Football

Patrick McBride hopes Antrim will face big team in Championship

Patrick McBride says the prospect of taking a big scalp in an Ulster championship or qualifier game is enough to keep the All-Ireland series together as one competition. Picture by Colm O'Reilly
Patrick McBride says the prospect of taking a big scalp in an Ulster championship or qualifier game is enough to keep the All-Ireland series together as one competition. Picture by Colm O'Reilly Patrick McBride says the prospect of taking a big scalp in an Ulster championship or qualifier game is enough to keep the All-Ireland series together as one competition. Picture by Colm O'Reilly

PATRICK McBride was just a year young to have sampled first-hand the shock Antrim created when they knocked Galway out of the All-Ireland series in 2012.

Granted, the Tribesmen were a shadow of both their former and current selves at that juncture but it was still a first championship win – and only a second in any competition – the Saffrons had ever enjoyed against Galway.

That was the last of the heady days of a spell that saw them reach an Ulster final and scare eventual champions Kerry in ’09, then take a Kildare side that would go on to an All-Ireland semi-final to extra-time and a replay.

It’s those runs that provide the antidote to the argument in favour of the GAA imposing a tiered championship. It’s Carlow’s relative fairytale last year or Tipperary the year before or Fermanagh the year before that.

To most it comes some day but it’s usually a fleeting romance. The winners seldom come from beyond the very select few, and you didn’t need to be Nostradamus to predict the four semi-finalists last year.

There are arguments for and there are arguments against the idea of breaking the championship into different tiers but the strongest opposition has always come from the players plying their trade towards the bottom end.

Patrick McBride, who made his championship debut in 2013, is not staunch in his disagreement with the idea but for him, the mere prospect of one day maybe pitting himself against the best in a championship setting is enough.

“I always thought I was [against a tiered championship]. I’ve never really said I am or I’m not and I’d understand arguments on both sides, but I do like the opportunity to play against better teams.

“A couple of years ago we could have drawn Mayo in the qualifiers, and a lot of people would be ‘Jesus, we’re playing Mayo’, but for me that’s exciting.

“I would like to test myself against them. I could be marking Lee Keegan, for example, if we were playing Mayo and just to see what sort of chance you’d have.

“You’ve seen Longford beating Monaghan in the championship and that was some achievement for Longford. It’s hard. I like the challenge and excitement of playing against the so-called bigger teams.”

The trade-off on the mindset that is dominant among players faced with this choice is that they know that one big day is most likely at the expense of ever winning any silverware.

Antrim had that brush with Ulster in ’09 but in the first 18 seasons of the new century, the Anglo Celt has been to just four homes, and three of them - Monaghan (16), Tyrone (15) and Armagh (14) - take up the spots behind Cavan, the kingpins of the early 1900s, in the province’s roll of honour.

1951 was the last time Antrim won one but St John’s forward McBride believes the hope that they might be the team to somehow end that run outweighs the prospect of winning a second-tier title.

“When you think about winning a trophy or a medal, being in a final is class, but you’d have an argument for both sides.

“I’d love to be in a final of something like that but I’d also love to have the chance to beat one of the big teams. It would be sweeter win an Ulster title than winning a trophy against teams where you wouldn’t be playing Donegal or Tyrone.

“I know people will argue that you’ve no chance but if you believe you can and you maybe do it one day, it’d be class.”