PATRICK McBride politely breaks away from signing autographs at Antrim’s press night to grant The Irish News an interview ahead of Sunday’s Ulster Championship clash with Fermanagh.
The St John’s man first caught the eye at senior level in Antrim’s ill-fated Ulster Championship defeat to Monaghan at Casement Park three years ago.
That day, Antrim were never set up to win the game.
They ‘parked the bus’ and made life difficult for Monaghan for 70 minutes.
Because of the team’s ultra-defensive tactics, it was difficult for any player to shine in saffron. But McBride did.
Making his Championship debut, his explosive runs from wing-back were the one glowing feature of Antrim’s display.
He’s been a Championship regular ever since and is named in his preferred position of right wing-back to face Fermanagh.
Last summer, McBride was one of the ‘Boston Three’. After Antrim caused one of the biggest Championship upsets of 2015 by turning over Laois in O’Moore Park, McBride, Paddy McAleer and Conor Burke headed off to America and missed Antrim’s next and final
All-Ireland Qualifier against Fermanagh.
Boss Frank Fitzsimons didn’t stand in the trio’s way, and no grudges were held. In fact, Fitzsimons spent several summers in Philadelphia during his own playing days.
Wearing a bashful smile, McBride says: “This year I won’t be going anywhere. I’d get lynched.”
The 23-year-old has scratched that itch. And while he felt bad about missing Antrim’s next Qualifier, he was glad he sampled America’s east coast.
“I enjoyed it. The reason I went was I’d been playing Gaelic that long; you go from St John’s to St Mary’s [University College] to Antrim, so I just wanted to experience something different.
“I ended up coming back to play for my club. I was out there for about a month but I couldn’t miss the club championship. I’d planned to stay in America for longer, but St John’s is that important to me I came back.
“I’m glad I did it because there are boys in our club, 28 or 29 years of age, and they’ve said they would love to have gone out to America and they regret not doing it. So I made sure I’d never feel that way.
“The thing I regret about last year was missing the Qualifier because there is that much excitement around it. I played the Laois match and left before the Fermanagh game.
“It was a very hard decision because I have that much respect for Frank and I didn’t want to let him down. Even at that, Frank said himself he would rather I didn’t go but he spent a lot of time out in America when he played and he wasn’t going to make it awkward for me or the other two boys.
“He said: ‘You’re old enough now to make your own decision.’”
McBride is enjoying his Antrim career more than he’s ever done. He rated the quality of previous panels he’s featured on but this one is by far the strongest.
And you get the sense that it niggles him that Antrim can’t shake the ‘under-achievers’ tag.
In many ways, McBride represents the new generation in the county. Mixing with top inter-county players at St Mary’s and playing Sigerson football has made him realise there is more than enough talent in his native county to be reaching Ulster finals and the like.
“I’ve enjoyed playing against the big teams, the likes of Donegal, but what annoys me most is that I always feel we’re under-achieving.
“I know we’re always underdogs and we deserve to be underdogs because we haven’t actually reached an Ulster final in seven years.
“For me anyway, it’s something I want to do – play in an Ulster final and even try and win it.
“Even people in our county under-rate us sometimes. It’s only when you’re in the panel and you see the talent that’s there, even people I play with in St Mary’s can’t understand why we haven’t done better.
“That’s why I’m hoping this year with Gearoid and ‘Russ’ [Fitzsimons] working together and a strong panel there, we show it more.”
They may sound like typical press night sound-bites – but there’s merit in what McBride says. You only need to look at Antrim’s
team-sheets during their successful promotion out of Division Four to appreciate the depth of the panel.
Ryan Murray, Dermot McAleese, Mark Sweeney, Justin Crozier and McBride himself were the used substitutes in Antrim’s Division Four final defeat at Croke Park last month. Highly-rated midfielder Sean McVeigh was an unused sub.
“I think it’s actually the strongest Antrim panel I’ve been involved in,” says the St John’s man.
“Kevin Niblock has been here much longer than me and he was saying it’s probably the strongest panel he’s been involved in. Because the panel is that strong I think it’s going to be a lot different from last year. I’m not saying we’re going to go out and win this and win that, but we won’t be walked over by anybody.”
The autograph hunters have shown great patience. So, with a degree of shyness, McBride resumes his signing duties.
