Saffrons ‘coming on nicely’ but need a victory boost

A result that suited both counties: that’s how Antrim boss Kevin Ryan saw this fixture when his team, having been first out of the drum in the draw for the first round of the All-Ireland senior hurling qualifiers, then got Offaly.

“I’m sure Offaly are happy anyway, if they could have picked anyone to face they would have picked us. And we’re under no illusions about that.”

Perhaps, but they certainly wouldn’t have picked Ballycastle as the venue! “No, and that’s obviously a huge advantage for us, the distance that’s in it for them. We’re well used to travel and it can be tiring. It’s actually very unusual for us to have home games in the championship because of the set-up in Leinster for the last few years. They changed the format this year though, introduced a round-robin group and because of that we’ve already had a few home games. Hopefully the weather stays good and the crowd comes out; if so it would make for a fantastic atmosphere and if we can perform at all, regardless of result we’ll be happy.”

Many would see those extra round-robin games as an advantage for counties such as Antrim. However, Ryan disagrees. “All those extra games brings its own problems with injuries and fatigue, plus you’re trying to facilitate the clubs as well. Their games have to go ahead too and they’ve been very good to us. Those round-robin games weren’t really going to improve you hurling-wise but they were games to which you had to give 100% attention, all hard battles against teams at your own level or maybe slightly below. We got through (unbeaten) but look at those who didn’t — look at Carlow (whom he used to manage), out of the championship in the middle of May. That’s devastating for them and for counties like them. How can you progress hurling like that? I believe if we had been allowed prepare like the other teams, have five or six weeks to train and freshen up for a stronger team then we’d have developed more.”

And development is the name of the game for Kevin and for Antrim. “There’s an awful lot of good things happening in Antrim hurling, we’re doing a lot of work in the background with development squads at underage.

“I’m taking the university team next year, doing a pile of work to get these young fellas through. If we can impress in this game, garner more support for the coming year, that will be a real positive.”

Impressing is one thing but can Antrim win against and Offaly side still reeling from that first round hammering, and humiliation, against Kilkenny?

“Offaly are like the wounded lion, we have to beware, and I’m sure they feel they have a score to settle as well after we beat them in the relegation game. It would be seen by many that we caught them after what happened the previous week (Antrim put out a weakened team and were hammered). We’ll be prepared one way or the other. There are no soft teams in that group but we’re thrilled with the home draw, that’s the most important thing for us. “Hopefully there’ll be a good crowd and we’ll give them something to cheer about, see out the year out in a positive light. We’re so young, coming on nicely, incremental steps – comparing ourselves to this time last year we were six points better in nearly every performance. To win a game like this would be a great boost to confidence, no matter what was to happen next, but to be actually hurling into July would be a benefit in itself.”