Antrim Senior Club Championship 2021
LAST year's Antrim Senior Hurling Championship started on Sunday August 9 2020 and took us on a rollercoaster ride that lasted five unforgettable weeks.
With COVID19 hanging over an entire nation, ash and stitched leather ensured Antrim Gaels lived their best lives during the month of August and early September.
On the Shaw’s Road, Belfast's age-old rivals O’Donovan Rossa and St John’s thundered into one another on the opening day before Michael Bradley sent over a dramatic stoppage-time winner for the Johnnies.
Afterwards, St John's boss Mickey Johnston had a good, clear eye on what mattered.
“Rossa v St John’s has a life of its own,” he said.
“It was a city derby. But it was all about the people on the hill, the officials and everybody for the times that we’re living in. Anything after that is a bonus.”
A week later, Gregory O’Kane was punching the air after watching defending champions Dunloy sneak a last-gasp draw against Colly Murphy’s luckless Rossa.
Elsewhere, Loughgiel were motoring along below the radar while some of Cushendall’s best players were being held together by tape.
Up on the hill at Naomh Éanna one gorgeous Saturday afternoon, a thrill-a-minute quarter-final took place between city upstarts Rossa and the Ruairi Ogs, where hurling's old order was rocked to its core.
Up leapt Stephen Beatty to grab two second-half majors to finally break Cushendall’s resistance.
Both goals were a fitting ode to the spirit of Davy Beatty.
The warrior-like resistance of opponents Michael Armstrong and Neil McManus and the Corinthian spirit of both men after the final whistle sounded.
It’s true Dunsilly still hasn’t got its breath back since those two epic semi-final encounters between the Johnnies and the Shamrocks and Cuchullain’s and Rossa.
Forget installing new floodlights there, they should erect a monument made of chiselled bronze in memory of the herculean - and one-armed - efforts of Domhnall Nugent of St John’s – a day we’ll never see the likes of again.
Not forgetting Liam ‘Winker’ Watson’s encore in helping the Shamrocks stave off the human tsunami led by the indomitable Nugent.
Despite the best efforts of the urban guerrillas of St John’s and Rossa, the bluebloods of the Glens remained standing.
It was impossible for the final to live up to the drama of Dunsilly a week earlier as Dunloy kept Loughgiel at arms’ length in Ballycastle to make it back-to-back championship wins, with ‘Shorty’ Shiels, ‘Coby’ Cunning, Kevin and Keelan Molloy displaying the mark of champions.
They say history is written by the winners and it is absolutely true Gregory O’Kane’s gifted Cuchullain’s have added some engrossing chapters to the storied history-book of the Antrim SHC – but city sides Rossa and St John’s added texture and limitless excitement to the 2020 series.
It’s been a while since Belfast got so close to the Glensmen.
Will 2020 prove to be a flash in the pan? Can the Johnnies break their semi-final hoodoo in 2021? And what of Colly Murphy’s Rossa?
Can they take a few more career-defining steps forward on last summer?
You get the sense Rossa are leaving no stone unturned ahead of their championship opener at home to Ballycastle on Tuesday August 24 – a team they, in all fairness, schooled in a make-or-break group clash 12 months ago.
It’s a dank Monday night and Seaghan Shannon has just returned home from a strength and conditioning session with Niall McHugh down at CrossFit.
Many championships were won on dank Monday evenings where dinner isn’t served until after half-nine at night.
Shannon was one of Rossa’s key players in 2020. He was also one of Rossa’s Hall of Famers who claimed the All-Ireland Intermediate title in 2015.
Their win over Kilburn Gaels at Croke Park was meant to be the stepping stone to greater things at senior level. The only problem was the distance between the stones wasn’t expected to be five years.
Rossa were making gains but not as quickly as they had hoped after lighting up the City Hall in unmistakable blue and yellow six years ago.
That’s why last summer felt like a breakthrough for them.
Shannon only got around to framing his All-Ireland winning jersey last week.
“I actually thought I’d lost the jersey because I never wanted to wear it at training but it was lying at the bottom of the cupboard,” he says.
“We built a wee bit of a bar at the house so it’s up on the wall now.”
After experiencing the highs of All-Ireland glory six years ago, the teak-tough midfielder fell off the radar. He moved to Liverpool to study and kept his eye in with John Moores University hurlers and pucked around with Lancashire.
But it wasn’t Rossa.
After spending a summer apiece in San Francisco and New York, Shannon returned home and has had his shoulder to the wheel for the last couple of seasons.
Last year, they possibly should have beaten St John’s and Dunloy twice – but didn’t get over the line. Still, every time they took to the championship stage they produced magical moments.
“Looking back on it, especially the way everything was with COVID, you appreciate the opportunity you had to hurl,” says the 24-year-old.
“Every game was a thriller - even the game against Cushendall up in St Enda’s that went right to the wire. It could have gone either way. I’m sure it was amazing to watch but it was even better to play in."
With a roguish grin, Shannon says: “And [Stephen] Beatty scoring those two goals... If he hadn’t caught those two balls he was getting whipped off!
“Playing Dunloy was great too. They have set the standard, all those boys have been coming through over the past five years.
“And yet, we should have beaten them in the end when we reflected on it. But there were a lot of positives to take into this year. Colly [Murphy] has instilled that intensity in us.”
