25 July 2013
Antrim minor hurling manager Niall Kearney is looking forward to this weekend’s All Ireland quarter final V Waterford with relish. The young saffron regained the Ulster title and now face Waterford who lost out after a replayed Munster final earlier on this week. Antrim play Waterford at 2pm on Sunday, in Ashbourne Co Meath.
Niall is very pleased with the approach of the players and believes that the solid preparation will make Antrim competitive on Sunday. If we are being honest among ourselves that hasn’t been the case for a few years.
Niall said today,
“We know that Antrim underage teams have not fared well in the recent past. This time round we have as full a squad as we could hope for and, barring injury and suspension all the fellas we asked to come on board have done so. The commitment among the players is strong and we have worked with clubs to make sure we could accommodate their needs as well as the players. There is a big demand, even among minors, as most of them hurl at senior level for their clubs, and some are dual players. That is something we have to take on board and balance.
“We have a set of forwards who are capable of getting scores if we can get the ball into them. Sometimes in the past we have been too reliant on one or two players but I really think that as an attacking unit we are strong, and defensively we are strong too. Antrim minor teams have not been competitive in the past – we want to change that and I believe we will on Sunday.”
Niall accepts that Waterford will be a step up in quality, and he thinks that the Antrim team is ready for that challenge.
“Any Munster team is a good side, we are under no illusions about that. But our preparations have been very good, tough and sharp training sessions and a great outing against a Kilkenny side last weekend. That was a high scoring game and you can’t ask for a tougher challenge than Kilkenny. Hopefully that will stand to our boys this Sunday.”
