I ALWAYS enjoyed covering games at the old Casement Park. For starters, it was convenient. It would take me roughly 30 minutes to get from my house, park my car, breeze through the turnstiles and be sitting in the press box.
I also got to know some of the officials and stewards around the place. Seán McGurk manned the back door that led you to the changing room area. Seán was a gentleman. Easy company. I got to know some of the stewards too. Like many of his colleagues, Michael O’Neill gave up many Sunday lunches to stand at appointed gates and direct supporters. Michael was a class man.
Big Jim Murray, whose chairmanship ended on Monday night after his five-year stint finished, was an eternal presence at Casement. Walkie-talkie at hand, he’d normally be pitchside, discreetly directing operations and, among other things, announcing the half-time draw.
The county board could have been on the receiving end of some stinging criticism in The Irish News earlier that week - but Jim’s good nature always got the better of him. Quick-witted, Jim didn’t do confrontation.
There were county officers that would occasionally give me a piece of their mind under the main stand. Not Jim though. That wasn’t his style. His way had a bit more class. He’d deliver the odd joke with a jagged edge. We’d laugh and that would be that. But it didn’t make him any more amenable to what was written in The Irish News.
In the early days, Casement wasn’t always the most inviting of GAA grounds. I remember going through one of the rusty turnstiles off the Andersonstown Road for an Antrim game and the man behind the wire mesh inspected my press card for longer than was necessary. He was overzealous to the point of being annoying. I reached in to retrieve my press card and an angry tug of war ensued. I eventually got my press card back after a few expletives. Welcome to Casement Park.
A small minority of Casement Park’s volunteers obviously didn’t go to charm school. It was this small, obdurate minority that gave all the match-day volunteers a bad name at times.
There were times when everything ran smoothly in Antrim. Other times it wasn’t just as smooth. In fact, a lot of the time it was pretty rocky for the Antrim county board.
The local media were never short of negative stories coming out of the county. It’s probably more than 10 years ago now that former Antrim player Kevin McGourty let rip via the media that the team was being served “sausage rolls and pizza” after games. On another occasion, former senior football manager Mickey Culbert was left red-faced when the players were locked out of Woodlands Park.
More recently, the U21 hurlers reached the All-Ireland final but weren’t afforded an overnight stay. They endured a five-hour bus journey and then played the final. For as long as time can remember, Terence McNaughton has lobbied for more resources at underage level and has often cut a frustrated figure.
A couple of years ago, Cargin players Tony Scullion and Tomás McCann were dropped from the county panel because they attended an anniversary Mass, even though they would be available for a crucial NFL relegation match later that day. The county board did nothing to avert another PR disaster.
But it wasn’t always bad. The John McSparran years seemed to arrest Antrim GAA’s seemingly terminal decline. Given the right backing, the 2006 class of minor hurlers emerged and showed they could compete at the highest level.
Dinny Cahill proved a good appointment for the senior hurlers, while Liam ‘Baker’ Bradley allowed Antrim’s footballers to dream by reaching the 2009 Ulster final before running eventual All-Ireland champions Kerry close in Tullamore. But when things started to go pear-shaped in the county - which was quite often - the finger of blame was invariably pointed in the direction of the county board.
County boards are like referees. They’re easy to target. Easy to blame. Convenient scapegoats. A referee might make 100 good judgement calls, but the crowd remembers the three or four howlers he makes. Being a GAA administrator will always be a thankless task.
People cite the slowness of the Dunsilly ‘Centre of Participation’ project and how Casement Park social club members were treated. And how Antrim’s county teams have become the notorious nomads of the country, with no pitch to call their own. There have been collective failures too. Casement Park and its premature closure.
Several years ago, the Ulster Council, in conjunction with the Antrim county board, launched their Belfast Rising initiative in the Stormont Hotel. Ireland’s second city, the paper loftily declared, would be flooded with GAA coaches. Belfast is still stuck at first base and isn’t rising with any great pace or purpose.
And yet, in Thursday’s Irish News, Antrim senior footballer Seán McVeigh painted a glowing picture of the way in which recent squads have been treated by the county board. McVeigh had only good things to say about the team’s facilities, managerial structures, food and expenses being paid on time. But the entire county had lost faith in the current regime.
Opposition group Saffron Vision emerged, giving voice to the deep frustration felt by the clubs and pulled off a successful coup at Monday night’s convention by winning six out of eight available posts on the county executive.
Since Monday night’s dramatic change at county board level, there is a feeling that emancipation is not far away. There is genuine optimism in the county that this new group of administrators can deliver where the old board couldn’t.
But sitting on the opposition benches was the easy part. The challenges in Antrim remain as daunting as ever. They deserve everyone’s best wishes. The hard work starts now...