Indeed, Murphy’s war cries from the side-line and primal, celebratory dance at the final whistle up at St Enda’s merely added to the madness of the 2020 championship.
“The kind of energy Colly brings to the side-line reflects on us and we also had [strength and conditioning coach] Niall McHugh on board to help us. The biggest thing with Niall was managing dual players, managing their game-time.
“Looking back on last year, the Cushendall match was my personal highlight because we got the win in the end.
“Cushendall are stalwarts. A bit like Dunloy, they’ve set the standard for everybody. A couple of years ago we weren’t anywhere near Cushendall or Dunloy but we got ourselves organised and we managed to turn Cushendall over.”
Being a dual club too is something Shannon wants Rossa to wear as a badge of honour rather than feeling like a stone in their shoe come championship time.
Ciaran Orchin, Chris McGuinness, Niall Crossan, Gerard Walsh, Stephen Shannon, Michael Armstrong, Thomas Morgan, Stephen Beatty, Cormac McGettigan and Dominic McEnhill all double up in both codes for the club.
“There is only a puck of a ball between the top four or five clubs in Antrim,” Shannon adds.
“Antrim club hurling is probably one of the most competitive. Last year, ourselves and St John’s showed just how competitive we can be – if we can keep everybody fit and manage our players, that will be key.
“We’re always going to have dual players; we can’t use that as an excuse any more. We should be proud of it. We are a dual club and we can compete in both if we’re really organised. We just need some joined up thinking rather than thinking we are two separate entities.”
With the same championship format as last year, Rossa will host Ballycastle before making the short crosstown trip to St Enda’s. They then travel to Loughgiel for their final group game, all in the space of 13 days.
Group Two appears to be the tougher of the two with Dunloy, Cushendall, St John’s and Tir na nÓg playing off on a round robin basis.
Rather than looking over their shoulder, O’Donovan Rossa will be eyeing top spot in the hope of avoiding a quarter-final game and going straight into the last four.
Rossa undoubtedly won many plaudits for their style of play and brilliant knock-out victory over Cushendall last year – but the squad, which is arguably stronger than 2020, will want to continue where they left off 11 months ago.
And there seems no sign of manager Colly Murphy, now in his third year as senior Rossa hurling manager, dropping his standards.
One of the most animated characters on the club circuit, Shannon feels they have the right man at the helm to deliver for the west Belfast club.
“I think there needs to be a respect there between manager and player – and I think Colly gets that from the players,” Shannon says of his manager whom he’s had since U13.
“Colly will be the first to tell you that not everybody likes him, but everyone respects him and we all know he respects us. He expects a certain standard for Rossa. You’re representing your club and your family. And if Colly thinks you’re only doing it half-hearted he’ll call you out on it, which I think is one of the most important things for a manager to do.
“I don’t know about other players but I’d rather that approach because you need to know where you stand with your manager.
“To be successful, you have to be hard-nosed, you have to be straight down the line and we all have to hold a certain standard.
“As long as you’re playing for Rossa you want to be competing for senior championships, otherwise you’re wasting your time accepting anything less than that.
“I don’t want to go through my career without winning a senior championship. That has to be the goal. You have to want to go all the way.”
With each passing year, the Antrim Senior Hurling Championship can’t come soon enough. Just ask the men from O’Donovan Rossa on a dank Monday evening.
...VERDICT...
THERE wasn’t a better club championship in Ireland in 2020 than the Antrim Senior Hurling Club series. It was the Championship that kept on giving and delivered the best five weeks of the GAA calendar.
In no particular order, Dunloy, Cushendall, Loughgiel Shamrocks, O’Donovan Rossa and St John’s are the main contenders who between them produced scandalous entertainment every time they took to the field last August and September.
The Cuchullain’s, under the wily stewardship of ex-county star Gregory O’Kane, are aiming for three-in-a-row in 2021 and who’s to say anyone can stop them given their incredible fire-power.
Also, the age profile of this Dunloy squad suggests they can win another three or four county championships this decade with the hope of exorcising the bitter memory of the 2019 Ulster final defeat to Slaughtneil.
But Cushendall, under new manager Brian Delargy, will be better than 2020 having warmed up nicely with a league title. Neil McManus wasn’t anywhere near fit for the entire 2020 campaign, likewise Martin Burke. The Ruairi Ogs will be still smarting from last year’s quarter-final exit to Rossa.
Rossa, in many ways, were the story of last summer's county championship. Marshalled by ex-county ace Colly Murphy, the west Belfast men probably played the most entertaining hurling of the lot and with a couple of good additions to the squad they’ll want to show that 2020 wasn’t a flash in the pan.
St John’s could still have a sting in them as they try to break their semi-final hoodoo with Domhnall Nugent, Antrim’s answer to Cuchullain, hoping to repeat the form of last year. It seems the mercurial Liam Watson has finally run out of encores for Hugh McCann’s Loughgiel Shamrocks team as they bid to reach a second consecutive final.
Cushendall and Rossa could well be Dunloy’s biggest threats to their three-in-a-row tilt – but ‘Coby’ Cunning, Keelan Molloy, Eoin O’Neill and Seaan Elliott will take some holding. Dunloy to make it a hat-trick.
