Hurling & Camogie

Antrim keeping sweeping as an option ahead of Carlow clash

Neal Peden, part of the four-man Antrim senior hurling management team. Pic Seamus Loughran
Neal Peden, part of the four-man Antrim senior hurling management team. Pic Seamus Loughran Neal Peden, part of the four-man Antrim senior hurling management team. Pic Seamus Loughran

ANTRIM hurling mentor Neal Peden says they may still use a sweeper system despite faring much better against Meath once they went man to man.

The Saffrons started in Navan by deploying Eoghan Campbell as the extra defender in their Joe McDonagh Cup opener. However, the visitors struggled in the opening quarter, and trailed by 2-8 to 0-7, before they changed to a one on one tactical approach and reaped the rewards.

Antrim outscored Meath by 5-18 to 0-10 after that, including a run of 4-11 to 0-2 in the period immediately following the alteration of system.

However, Peden, part of the four-man management team alongside Dominic McKinley, Terence McNaughton, and Gary O'Kane, said that a sweeper could still be considered for forthcoming matches in the second tier competition.

"It's game by game. There's the breeze as well [to factor in]; at the start of the match the breeze was coming against us although it actually then lowered and the man on man worked for us.

"We will have to look at it game by game, whether we go with a sweeper or man on man; it is a decision we will make and we'll work on it in training."

Carlow are Antrim's next opponents. Although the Saffrons will be at home this Saturday, in Corrigan Park, it's put to Peden that they will present a much tougher challenge than Meath, to which he responded:

"It's a new challenge.. We have to get out to training again, get recovery right, and look at what is our plan for Carlow. They're another one we have struggled with.

"We've taken them in Carlow [in round one of last year's Christy Ring Cup]. They beat us in the big game [Christy Ring Cup Final] but we beat them in the promotion game [from Division 2A in 2017]. Us and Carlow is always touch and go, it's just on the day."

The benefits of winning that 2A Final last year to earn promotion to 1B were eventually evident against Meath, acknowledged Peden: "I think Meath will say exactly that – when we had the character to step up we were that wee bit sharper to the ball, sharper getting round the man. Definitely when our forwards got round, they got away, whereas their forwards didn't get away from our backs."

Indeed Peden felt that playing at a higher level in the League also helped Antrim to bounce back from going behind against Meath because of the experiences they had in 1B:

"If you were in Galway at the start of the year or in Corrigan Park against Dublin you would have seen character in our team. I'm not saying the Laois game in Dunloy [this year's 1B relegation play-off match] wasn't a disappointment but that's wiped out of the way now…

"Other days we showed great character – it's Division 1B, it's a difficult task for us in there. We had only one year in there, if we had two or three years you can get more players in and get a greater balance in Antrim hurling."

Having lost out twice to Laois in the League this year Antrim are clearly keen to welcome the O'Moore Men to Cushendall later this month in the McDonagh Cup, with Peden commenting: "We're ready and we want Laois again, we're looking forward to that challenge again when Laois come to us because we do feel we just didn't step up that day."