THE Ulster Hurling Championship is “at death’s door” and urgently needs input from “the right people”, according to Antrim joint-manager Dominic McKinley.
The Loughgiel man also says that the county needs an inside manager when the current stop-gap team that he heads steps down at the end of the season.
Antrim will vie for a 15th straight provincial title when they take on history-chasing Armagh on Sunday, with the Orchard seeking a first ever Ulster success in just their third final.
McKinley is not the first to question the timing of the competition, but says his frustration lies with the counsel of “good hurling people” not being sought.
“I don’t think there’s anything there now [in terms of an Ulster Championship].
“My personal view is that people need to sit down, and not the people around the table. They need to choose from different counties.
“There are a lot of good hurling people out there, and they need to let those men have input to the future of this.
“It’s at death’s door, basically. There’s Noel Keith in Down, the Hinpheys in Derry, people at the coal face who know what’s going on. There must be a better place for it, for a start.
“If Antrim are out of it, would it help it? I’m not sure if it would. But these are the things that you’re looking at.
“Antrim’s needs are different from Derry’s, and Derry’s are different from Down’s. There needs to be a mechanism put together to help everybody.
“Maybe bringing it back that the winner goes into Leinster, into the round robin. I’ve no problem with what they come up with as long as the right people are in agreement.
“There are a lot of good people working in Ulster Council, but they have to bring in these people that know.”
Having taken over from PJ O’Mullan mid-season, McKinley has ruled himself out of staying on in the hotseat and Terence McNaughton is not believed to be interested in another term either.
However, Gary O’Kane and Neal Peden are being touted as possible long-term successors. Following the failed experiment with Kevin Ryan, McKinley believes that Antrim can’t look past someone who recognises the local nuances.
“I personally think there’s good coaches and managers inside, and we need to look at one of them.
“Maybe the past two or three boys haven’t worked, not just PJ. If you’re looking from the outside, you’re maybe thinking you can make this perfect world, not knowing the circumstances that are in there.
“I think that’s what happened. You need to know the circumstances of what’s going on, but it has to be the proper man as well.”
The fact that neither Antrim or Armagh achieved their primary aim of winning their respective All-Ireland titles last month brought both into the Ulster series on a downer.
Defeat by Meath in the Christy Ring Cup final replay shattered Antrim’s ambitions of playing Liam McCarthy hurling again in 2017, but McKinley admits that he could see the issues they’d face from the day and hour the interim management stepped in.
Complacency enveloped a squad that felt it was technically good enough to counter Meath’s fitness advantage. It wasn’t.
“We felt that they weren’t in a place fitness wise to bring that out, for whatever reason. They were happy within themselves.
“You hit it on the nail; with their skill, they felt that they can beat these teams at any stage.
“There’s so much more than skill has to be added to it. You come up against a team like Meath, who work seriously hard at their fitness, and they talked about being fitter than us and got that into their own heads.
“Our skill almost got us through, in spells, but Meath hurled for longer periods than us over the two days. The first match was a draw and the second we lost by a point.
“If you’re looking at it from a wider perspective, you’d probably say you deserved it.”
Conor Johnson (America) and Niall McKenna (holiday) are both missing for Sunday’s game, which takes place in Owenbeg at 3.30pm after the minor final between Antrim and Down.
