ANTRIM star Simon McCrory has defended the Ulster Council ahead of this weekend’s provincial senior hurling final.
Ulster GAA’s governing body has come in for sustained criticism for their handling of this year’s Ulster SHC final between the Saffrons and Armagh.
Having played the semi-finals of the competition last weekend and with the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard cups throwing-in next weekend, the council sandwiched the provincial final in between, to the dismay of some.
Armagh manager Sylvester McConnell had called for the final to be moved to next month, but to no avail. However, McCrory believes the scheduling was a genuine attempt to address the failings of previous Ulster championships.
“I can sympathise with the Ulster Council,” said the St John’s clubman yesterday.
“They’ve taken criticism for the last few Ulster championships and, this year, they’ve made a genuine attempt to address that. We as the finalists just have to get on with it.
“We haven’t had much of a break since the league final against Carlow, we’ve just kept the ball rolling going into the Donegal game and now for this weekend. Listen, it’s not ideal, having a six day turnaround, especially when we’ve had two tough games, but if us or Armagh hadn’t have been in the final, we probably would have been training this weekend anyway.”
Despite the intensity of recent weeks, McCrory says the Saffrons can report a relatively clean bill of health ahead of Sunday’s final: “We’ve a few niggles, but we just have to put our hands up and get on with it.”
With the Christy Ring opener against Carlow just around the corner, Antrim could perhaps be forgiven for not being fully focused on this Sunday, but while acknowledging the magnitude of that game, McCrory says the Saffrons will leave nothing behind against Armagh.
“Look, the Carlow game is massive,” he readily admitted, “they’ll need no motivation after we got one over on them in the league final.
“This [Christy Ring Cup] is our Championship. The reward is huge as it’s not just the silverware but the winner goes straight into the All-Ireland Qualifiers as well.
“But have no doubt about it, we’ll be taking the Ulster final seriously. We have to keep our momentum going and we have definite targets for the final.
“We know a bad performance against Armagh could cost us, both collectively and individually. We have serious competition in the squad and every player selected will be wanting to keep their jersey for the Carlow game.”
When these two sides met at Owenbeg at the same stage last year, Antrim were the winners by a 13-point margin, but McCrory is aware of the progress made in the Orchard, as evidenced by their semi-final win over Down – the latest in a three in-a-row over the Ards men.
“We’re well aware that the last few years has seen a resurgence in Armagh hurling,” he added.
“I think I first noticed it as a minor player when they pushed us fairly hard. There was some great players came out of Cú Chulainn’s at that time as well. Over the last five years, they’ve won the Nicky Rackard, they’ve got to three Ulster finals, so we know we’re in for an absolute battle.
“It was Woody [manager Dominic McKinley] who reminded us at the start of the year that, given our performances in recent times, we’ve no right to think we’re better than anybody and we’ll not be forgetting that on Sunday.”
