the strength and conditioning preparation work.  Outside of the first five, maybe 10 minutes of this game, this was a top performance from a talented group of players.

They turn their attention now to a game with Meath in two week’s time knowing that a win will see them into the top tier.

TEAMS

Antrim: Eoghan Richmond; Malachi McGibbon, Cian Baudant, Niall Magee; Charlie McAuley, Sean McKay, Ben O’Kane; Calum McIlwaine, Ronan Fitzgerald; Aodhan McGarry, Joseph McLaughlin, Thomas McLaughlin; Jack McCloskey, Oran O’Connor, Fiontan Bradley

Subs: Cormac McKeown for R Fitzgerald (46); Callagh Mooney for J McLaughlin (52); Cian O’Connor for C Baudant (53)

Scorers: F Bradley 1-9 (5fs); J McCloskey 0-7; A McGarry 1-00; O Donnelly 0-2; C McKeown 0-2; N Magee 0-1; J McLaughlin 0-1; T McLaughlin 0-1

Westmeath: Padraig Casey; Conor Daly, Jack Murtagh, Darragh Smyth; Sean Hayes, Brian McCabe, Peter Murphy; Calum McKeogh, Cody Ward; Dylan Corrigan, Conor Leech, Conor Heffernan; Cormac McKeogh, Ivan Smyth, Nathan Cornally

Subs: Connaire Martin for B McCabe (44); Caolan Ready for C Leech (46); Adam Cassidy for C Heffernan (50); Sean Jackson for I Smyth (55)

Scorers: D Corrigan 0-8 (6fs); I Smyth 1-00; Cormac McKeogh 0-2; Calum McKeogh 0-2; C Ward 0-2; C Heffernan 0-1

TO SEE MORE PICS FROM THIS GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

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Leinster Under 20 Hurling Championship – Tier 2

Westmeath v Antrim at Cussack Park, Mullingar

Antrim Under-20s step into the unknown tomorrow (Saturday) when they take on Westmeath in the Leinster Championship in Cussack Park, Mullingar. (Throw-in 2pm).

When we spoke to team manager Michael McShane he sounded upbeat about things, saying that training has been going really well since beating Down in the Ulster final three weeks ago. The four senior players in the panel, Sean McKay, Cormac McKeown, Aodhan McGarry and Joseph McLaughlin were away last weekend with the senior squad at their warm-weather training camp in Portugal, returned a few days ago and trained with the rest of the squad last night.

Michael and his management team will not name the starting 15 until they arrive at Cussack Park as there are a couple of players with slight niggles and they want to asses them in the morning to be sure they are good to go. However the Ballycastle man assures us that the spirit in the camp is very good. They have worked very hard for a few months now and are really looking forward to the challenge of playing in Tier 2 in Leinster.

Their group in the second tier contains Westmeath and Meath and McShane stressed that nothing short of a win on Saturday will suffice. One team of the three advances to Tier 1 and that is something the management team have set their sights on since the campaign started. They have seen Westmeath in action on a couple of occasions and have been impressed with what they saw.

“I have got to see the opposition in action in a couple of games. They are a very big, strong team and they play a very distinctive running game. We know that any time you go into Mullingar to play Westmeath you are going to be up against it.” Like ourselves their aim is to get into Tier 1 and to do that they need to win tomorrow. McShane added “ To be honest whoever loses tomorrow will be more or less out of it.”

The way the group works sees whoever loses out tomorrow facing Meath next weekend, while the winners of tomorrow’s game face the same opposition the following weekend on April 12^th.

Summing up McShane added “We are all very excited about this game, which should have a real championship feel about it, We are really looking forward to it and hopefully we get the win.”

The Saffrons have qualified for this stage of the competition by winning the Ulster title which saw them beat Derry and Down in the round robin section, and them beat Down in the final in Ballycastle. Down provided stiff opposition in that final and at half time there was only four points between the sides. However they pulled away in the second half and were comfortable enough winners in the end.

McShane and his team have had a wide selection to pick from, especially with St Killian’s winning last season’s Paddy Buggy Cup (All Ireland Colleges B Championship) and Cross & Passion doing the same this year. There is deep pool of talent available and they have been given their chance during a series of challenge games, plus their Ulster campaign.

We would expect to see a team along the lines of the one that beat Down in the Ulster final. Cormac McKeown did not start that day because he selected to start on the senior team the following day against Laois in the National Hurling League Division 1 B game at Corrigan Park. However he did get a run out during the second half of the Down game and looks certain to start tomorrow.

The team who beat Down in that Ulster final was

Antrim: Eoghan Richmond; Ciarán McAllister, Liam Glackin, Malachi McGibbon; Charlie McAuley, Ben O’Kane, Niall Magee; Sean McKay, Calum McIlwaine; Aodhan McGarry, Oran Donnelly, Thomas McLaughlin; Callagh Mooney, Joseph McLaughlin, Fiontan Bradley

Subs: Sean Óg Blaney for C McAllister (28); Cormac McKeown for O Donnelly (38); Orrin O’Connor for J McLaughlin (58); Austin Birt for L Glackin (58)

Scorers: F Bradley 0-10 (5fs); A McGarry 1-1 (1f); J McLaughlin 0-3; S McKay 0-2; O Donnelly 0-2; C Mooney 0-2; O O’Connor 0-2; N Magee 0-1; C McIlwaine 0-1; C McKeown 0-1

THE WESTMEATH LINE-OUT

Tomorrow is the biggest game most of these young men have faced. The stakes are high and it promises to be a great contest. Get yourself down to Mullingar to cheer them on.

For those not able to travel the game is being streamed live on Clubber