Football

O'Donovan Rossa man Stephen Beatty doesn't mind the hard terrain Antrim travels

Antrim's Stephen Beatty says he's counting down the days to face Tyrone in the Ulster Championship
Antrim's Stephen Beatty says he's counting down the days to face Tyrone in the Ulster Championship Antrim's Stephen Beatty says he's counting down the days to face Tyrone in the Ulster Championship

AS soon as the Antrim senior footballers were out of the running for promotion, Stephen Beatty says squad members started “dropping like flies”.

A spirited opening display against Derry at Corrigan Park at the back end of January saw the Saffrons lose by a point – but there was still plenty of optimism within Lenny Harbinson’s squad that they could turn their fortunes around.

But down in Wexford and Leitrim Antrim crashed and burned. Promotion was gone after three games.

Imagine that. You know you’re staying in Division Four for at least another season and you have Tyrone over the horizon in the Ulster Championship.

The easy thing is to walk away. It doesn’t help when people around you are questioning your sanity for sticking with Antrim and doing five sessions per week.

But Beatty wouldn’t have it any other way.

Harbinson’s squad haemorrhaged 10 players after their final League game – a morale-boosting win over Limerick – and they enter The Athletic Grounds tonight with no representatives from traditional powerhouses St Gall’s or Erin’s Own, Cargin.

“After those three games you watched boys dropping like flies,” says Beatty.

“I’m not that sort of person. I could have taken the easy option and contacted the hurlers [who offered him a place on their squad at the start of the season].

“I could have done that and so could Lynchy [Declan Lynch, Antrim captain]. But you don’t do that. You put your shoulder to the wheel.

“Everybody has their reasons to walk away but to walk away for the sake of not wanting to put it in – even when the draw was made people were saying: ‘Sure, you’re going to get beaten by Tyrone.’

“That’s the one thing that keeps me around - the fact that we’re playing Tyrone in Armagh. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I’m mates with most of the boys who aren’t on the panel now and I know they’ve all got their reasons as well but it wouldn’t be for me. It motivated me even more…”

With a stab at lightening the mood at Antrim’s recent press night in Randalstown, the O’Donovan Rossa clubman quips: “It gives me more of a chance to make the team anyway!”

During our interview Declan Lynch – one of his best mates on the team – pretends to take a photo of us, much to Beatty’s mock chagrin.

Beatty and Lynch are rarely serious. But Beatty was moved enough by an interview Lynch gave to The Irish News and his reasons for sticking with Antrim.

“You know, I can’t speak for anyone else but character is whenever you’re struggling,” said Lynch. “and that’s what drove me on and trying to help Antrim. I want to do something about it and being there is doing something about it.”

Beatty says: “I actually texted him – Lynchy and me don’t text seriously – and I said it was some article. I read it sitting with a cup of coffee with my Da and said: ‘Everything that Lynchy is saying here is sense.’

“It motivated me, it gave me goosebumps.

“Like, we’re Division Four. Nobody rates us. We talk about it. It’s easy to walk away. But Lynchy is willing to do it - I’m willing to do it.

“I know he’s my mate and we mess about but see when he speaks I listen. The same with [Paddy] McBride. We’re all mates. It’s like playing with your club.

“I’m going to put my body on the line for any one of them.”

He adds: “I don’t want to go off on one – but to play for your county is an absolute privilege. My brother and my daddy never got the chance. You get a phone call to come and play for your county, you take it. The boys who walk away, I just don’t understand it.”

Known for his hurling prowess, Beatty was a regular fixture on the county’s hurling panel but when former joint football managers Frank Fitzsimons and Gearoid Adams came calling, the 26-year-old decided to give the footballers a go.

As the Antrim players stream by to mill around the pitch in Randalstown they look as fit as any Antrim team has ever done heading into Championship.

And while there is certainly a rookie feel to Harbinson’s Championship squad, it is laced with quality too in the guise of Lynch, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Patrick McBride, Ryan Murray, Marty and Ricky Johnston and Niall Delargy.

“I can’t wait now. Every day I wake up I’m thinking: ‘How many days is it until we go?’ I just don’t want it to be an experience, if you know what I mean?

“I want to showcase what we’ve got. I said this before but we’ve got Fitzy, McBride, Ryan Murray, Lynchy.

“When we click we're good, very good… We’ve put as much work in as any county. We were going five days a week at one stage. Maybe our results don’t reflect that. Even when we couldn’t go up we still went five nights a week and there was still massive buy-in, boys willing to do the work. Hopefully it pays off come 25th of May.”

A hard-working half-forward or midfielder with an eye for a score, Beatty’s never-say-die attitude is perhaps his greatest asset.

“Listen, everybody writes us off in every respect, even some of our own clubs write us off: ‘What are you wasting your time for?’

“Anywhere else it’s a privilege to play for your county.

“And yet, you’re playing with the best players in the county. I’ve improved I don’t know by how much. From the first year Gearoid [Adams] and ‘Russ’ [Frank Fitzsimons] asked me onto the panel and going back to the club, I’ve improved 10 times over and confidence-wise too. And I know that’s the case for all the other lads that are here.”