CORRIGAN Park hasn’t been a bad venue to Cargin in recent years, but Tomás McCann still longs for the long-forgotten buzz of playing at Casement Park.
The Antrim champions, who recently claimed their third county title in four years with an eminently forgettable 0-5 to 0-4 win over Creggan, will host their Donegal counterparts Gaoth Dobhair at Corrigan Park on Sunday.
Cargin won their final in Ahoghill, one of several rotating venues used by Antrim county board in recent years as they try to cope with the absence of a permanent home for both county and club.
Casement Park has been closed since 2013 and work on its redevelopment has still not been given the green light by planners.
McCann, who was a regular there during his days in the saffron of his county, said that both the stadium and the surface are badly missed by Antrim football as a while.
“Whenever you’re playing county, the buzz was in Casement, Saturday nights. The games that come to my head from playing for the county are playing Sligo in Casement, playing Meath in Casement under lights, Galway in Casement.
“It’s your county ground. When you were being brought up, you were going to watch all the matches in Casement.
“The pitch was big, the surface was brilliant. It was perfect for football, it was one of those pitches that you’d just glide on. I enjoyed every time I was on it.
“There are a few young boys on our team that never even got to play underage on Casement, they don’t know what it feels like, and you’re having to fill them in on what they missed out on.
“If you go to a county final, you want to play in Casement. If someone came and asked if we wanted to play our final in Croke Park, that would be exactly the same scenario as playing at Casement.
“It’s a big pitch, it’ll suit somebody that wants to play and the team that wants to go at it will win. Casement brought out the best in players, it’s not a place where you could hide defensively.
“Teams can’t really set up because it’s that big and wide, that it’s hard to play the blanket in it. Yes we played defensive enough for Antrim, but you’re playing with more athletic players that can get back quickly, whereas in club football it just opens up into a good game.”
Having won their eighth county title last month, the Toome men will be looking to arrest a provincial record of having only ever won one game in Ulster.
That was when the 1999 crop shocked Carrrickmore in Casement before going down narrowly to Crossmaglen in the semi-final.
Some of the current team go back as far as their 2006 Antrim success, after which they were beaten in a replay by Clontibret, and their provincial record is something that McCann admits has disappointed them.
“It’s one of those ones, with the group of players we’ve had, to be honest we should have done a lot better.
“Ulster, in some ways it’s more shrewd but it can let you play a bit more football too. There’s not the same pressure as playing through the county, because there you’re just trying to win it. There’s more pressure in that.
“And that’s why it’s been disappointing, because we thought it should suit to play that type of game and go at teams.
“We haven’t been composed enough in Ulster. The teams that do well there are composed and organised – their defence is organised, their forwards are organised and there’s good balance in the good teams.
“That’s something we’ve been trying to get a good balance to. So far, yes we’ve changed our approach to thinking more than anything, but Damian still says that if a team gives you opportunities to attack it then go for it.”
