Club News

06/08/03 Croke Park can't turn blind eye to Ulster's plight

"Another year, another brave performance from the Antrim hurlers, but when will they be allowed to seriously challenge for All-Ireland honours?" Excerpt from Sunday Tribune article by Wexford hurling guru, and friend of St. John's, Liam Griffin on 03/08/03

DON'T ask me the name of he movie, but there's a famous scene in an old black and white film where a disappointed woman who has been jilted cries plaintively, "Say it ain't so, Jake, ay it ain't so." Under the present system, there's no Antrim or any other northern team will win the All-Ireland. Not ever. It would be if we could say it ain't so, but we can't.

Dinny Cahill has done a fantastic job as Antrim coach, no question about that. There's only so much that he or any other individual can do, however. Were Cahill to travel north twice as often as he already does, were he to go as far as up sticks and move to Belfast even, it wouldn't make enough of a difference in the long run. Short of setting fire to his jeep in the middle of Croke Park on All-Ireland final day as a means of drawing attention to Antrim's plight, nothing he does will. What may become of Antrim when Cahill's term of office expires is a subject too potentially depressing to dwell on here.

I sit across the table from Jimmy O'Reilly, whose Down team ran Antrim close in the Ulster semi-final, at meetings of the Hurling Development Committee (HDC). O'Reilly's frustration, and the frustration of the northern hurling people - my friends from Dunloy included - is all too apparent. We've been conditioned over the years in the GAA not to complain. "Taking your beating" is the name of the game. Even when you have one hand tied behind your back, you're still supposed to take your beating. That's not good enough any
longer.

We run our inter-county championships on arbitrary, often totally illogical and definitely unfair lines. Look at the Kildare footballers, required to reappear six days after losing a provincial final (and then forced to play out the game with 14 men after having a player sent off while their opponents, who also had a player sent off, have their full complement restored). But nobody is as badly let down by the system as the hurlers of Ulster. They need and deserve a full complement of top class home matches over the course of the season. They don't get it. Few of us outsiders seem to care enough.

Antrim should have beaten Wexford last Sunday. With better preparation, they would have. But it was a full year since Cahill's men had played absolute top drawer opponents competitively whereas Wexford had had the benefit of games with Kilkenny and Waterford within the previous three weeks. Wexford had both match practice and match fitness. Antrim had neither. That's what turned the tide in the closing 10 minutes.

Furthermore, many of the losers 17 wides were eminently scoreable, while Liam Watson's disallowed early goal was a borderline decision; Brian McFall was inside the square when he jumped and outside it when he landed. Had the goal stood, Antrim would have settled into a rhythm earlier than they did.

There's a case for arguing that the interval arrived at just the wrong time for them in that it halted their momentum. Antrim would have been better served by getting the second goal immediately after halftime and thereby starting the new half on the right foot. As it was, Chris McGrath found the net within three minutes of the resumption and Wexford were right back in the ball game.

This led the winners to markedly raise their game. Antrim weren't able to match Wexford's new found urgency, which is a plight that frequently befalls a northern team or a weaker club team - in such circumstances. Instead of finding an extra gear and upping the tempo, they become infected by doubt, quickly followed by panic. It's as it they feel they're supposed to be caught in the final furlong. Antrim certainly panicked in the closing 10 minutes. Those were two unnecessary close range frees they conceded. Paul Codd dispatched the second to the net. That was that.

On an afternoon when the underdogs' half back line of Michael McCambridge, Karl McKeegan and Ciaran Herron were dominant, the foundations were in place for a famous victory. But Antrim spurned a number of good goal chances, the normally dependable midfield pairing of Jim Connolly and Conor Cunning misfired (Cahill and his selectors perhaps should have made changes in the sector earlier than they did) and McFall had one of those days every forward has at some stage, where the ball simply doesn't run for you. Ask Eoin Kelly. On the other hand, the sliotar was like a magnet for Aidan Delargy after he was introduced. I've always been impressed by Delargy's stickwork and ability to hurl well in Croke Park. One has to wonder what could have ensued had he been introduced sooner.

Antrim have made serious progress under Cahill. Exactly how much is difficult to tell; Wexford's performance against Cork next Sunday will give us a better idea. Back in Division One next spring, Antrim will have the opportunity to make even more progress. Hopefully the championship format for 2005 will take northern hurling's needs into account. If it does we can look forward to a far brighter future for Antrim, Down and Derry.

My good neighbour Terry Power from Rosslare is in the transport business. He regularly drives through Belfast, past the Falls Road. Every time he does he gives three hoots on his air horn to Andy McCallin. McCallin is a nephew of Andy McCallin senior, Antrim's first football All Star, and a son of Joe McCallin, an Antrim minor hurling selector. The McCallins are from the St. John's club, and all of us in Rosslare bled a little for Antrim last Sunday.

Our lads have forged an enduring friendship out of Feile which offers a glimpse what is possible when north and south interact They've been down to us, we've been up to them. We've talked hurling long into the night, sung songs and next morning woken up on the Falls Road to the scent of Ulster fries. We in Rosslare know many of the current Antrim minors, lads from St. John's coached by Liam Donnelly. We know how good they are and how much better they and other young hurlers of Ulster could be if given a fair crack of the whip.

This must be a priority for Sean Kelly and the HDC. That in turn is why we should listen to Dr Aidan Hamill, the principal of La Salle boys school in Belfast, and Sean McGourty, his head of PE, who have come up with a wonderful idea for the regeneration of hurling in the city.

La Salle's junior school site will become available in the next few years. The two men have suggested establishing a GAA centre of excellence there for the 10 primary and five secondary schools in close proximity. Indoor and outdoor facilities would be available, with special provision being made for indoor hurling, which has been developed to good effect in north Antrim but not in Belfast.

The Antrim county board are in favour of the plan. The British government are prepared to back it with substantial funding. It's a must that the Ulster Council and Croke Park row in, if they do we have a sure fire winner on our hands. A visionary enterprise has been put forward. For the sake of Antrim, Ulster and the health of hurling in general, let's hope they seize the day.

lgriffin@tribune.ie