AFTER the massive high the Antrim hurlers experienced in beating Carlow after extra-time last Saturday, joint manager Terence McNaughton is hoping they don’t crash-land against perennial rivals Down in Saturday’s Christy Ring showdown in Cushendall.
If mental sharpness is a potential issue, the Ulster champions will also have to overcome the absence of Neil McManus and Paul ‘Shorty’ Shiels for the visit of the Ardsmen.
McManus, who was outstanding in the win over Carlow last weekend, is getting married on Saturday while Shiels is sidelined with a hamstring pull.
McNaughton may have every faith in the depth of the Antrim panel, he acknowledged the “draining” impact of playing on a weekly basis.
After winning a promotion shoot-out with Carlow on April 1, Antrim squeezed in two provincial Championship matches against Donegal and Armagh before going toe-to-toe with Carlow again, all in consecutive weeks.
“When you’re playing every week, it can be draining,” said McNaughton.
“Forget about the body, it can be mentally draining. You basically can do no meaningful training between games. We went to extra-time last Saturday; we did nothing on Tuesday night and we can do very little on Thursday night because we’re playing on Saturday again.
“All you can really do is try and get the mind ready to go again.
“It can be very draining, even from the management’s point of view. We’ve had no weeks off.
“At the end of the day, we’re not professional soccer players; we’re amateurs trying to do the best we can. I don’t mean to be crying about being in this position - it's great to be where we are - but from a player’s point of view it’s very hard to get players going every week.”
Down, meanwhile, finished their League programme on March 26 and lost an Ulster SHC semi-final to Armagh before entering the Christy Ring stage with a win over Roscommon two weeks later.
But, given how close the Ardsmen came to beating them in last year’s Christy Ring semi-final in Loughgiel might serve notice to Antrim this weekend.
“From our point of view, we’ll be treating Down with the utmost respect,” added McNaughton. “It was only last year Down nearly caught us. We have a few high-profile players not there, but the flip-side of that is it’s for other players to say: ‘We’re still here.’
“They should want to come into the team and be the leaders the way ‘Shorty’ and Neil were last week. It’s their chance to step up to the plate.
“I’ve every confidence in the squad. We have a group of players that have shown the desire that hasn’t been there in a long, long time – and that has to be a massive positive against Carlow.
“People will say to me: ‘You were lucky last Saturday.’ Yeah, we were, but I keep telling people we scored a lot of consolation goals at the end of games but the goals we got against Carlow gave us the chance to go and win the game.”
Centre-back Mattie Donnelly is ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury on a skiing holiday. But Paddy Burke slotted into the position against Carlow.
James McNaughton, Conor Carson, Maol Connolly, Neal McAuley, Daneil McKernan and Ruairi Diamond were thrust from the Antrim bench last weekend and made a positive contribution, while Loughgiel duo Odhran McFadden and Tiernan Coyle are viable options.
“We won’t get carried away because of the Carlow game as there are still a lot of improvements that can be made in our hurling but as far as a team putting the effort in and showing character, that performance is up there with anything I’ve ever been involved in. But we need to reach that level again against Down who will be tough as they always are for Antrim.”
