24 June 2011
Tomorrow represents a championship 2011 crossroads for Antrim. Our footballers can do themselves justice by beating Westmeath and getting a qualifier run underway, while our hurlers are a game away from a crack at Qualifier round 3. It’s a big day and it can be a great day, both matches throw up big challenges but both are also winnable.
The football is up first. Recognise this list? Derry, Westmeath, Armagh, Louth, Meath, Clare, Kerry and Kildare. Those are the teams which have beaten Antrim in football qualifiers since the back door system was introduced. On the other side of the balance sheet we have Leitrim, who we beat in the first year of the new system in 2001. Surely now is the time to begin to rid ourselves of this unenviable record? If any Antrim vintage has the tools to embark on a qualifier run, it’s the current crop.
Liam Bradley said this week that the criticism which followed the Donegal game hurt, precisely because it was true. He suggested that the claustrophobia of Ballybofey didn’t allow for free flowing football, and that tomorrow the shackles might come off. Westmeath had a successful league campaign, securing promotion before losing heavily to Wexford. They will be coming to Casement seeking redemption. They may find it hard to come by.
Antrim are a better team than their league record showed, and while last year we ran into Kildare too early in the qualifier campaign, we still took them to a replay before they went all the way to an All Ireland semi final. The team named to start is the same as did so against Donegal. James Loughrey and Gerald O’Boyle are two very important additions to the bench. There is a big performance in our football team – if tomorrow is the day it comes out, Westmeath will find the going too tough.
Our hurlers face a regular foe in Carlow. Neil McManus said this week that they team know they must produce for 70 mins, not 35 or even 50. I think they are benefitting now from a run of regular, serious games. If we win tomorrow and set up a Phase 3 match in two weeks, we will have the Ulster final in between – that’s a possible run of 4 weekends in a row, the kind of run that allows a team to find its feet and its form.
Carlow will be stung by their earlier than expected exit from the Leinster Championship at the hands of Westmeath and will hope to take their place alongside their county footballers who pulled off a major shock in beating Louth.
If the concentration levels are high then Antrim can beat Carlow. Anything less than a full 70 mins of action though would open the door to another nail biter, a la last summer.
It is not often that our teams play a double header of any sort, let alone two crucial, season defining qualifier games. If you are reading this you are most likely an Antrim fan, so in that case, you know where your place is tomorrow. Casement Park, 2pm. See you there.
