ESB All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship
ANTRIM minor hurling manager Ciaran Kearney has hit out at the structure and scheduling of his team’s season, labelling a 12-week break without a game as “absolute mayhem”.
The Cushendall man takes his side into battle against Galway in Cavan on Saturday with both sides in similar states of limbo.
With the prospect of both being included in the Leinster championship on the back burner, the Saffrons were left with a three-month hiatus between the end of their Leinster league campaign and the start of the Ulster championship.
“We played in the Leinster league and then didn’t have another really competitive game for 12 weeks. You tell me: how that develops any minor? It’s absolute mayhem,” said Kearney.
“We played Kildare in the Leinster shield final, and they went out and played championship the week after.
“Ultimately you want to be playing a run of games. Trying to maintain interest with players, saying ‘right lads, that’s the league over, training on Tuesday and Thursday but we’ve no game for 12 weeks’? Complete carnage.
“And telling them to still train with us while they have exams. We’ve guys doing GCSEs, AS-Levels and A-Levels. Last year, two of my players failed their A-Level exams.
“If I’d known at the time they were struggling so much with school, I’d have given them more leeway. I didn’t know they were struggling with their exams.
“The start of this year, I said to lads that they’re here to hurl, but if it interferes with their exams, I have to look at what’s important: somebody’s education, or being able to hurl?”
Antrim were almost caught by Derry before blitzing them in extra-time to win by 15 points, and were then too strong for Down in the Ulster decider.
It pits them against the Tribesmen, who have won the counties’ last three Championship meetings by an average of 26 points.
But they find themselves starting their Championship campaign even later than Antrim, having had no game at all yet.
It’s a situation with which Kearney finds it easy to sympathise.
“I know for a fact they are banging their heads off the wall too,” he said.
“A couple of years ago, Antrim played Waterford. Waterford lost two games and went on to win the All-Ireland.
“Galway go into an All-Ireland quarter-final, they lose and they’re out. In Leinster, there was a chance earlier in it that you got another game if you lost, but Kilkenny lost their second game at a later stage and were out. It doesn’t really work.”
Recent challenge games against Dublin and Wexford have helped Antrim prepare for the challenge that the reigning All-Ireland champions will provide at Kingspan Breffni Park on Saturday.
The Saffrons are hoping that captain Conor Carson has recovered from a virus.
Having to play the early part of the Leinster league without their contingent from All-Ireland Colleges ‘B’ finalists St Louis’, Ballymena ultimately didn’t do them much harm, though Kearney admits their reintroduction added a zip to proceedings.
“Being without them gave us a good opportunity to look at players outside what we already knew. A lot of players who performed really well in that period cemented their positions and have held on to them.
“We’ve a couple of guys from Glenarm, who are in line to start on Saturday, and that’s almost unheard of. We have Glenariff and Sarsfield’s lads as well. So we’re getting a wide spread.
“We just have to see how we perform on the day. There were things over the last couple of games that we weren’t particularly happy about, things from the Derry game that we eradicated for the Down game.
“There were areas in the Down game that we could improve from as well. Last year, we’d seen Dublin play a couple of times, but you don’t have that opportunity with Galway. You have to just focus on yourself.”
