Allianz Football League Division Two: Waterford v Antrim (WIT Arena, Carriganore, 2pm tomorrow)
CHANGE for the better is what Antrim football wants - but they hope to achieve that by not making too many changes.
Indeed the only personnel alteration to the team that confidently disposed of Leitrim last weekend is an enforced one, forward Colum Duffin out for the next number of weeks with a cracked bone in his jaw.
Paddy McAleer comes into a re-shuffled attack, with Conor Murray pushed to full-forward, with manager Lenny Harbinson explaining his approach:
“I’m running with a small panel, trying to keep it tight, around 28 players, trying a slightly different approach.
“The guys who start are there to do the hard yards and try to get us into a winning position – then other panel members come off the bench to try and close out the game.
“The top teams have been able to do that over the last four or five years, get strength in depth.”
Harbinson understands the traditional mentality is one of ‘pushing for places’ but he and his selectors are aiming to ingrain a slightly different mindset in the Saffrons’ squad:
“Obviously everybody wants to play, and there’s a culture that everyone wants to start, but I’m trying to really focus on a panel, in which everybody has an opportunity to make an impact, be it at the start, the middle, or the end of a game.
“It’s about trying to get the right balance for the team. A team isn’t necessarily made up of the best 15 individuals; we want to get the right blend, that’s what we’re working on.”
The St Gall’s man wants consistency of selection to lead to consistency of performance and results:
“There’s been a lack of consistency down through the years. We’re utting certain plans and mechanisms in place from the players’ perspective to try to iron out the peaks and troughs and create a level of consistency.
“Part of that is having a small panel and everyone understanding what their roles are when they come on to the team.
“Hopefully that consistency will then slowly and surely manifest itself in winning. That’s the key thing, another two points is very important to us.”
Waterford have announced only two changes themselves, with An Rinn duo Ray O Ceallaigh and Donal Breathnach starting at left corner-back and centre half-forward respectively. Both came on during the 0-12 apiece draw with Wicklow last weekend. Incidentally, the Deise footballers also have a Conor Murray in their attack.
Antrim will travel down to Waterford this afternoon and that’s where Harbinson hopes other sorts of change will bring positives:
“There are challenges for everyone – the different dynamic of the journey, not sleeping in your own bed, eating out of a hotel restaurant...
“It’s all very different to arriving at your home ground an hour beforehand. We have to embrace and make that work to our advantage as much as possible.
“It’s an opportunity to bond a bit closer. We’ll make sure everyone knows why we are there – to play the game and win – but maybe the boys will sit down and watch some of the rugby, and Dublin v Tyrone, and keep a low profile on Saturday evening.”
One thing Antrim don’t want to alter is their historic football dominance over Waterford and the Saffrons should continue their winning start to the League.
Waterford: S Enright; B Looby, T O'Gorman, R O Ceallaigh; J McGrath, S Ryan, A Trihy; T Prendergast, M Curry; C Murray, D Breathnach, D Guiry; J Curry, J Veale, P Whyte.
Antrim: C Kerr; P Healy, P Gallagher, N Delargy; K O’Boyle, M Sweeney, J Laverty; S Burke, N McKeever; P McAleer, S Beatty, P McBride; M Fitzpatrick, C Murray, R Murray.
Subs: A Hasson, P Branagan, O Eastwood, K Healy, R Johnston, C Lemon, R McCann, M McCarry, CJ McGourty, S McVeigh.
Referee: Sean Lonergan (Tipperary).
