AT 31-years-old, Declan Lynch is officially the oldest player on the Antrim senior football panel. He jokes he was “squealing” for Ricky Johnston to return to the panel – not just for his expertise in playing in the full-back position, but also because he’s a year older than Lynch.
Lynch made his inter-county debut in 2012. He’s had no fewer than five operations on his hips during that time.
Medically speaking, he shouldn’t be anywhere near elite sport but he still feels he’s something to offer.
When he’s fully fit, which hasn’t been always the case in 2023, the Lamh Dhearg man would be a first choice defender for Antrim.
Across those 11 years, Lynch has seen scores of players and several managers come and go. Michael McCann, Tomas McCann, James Laverty and Conor Murray were members of the 30-club that didn’t feature for their county this season.
It meant Lynch is the senior citizen of a relatively new panel of players assembled by new manager Andy McEntee.
“One thing that’s changed this year is I’m the oldest on the panel and that’s a big thing to deal with,” Lynch smiles.
“That’s why I was squealing to get big Ricky [Johnston] back because he’s 32. Or Conor [Murray].”
He considered calling it a day with Antrim but his club form was good and encouraged him to give it another year with the county.
Lynch feels reinvigorated by the raft of new players that were invited onto the senior panel by McEntee.
“The lads that are coming through are as every bit as focused and determined as the older players and they want to do well for Antrim,” Lynch says.
“There is a transition in players but the attitude hasn’t changed. The strength and conditioning has got so much better under Brendan Murphy and Robbie Bremner and the youngsters are coming in and wanting more than what they’re being given, so it’s a credit to them and the set-up that we have.
“The lads that stepped away gave great service and they owe Antrim nothing,” Lynch is quick to point out.
“It was about finding new faces, and I think that’s one of the positives of Andy coming in, that he had little idea of who was who in Antrim football.
“There may have been lads that might not have been given a chance because they were from so-called weaker clubs, but they’ve come in and looked at home and they’ve kept the jersey. That’s credit to Andy and his backroom team for believing in them.
“One thing about the manager is, he has full trust in the group. I’ve never seen anyone that trusts every single person in a squad as much as he does. He has literally given boys a chance in every game, he’s given people starts because of how they trained, which is great.”
Lynch name-checks the performances of rangy wing-forward Colm McLarnon (St Paul’s) and Joe Finnegan (St Brigid’s), just two inter-county rookies who have impressed the new management team.
“Big Colm McLarnon didn’t feature against Offaly and then was sprung at half-time in Newry [against Down] when the place was packed and it didn’t faze him. I have to say he’s a massive addition around the squad. He’s the ‘Yak’ – that’s his nickname. He’s been brilliant. Colm is equally good at hurling as he is football and I think Darren [Gleeson] would have been sniffing around him a couple of years ago.
“Big Joe Finnegan is another player who’s getting better and better and looks more comfortable. It’s a big position to come in and play – centre half-back – and he’s looking great within the squad and within the team.”
While the new players are rightly being lauded, Antrim lacked the experience to see a couple of games out in their tempestuous Division Three campaign, notably throwing points away against Down and Fermanagh.
At different times Antrim sorely missed the likes of Lynch, Ryan Murray, Patrick McBride, Paddy McAleer, Dermot McAleese and Marc Jordan in trying to close games out.
And after suffering heartache at home to Fermanagh, the wheels well and truly came off Antrim’s League campaign when they suffered an horrific 31-point defeat to Westmeath in Mullingar.
The smart money was on relegation after that but a fortnight later they schooled Division Three leaders Cavan at Corrigan Park to preserve their status.
“Westmeath was just one of those performances we just couldn’t get going as a group. You could still be here trying to analyse it and you’d be no closer to finding the reason,” Lynch says.
“We had an honest and frank conversation about what’s going to define our season and we were well aware that we hadn’t won a home League game, we hadn’t won at Corrigan this year and we needed to put a performance in against Cavan.
“The talk externally was: ‘Let’s bring it to a shoot-out with Longford in the last game’, but inside the group we didn’t look at Longford once.
“It was about righting the wrongs, getting a performance against Cavan. We knew if we did that we’d be there or thereabouts come the end of the game and ultimately a bit of experience got us over the line, and by experience I mean the experience of those close defeats.
“I think the management and the players deserve massive credit for how they reacted against Cavan but at the end of the day the Westmeath result shouldn’t happen at an inter-county level.”
A passionate supporter of increasing participation among schoolchildren and gender equality in the GAA, Lynch was speaking at a skills day at Christ the Redeemer Primary School in Lagmore and was surprised to learn the low GAA participation rates were in the school.
“There are over 700 pupils and I was shocked to hear of so few of them involved in sport and GAA. There shouldn’t be any reason why the majority of them aren’t playing sport or joining a GAA club, as long as they’re participating. The girls and boys are the future of the game.
“We’re taking about growing the game and getting more females involved. Well, everyone has a duty to do better. I can see it at first-hand with my partner [Ainé Turbridy] playing for Antrim and the difference in how females and males are treated. It’s just not on.
“There are people like Conor Meyler who is doing great work, trying to raise the profile. Everyone saw the Cavan Ladies not fulfilling a fixture recently. There shouldn’t be any difference between male and female, especially in this county when the female teams are consistently getting to Croke Park, which we are striving to do. I could go on all day about it. There needs to be hard and straight conversations about everyone coming under the one umbrella because females need more profile and more support.”
