ANTRIM captain Simon McCrory has described the carrot of an All-Ireland Qualifier clash with Laois as a ‘massive incentive’ to win Saturday’s Christy Ring Cup final.
Antrim take on Carlow and, in a new departure, the winners will advance to a June 24/25
All-Ireland Qualifiers preliminary round showdown with beaten Leinster quarter-finalists Laois.
“I think for both teams, knowing that you are going into the Qualifiers and getting a crack at Laois, it’s a massive incentive, a really big prize,” said McCrory (right).
“Not only are you getting silverware if you win, an actual trophy, but you are getting to go to the top level this year in terms of Championship status so it is a huge incentive.
“For myself, it is a huge motivating factor and I’m sure for Carlow it is the same.
“Both teams have played each other plenty of times down through the years and it could be a really good summer for whoever comes out the right end of the result on Saturday. So definitely, it’s a huge motivating factor there.”
Antrim are favourites despite playing Meath in two high profile Ring Cup finals last year and failing to win either.
They’ve already gained promotion from Division 2A of the League back to 1B and haven’t lost once to Carlow in three outings this year.
An alternative take on that statistic is that Carlow drew with Antrim over 70 minutes in two of those games – round two of the League and round one of the Ring Cup – and will take heart from last year’s final win by underdogs Meath.
“Especially after the League final, I’d say Carlow need no motivation to beat us after that,” said defender McCrory, referencing Antrim’s 2-12 to 0-15 win which secured promotion.
“There was nothing in it, there was actually nothing in any of the games this year as the results show. Carlow are also the team that actually sent us down to the Christy Ring a couple of years ago, so it is nip and tuck.
“We have a lot of respect for Carlow, they have a lot of good players. Colm Bonnar is a very good manager with a lot of experience.
“They will be confident and they will believe they can have the measure of us at the fourth time of asking this year. But we are confident in our own preparations, confident in our own ability.
“What we have to do is play our own game and block out everything else. That’s what we have been doing so far. In a final, it’s all on the day and then there’s Croke Park, it can be a great place for some players but for others it just doesn’t work.”
McCrory is experienced enough to have been part of big MacCarthy Cup Championship days with Antrim at Croke Park, lining out against both Dublin and Cork in the 2010 Championship.
“Even talking to the lads who have retired since then, the Johnny Campbells, the Ciaran Herrons, they would probably mark that as their highlight of their careers,” he said at yesterday’s launch of the final at Headquarters.
“It was two weeks in-a-row, back-to-back, playing Liam MacCarthy Cup, beating Dublin in Croke Park in front of the Hill and just before Dublin played Armagh in the football, so it was packed.
“It was just something you will always take with you. I have good memories from Croke Park that day, and not so good memories from last year.
“But every time you get to Headquarters, it’s just... you get butterflies in your stomach. Even today, looking out on the pitch, I am just buzzing, I can’t wait to get out there on Saturday.”
