DARREN Gleeson has agreed another two-year term with the Antrim hurlers with an option of a third year, the county board announced yesterday.
It would have been a major surprise had the Tipperary man decided to step away from the Antrim post he’s held since September 2019 given the gains the county has made.
Plagued by the pandemic, the Antrim hurlers still managed to win two Joe McDonagh Cups under Gleeson [2020 and 2022] and have preserved their Division One status.
It’ll be the first time the Saffrons will get a proper run at the Leinster SHC round robin series given its truncated format in 2021 that only offered them two games instead of five.
They needed to win a relegation play-off match with Offaly in Navan to save their top flight status in 2022 but they ran Kilkenny, Dublin and Waterford desperately close in Division 1B only to suffer agonising defeats each time.
The squad are expected to be backboned again by Neil McManus, Keelan Molloy, Paddy Burke, Eoghan Campbell, Gerard Walsh, Ciaran Clarke and James McNaughton in 2023.
