16 July 2009
The opportunity of a lifetime has come for Antrim football.
It must be seized within the short lifetime of that opportunity.
Clichés aside, seventy minutes is the lifetime of this immediate opportunity – let there be no mistake or misunderstanding about this.
Stones, pounds, even ounces have been shed, by Antrim Senior footballers, during a rigorous preparation and training season like none other. In lesser measure but certainly for the greater good, ounces and pounds of toned muscle tissue have totally displaced and replaced much of those former fatty deposits. Antrim Senior Footballers, of 2009, are a credit to themselves and to those they work with, for their present state of readiness and physical fitness.
However, it will take all this and more, to complete this journey, about which they could only dream, at the beginning of the current season. One day at a time, they set about a daunting task. To even suggest the possibility of such achievement, at outset, was to invite ridicule, but that is of no consequence today. What is however, entirely significant is that having come thus far, that nothing conceivable should be allowed to impede the progress to completion of a golden period in Antrim GAA history; a period hitherto unprecedented and unsurpassed.
Sunday the 19th July, is to be the day when the ‘might’ of Tyrone can expect to face a level of competition like none other, on Irish soil. Antrim senior footballers have well prepared for this day, their day, and will not be denied. Blood sweat and tears have been shed, in plenty, in preparation for this challenge; this is now in essence a premier Gaelic football team, at its seasonal peak, albeit starved of recognition or just reward.
For all too many generations Antrim, as a Gaa footballing county, has failed to prepare, as a whole panel, at the demanding levels otherwise pertaining to success. In consequence they have repeatedly failed to achieve, to the very point of being stigmatised as a county, seemingly unable to deliver. And yet again, paradoxically, this present panel, with each and every success or achievement to date, has had to bear the brunt of a raft of excuses for opponent failure; where such excuses invariably seemed to outnumber credits.
For 70 minutes or more, this Ulster Championship Final should be different. This Antrim panel now has something to prove, first and foremost to themselves. They are in reality, conditioned warriors, truly worthy of winning. Collectively they have the skills, the stamina and the determination to conquer.
They have also this long awaited seventy minute opportunity of a lifetime. For that same seventy minutes they must combine their talents and demonstrate definitively, to all and sundry, that they really are a team which will not accept defeat in the Ulster championship of 2009. Every minute must be made to count; every pain endured.
The level of support, now rowed in behind these Antrim athletes, is something which has never been seen in this county before; The proud display of saffron truly is a joyous site and has been for long overdue. The net effect should be a positive one on Sunday. Tyrone, to its credit, has already had its fair share of Gaa sunshine; still they are both a selfish and a proud county and would, if let, take all :]
Let this be the day, when Antrim Gaels, men and women of all ages, openly and unashamedly cry their tears of joy, for the restoration of Gaelic pride in their own county. Let this be the day when a sea of saffron makes a clear statement of intent and feeds our children and again our children’s children, with a true sense of belonging, to a proud Irish Nation. These are high aspirations; they are also and at long last, well within reach.
Monday cannot be a day of excuses; we have been there far too many times before. By contrast, Monday and the days and weeks immediately afterwards, can and should be joyful days of unprecedented celebration for Antrim Gaels; make it be.
As for you, the players and the entire panel, you have put in the long hard hours of preparation; seventy more minutes, of being mentally tough, totally focused and prepared to give the best performance of your sporting life to date, is the price you should be prepared to pay; in return for lifetime recognition, with established friendships, which again will be yours for life. One for all and all for one - this has to be it.
Lawrence Smyth county PRO
