Board silent over Cahill resignation

ANTRIM county board officials were remaining tight-lipped yesterday about the possibility of Dinny Cahill reversing his decision to step down as hurling manager.

However, the mood among senior players is that the Tipperary man is not for turning and that his four-year tenure in the north-east is over.

Cahill walked out on a training session on Tuesday night in disgust at the presence of only 15 squad members, three of whom refused to train after playing three games in three days.

County officials yesterday refused to say whether Cahill had officially stepped down although talks were ongoing to keep him in the Glens.

"We have no comment to make on the matter as of yet," said county secretary Eamonn McMahon. "We're not in the business of playing games through the press. We will release a statement on this as soon as we have some concrete information."

Cahill's decision to walk away from the job could hardly have come at a worse time. Antrim play Laois in the last of their qualifiers in Casement Park at the weekend.

Lose that and they are only one play-off game in all likelihood against Dublin away from relegation to the Christy Ring Cup. There is a level of disappointment among some players that Cahill didn't bite his tongue until after the Laois game, but they are sympathetic with the frustrations the manager was feeling.

"I would love to get him back but I don't think we will at this stage," said one senior player. "I spoke to him at training and he seemed 100% certain that he wasn't coming back."

It is believed that Cahill was ready to walk away even before the Ulster championship got underway but was persuaded to stay at the time. Antrim endured a traumatic league campaign and, despite a promising Ulster final win, things plummeted again with two heavy defeats to Limerick and Galway in the qualifiers.

Despite those setbacks, numbers had been high at training until Tuesday, but the decision by a number of players to go on holiday this week was reported to have left Cahill "disgusted".

"My personal opinion is that I don't think Dinny was getting the respect he deserved from some of the players," said one player. "A few years ago nobody would dare miss a training session because everyone knew you'd be off the panel if you did."