Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge
THERE is little Dominic McKinley hasn’t seen through a lifetime in hurling, but the buzz remains the same as he prepares to take his developmental Antrim side into their Celtic Challenge final date with Derry (Saturday, 12pm, Dunsilly).
The young Saffrons have beaten Tyrone, Sligo, Kildare and Armagh on the way to reaching the William Robinson decider, while county spirits soared when an Antrim U16 side defeated Offaly in Abbotstown at the weekend.
And McKinley has seen major strides made in recent months.
“We use this competition to develop players for next year’s minor team, and try and find one or two more,” he said.
“We’ve beaten everybody to date, we’ve been happy with the performances. With our minors involved in Leinster, the six who are U16 in that group are unavailable in this competition, so we know we face a massive task going up against Derry U17s, but it’s not beyond us.
“They have been doing very well, been very committed since we’ve been involved – honestly I couldn’t praise them enough. This is a hard age group, we all know the drop-offs around 16, 17, but I can’t say a word because at the start we had 38 and now we still have around 36.
“It’s good for the county.”
In the years to come, he hopes the fruits of their endeavours will pay up further along the age grades.
“We have a good group and, to be honest, I’d say there will be a lot of people talking about our 16s in the next two or three years. There’s serious potential, and that’s why we’re putting a lot into it.
“You would have high hopes, but as we all know the road is long for them. There’s a good spread of boys from different clubs, which speaks well of the work going on there too.”
