Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Round Two: Wexford v Antrim (Saturday, Chadwicks Wexford Park,6pm)
IT’S that kind of season for the Antrim hurlers where the next match always seems the most important of their careers.
First, it was Kilkenny in their opening game of the National League season. Then it was trying to overcome their bogey team Dublin down in Parnell Park. Every League game that followed fell neatly into the ‘vital’ category as Darren Gleeson’s men chased that breakthrough win.
And then, the most important game came against Laois at Corrigan Park when the Ulstermen secured their top flight status for the fourth consecutive year with a game to spare.
The last Division 1B game against Tipperary came and went as the squad headed off to Portugal for a week of warm-weather training to prepare for – guess what – the most important game of their season against Dublin in the Leinster series.
The Antrim players and management were disappointed they could only draw with the physically imposing Dubs - but the performance still felt like the most significant fracture that appeared on hurling’s glass ceiling since Gleeson got involved with the team.
It was one of the better displays under the Tipperary man largely because they played consistently well across the two halves of the game.
Whereas in other games, Antrim would disappear for a full quarter sometimes.
At Corrigan Park last Saturday afternoon, they wrote a different, more uplifting narrative and everyone probably realised afterwards that targeting Westmeath in the last game of the Leinster round robin is only negative goal-setting; that there are points to be mined elsewhere in this engaging Championship series – starting in Wexford Park this evening.
Every inch you travel at this elite level of hurling feels like you’ve toiled for miles. But inching forward, Antrim are.
On Saturday, we’ll get an idea just how far the squad has come against a Wexford team that has struggled badly so far in 2023.
Of course, a robin robin Championship format allows teams to target certain games.
From months out, Wexford will have targeted this Antrim game as the one that can ease their stress levels and maybe put them in the frame for that All-Ireland preliminary round berth.
The fact Lee Chin didn’t play against Galway but is likely to face Antrim (he’s named among the Wexford subs) suggests this game was always bigger to Darragh Egan because nobody truly believed they had the beating of Galway in Salthill last week.
So why risk your best player when he probably wouldn’t have affected the outcome but can against Antrim?
Generally speaking, Wexford’s team-sheet is getting to look more like itself - Matthew O’Hanlon, Rory O’Connor, Liam Ryan and Chin all missed chunks of their League season and are back – but what physical shape they’re in is hard to know.
What’s clear is Wexford have never been more vulnerable to faltering against a so-called hurling minnow.
Can Antrim catch a team that has perhaps seen better days?
Wexford’s League campaign was woeful, and sunk to new depths of depression when they leaked 6-25 to Clare in Wexford Park at the back end of February.
Scoring two early goals and still ahead by a point after 46 minutes against Galway was better than Wexford could ever have anticipated last week before they faded badly in the final quarter.
Up until those two green flags in Salthill, Wexford haven’t been finding the net this year and struggled from placed balls, although Liam Og McGovern and Charlie McGuckin have been plus points in a misfiring attack.
So, is this a game where Wexford can haul themselves out of the doldrums and make a stab at reaching the preliminary round of the All-Ireland?
Or is this Antrim’s time?
In his post-match briefing last Saturday, Gleeson observed: “Sure isn’t an ideal situation for us going down to Wexford Park?
“No-one’s expecting us to get anything down there. No-one’s expecting us to get anything against Kilkenny or Galway, so we can go and be ourselves and hurl with a bit of freedom; it’s a great way to play hurling and you never know what happens on days like that.”
Was the gutsy draw against Dublin at a rainy Corrigan Park last Saturday afternoon another gallant fist pump – or something more significant in the growth of this Antrim team?
In this ruthlessly condensed season, every team will inevitably be weakened by absenteeism. Niall McKenna and Nigel Elliott (both injured) are serious losses, not to mention the long-term absences of Conor McCann and Ciaran Clarke that has enabled Rian McMullan and Paul Boyle to be more than just squad players.
This Antrim team aren’t prolific – neither are Wexford - but they’re physically stronger and more street-wise for the rigours of top flight hurling and can take the spoils at Wexford Park.
The most important game of their season? Isn’t it always for Antrim…
Wexford (SHC v Antrim): J Lawlor; S Reck, L Ryan, C Devitt; M O'Hanlon, C Foley, S Donohue; D O'Keefe, C Hearne; O Foley, J O'Connor, L Og McGovern, R O'Connor, C McDonald, C Dunbar Subs: C Byrne, R Banville, L Chin, D Clarke, M Dwyer, K Foley, R Lawlor, C McGuckin, N Murphy, J O'Connor, D Reck
Antrim (SHC v Wexford): R Elliott; P Burke, R McGarry, N O'Connor; G Walsh, E Campbell, C Bohill; M Bradley, S Elliott; K Molloy, J Maskey, J McNaughton; C Cunning, N McManus, C Johnston Subs: T Smyth, S Rooney, C Boyd, C McKernan, S Walsh, E Og McGarry, E O'Neill, P Boyle, S McAuley, R McMullan, D Nugent
