Hurling & Camogie

Antrim expected to keep punching their weight against the Dubs

Conor Johnston is pushing for a starting place in the Antrim attack Picture: Seamus Loughran.
Conor Johnston is pushing for a starting place in the Antrim attack Picture: Seamus Loughran. Conor Johnston is pushing for a starting place in the Antrim attack Picture: Seamus Loughran.

Allianz National Hurling League Division 1B: Dublin v Antrim (Today, Parnell Park, 5pm)

TWO games in and Antrim senior hurling manager Darren Gleeson most certainly would have taken it.

A fantastic opening day win over Clare and while beating Kilkenny in their own backyard was always a stretch for the most fertile of imaginations, the next best thing was staying with the Cats for long periods and scoring three goals.

Brian Cody was never going to say anything negative about last week’s victims, but his praise of Antrim went beyond the trite sound-bites you often hear in post-match interviews about gutsy losers.

“Antrim,” Cody said, “are really excellent hurlers. They deserve to be in this division, they have played two matches so far and they’ve won one. They are a serious, serious team.”

In the opening exchanges against Kilkenny, Antrim threatened to be over-run by the movement and pace of their illustrious opponents.

In the last 10 years or more Antrim teams probably would have been over-run and been well and truly mauled by the end.

But those treacherous 15 minutes are no longer translating into collapses.

Antrim steadied themselves. They worked and harried and harassed their way into the game. Even if they were ultimately unsuccessful in reeling their hosts in, they showed good character.

Even when Clare weren’t missing Antrim’s posts in the early throes of their League clash a week earlier, Gleeson’s men didn’t panic.

Again, they worked, harried and harassed and finally broke Clare’s resistance with graft and some brilliant hurling.

Of course, it was easier to get touch tight to the Banner men at Corrigan Park than it was trying to do the same against Kilkenny in the wide open spaces of Nowlan Park last weekend.

Physically, Gleeson’s players are in good shape. The big challenge for Antrim is mentally preparing for Division One opponents three, four weeks on the bounce.

This evening they face Dublin – a team that is currently somewhere between Clare and Kilkenny.

Antrim and Dublin, who face-off in the Leinster Championship on June 26, enter Parnell Park with a precious win against their names and a defeat apiece, both succumbing to a Kilkenny side allegedly in transition.

Indiscipline cost the Dubs in their opening loss to the Cats at Parnell Park before they put away Division 1B strugglers Laois last weekend, with Donal Burke taking the plaudits by hitting 18 (0-15 placed balls) of his side’s final tally of 30.

Antrim’s defence has been already warned about giving frees away with Burke in form.

Antrim have hit 4-36 in two games to Dublin’s 0-48 – and the visitors will want to keep Dublin from raising green flags for a third consecutive game this evening.

Indeed, the Saffrons’ defence has probably been the most glowing feature of their displays to date.

Gerard Walsh has been hugely impressive at full-back since stepping into the breach for the injured Mattie Donnelly while the half-back line of Joe Maskey, Eoghan Campbell and Paddy Burke has a bit of everything about it – ball winning and good distribution.

Throughout the last nine months it was virtually impossible to break into the Antrim starting line-up if everyone was fit.

And even though there was a lot of positives coming away from Nowlan Park last week there are now a couple of positions, perhaps in the forward line that could be up for negotiation, and we might see the kind of quality Antrim have in reserve with Domhnall Nugent, Eoin O’Neill and Conor Johnston keen to be let off the leash.

There's a huge carrot for Antrim in north Dublin this evening. A win and their Division One status is virtually assured. Still, the Dubs with home advantage may just pip the Ulstermen.