IT WAS around four years ago I first encountered Mark Sweeney. It was at a small ceremony at Queen’s University where he was being awarded the inaugural Cormac McAnallen Medal, a worthy initiative created by the university’s GAA club.
The medal recognises the qualities and contribution of one of its players, both on and off the field. I interviewed the St Brigid’s man for The Irish News that night on what it meant to be the first winner of the prestigious award. At that time, he was making a bit of a breakthrough with Antrim’s senior footballers.
Former Saffrons boss Liam Bradley saw the qualities in Sweeney and followed the lead of Queen's manager Aidan O'Rourke by playing him as a defensive sweeper. Sweeney’s been a regular ever since.
He’s a very modest individual too. He talked about his desire to compete at the highest level and the pride he felt in wearing the Antrim jersey. Over the last four years I’ve chatted and interviewed him after Antrim games. I interviewed him over the phone a couple of weeks before Antrim's Ulster Championship match with Fermanagh last month.
Now, working and playing his football in Dublin (with St Jude's), Mark took the call while driving over 100 miles to make training for Antrim. Think about that. He drives roughly 200 miles for a training session.
In the early part of the year, he had to step away from the Antrim panel because he was working round the clock and coming home every evening to study for his actuarial exams. He told Frank Fizsimons he would be back as soon as his last exam finished.
“My last exam was on a Tuesday and, as soon as it was over, I just flew up to Jordanstown,” he said.
“It was actually one of those moments when I said: ‘Jeez, I’ve got to get a life here. It’s an embarrassment. Everyone is heading out on the lash and stuff and going to ‘Coppers’ [Copperface Jacks] and I’m driving up to Jordanstown!'."
In those handful of interviews, he’s always been clear-minded on why he continues to go to such lengths to play for his county: “You only have a limited amount of time to play. If you can juggle everything, you can make it work.”
In the middle of May, I attended Antrim's press night at Jordanstown prior to the Fermanagh game. I was speaking to Tony Scullion in the changing rooms - another man who has kept his shoulder to the wheel for longer than he cares to remember. In through the doors burst Mark Sweeney. Fresh from another 100-mile journey.
As Tony and I chewed the fat, Sweeney was stripped and changed in less than five minutes and out on the field at the back of the sprawling acreage of the university. When Scullion wasn't wisecracking and winding his team-mates up, he too had a good clear eye on why he still plays for Antrim.
“You know yourself coming out to play for Antrim that there are going to be bad days,” Scullion said.
“There’s no point saying there won’t be bad days. I’m not saying you get used to it, but you can deal with it. There are boys trying to better the ‘oul thing, but it’s coming to the stage in my career now that it’ll be somebody else that will deal with the highs and lows of playing for Antrim.”
It would have been easy for Mark Sweeney to stay in Dublin, play for his club and give up on the notion of playing for Antrim. Nobody could have blamed him had he walked away. The same goes for Tony Scullion. He's done over 10 years. He’s three kids now, all under eight. He works in the building game.
Why not put the feet up rather than racing down the road every other night of the week for Antrim training?
If Scullion was to retire, the Cargin man would go with everyone’s best wishes. But then there are the good days that make it all worthwhile.
Last Saturday afternoon was one of those rare days Antrim football shone like a beacon. They travelled to O’Moore Park to face Laois in the All-Ireland Qualifiers. Laois were rated 1/4 to win the game. Antrim weren’t given a chance. After all, they mustered just two points from play in their defeat to Fermanagh a few weeks earlier.
In the opening stages against Laois, Antrim were nine points down and on the ropes. At half-time, it didn’t look much better. They were seven adrift. And yet, they mounted the mother of all comebacks. Antrim were flying in the closing stages. Laois were gone.
Even though they still trailed by a couple of points, Antrim knew Laois were a spent force. Man-of-the-match Ryan Murray knew Laois were gone when his marker tried on several occasions to punch him in the ribs because he simply couldn’t live with the Lámh Dhearg man. Murray shouted to his manager to get more ball into him. Murray ended the day with 1-5 from play.
Justin Crozier's post-match tweet said it all: "Great win today!! 9 pts down. #character". Ryan Murray tweeted a picture entitled 'Saffron Selfie', which perfectly summed up the brilliant madness of the bus journey home. But it could only happen in Antrim. They cause the biggest upset in this year’s Championship and the county is overcome by negative headlines.
There was the ‘Milltown Three’ controversy, the county board ended up in the dock because of their laissez-faire approach to fixtures, there was the riddle of the missing jerseys, and now three players jet off to Boston for the remainder of the summer.
In the midst of all this, Frank Fitzsimons has proved to be the best crisis-manager in the history of Antrim GAA. He’s played an absolute blinder. The Lámh Dhearg clubman must feel more like Kofi Anann than an inter-county football manager, but coped he has.
When you sign up to play for Antrim, the best you can hope for is the odd good day. Undoubtedly, Antrim GAA has some serious problems.
But for people like Mark Sweeney, Tony Scullion, Justy Crozier, Chris Kerr, Mickey Pollock (or Mark Pollock, as he was referred to on The Sunday Game) and young Ryan Murray, the negative headlines that followed their brilliant win shouldn't matter to them. Why should they? For them, O'Moore Park this was their Friday Night Lights moment.
Despite everything, there are mountains of goodwill up and down the country for Antrim. People were genuinely happy for them. And for a hardcore group of footballers in the county, there is no greater honour than wearing the saffron jersey.
Big midfielder Seán McVeigh sums it up best: “I’ll play for Antrim until I’m asked not to," he said.
"We’ve had more disappointments than most teams, but since I was a wee boy I always wanted to play for Antrim and playing at Casement Park was always my dream, and wanting to go to Croke Park and winning Leagues and Championships. That’s what I’m playing for.”
