Antrim see off Kerry to secure McDonagh Cup success at Croke Park
Antrim captain Conor McCann lifts the cup after the Joe McDonagh Cup final win over Kerry. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
After a five-year absence, Antrim are back at hurling’s top table.
Division 2 League and second-tier championship success during this Covid year means the Saffrons will compete in the top tier on both fronts in 2021, the Leinster SHC growing from five to six and incorporating a county from a third province as Antrim join Kilkenny, Wexford, Dublin, Laois, and Galway.
Yesterday’s result completed a perfect and unbeaten first year in charge for Antrim manager Darren Gleeson, with winning captain Conor McCann effusive in his praise of the Tipperary man during his acceptance speech and the passion he has brought to furthering the cause of Antrim hurling.
Their two-point win marked the fourth time this year that Antrim have had the better of Kerry.
On a surface level, the men in green and gold have finished the year empty-handed after league and championship final defeats. But to focus solely on their failure to get past Antrim in the games that mattered most is to overlook a year of progression for hurling in the Kingdom.
Their success in coming from behind late on against Carlow in their final round-robin game represented a new departure in terms of self-belief, a trait that was evident again yesterday as Fintan O’Connor’s charges overcame a horrid and equally barren third quarter to work themselves back within two of their opponents coming down the stretch.
The decision this year to compete in the Munster championship proper at both minor and U20 level after several seasons racking up All-Ireland underage B titles will benefit the county’s flagship team in the years ahead. Important too will be retaining the services of second-half sub Barry O’Mahony, a talented dual player who has lined out for the Kerry minor and U20 footballers in recent years.
Their undoing yesterday was a third-quarter during which they failed to score in the 15 minutes after half-time, Antrim outscoring Kerry by 0-7 to 0-1 between the restart and second water break.
Three from Ciarán Clarke (two frees and one from play), a Niall McKenna brace, and a Neil McManus effort saw Antrim begin the second period with six unanswered points to surge five clear.
Having succeeded in turning a 1-7 to 0-9 interval deficit into a 0-16 to 1-8 lead, Antrim had one foot in the 2021 Leinster SHC entering the final quarter.
The Division 2 League champions could have pushed further ahead during this period of supremacy, with McCann dropping a shot short and Conal Cunning and James McNaughton swelling their wide count.
Kerry, as they did in the first-half, significantly increased their intensity after the second water break. Shane Conway (free) and sub Colum Harty shrunk the gap to three, although another Antrim burst, this one yielding three unanswered points, two of which impressive sub Conal Cunning had a hand in, again put daylight between them.
Four-in-a-row from Kerry’s Michael O’Leary, sub Brendan O’Leary, Conway (free), and Daniel Collins cut the Antrim lead to two, 0-19 to 1-14, on 67 minutes. Kerry, though, required a goal and they could not engineer one during second-half stoppages, two from the stick of Neil McManus sealing silverware for Antrim on this their first involvement on All-Ireland hurling final day since 1989.
Indeed, if the GAA takes only one lesson from 2020 it must be that going forward, the Joe McDonagh final, rather than the minor, is the curtain-raiser on hurling’s concluding afternoon of action.
No more than what transpired after half-time, the winners dominated the opening exchanges. Clarke, McCann, and James McNaughton were on target to propel the Ulstermen 0-6 to 0-2 in front come the first water stoppage.
For all Antrim’s early dominance and despite the fact that Kerry didn’t hit the front for the first time until the final play of first-half stoppages, the Kingdom, who were gifted a goal on 20 minutes, might have led by more than the minimum at the break were it not for eight first-half wides.
Their interval lead proved short-lived and so it is Antrim who make the step up. Can they make it a lengthy stay?
Antrim’s third-quarter dominance. Darren Gleeson’s side hit six points without reply to turn a one-point interval deficit into a five-point lead come the 49th minute. Kerry never got back on level terms thereafter.
Kerry’s desperately slow start to either half. Fintan O’Connor's charges managed only two points prior to the first water break and went the opening 15 minutes of the second-half without adding to their tally.
Antrim stalwart Neil McManus missed his county’s Joe McDonagh Cup round-robin campaign because of an injury picked up in their Division 2 League final win over Kerry in October. He was introduced here after 45 minutes, contributing three placed-ball efforts and one from play. It was only fitting that McManus was involved as Antrim secured a return to the top-flight.
Kerry will look back with regret on the eight first-half wides they tallied. There was a flurry of missed chances either side of Mikey Boyle’s goal which should have seen Kerry hit the front far earlier than they did.
Ciarán Clarke, with 0-11 to his name, is an obvious mention. Centre-forward James McNaughton was also busy. The latter had a right tussle with Kerry’s Fionán Mackessy. Shane Conway, as ever, looked threatening each time he was fed, although Kerry would have liked to have got him on the ball more often.
Both sides got a fine return from their bench. The Antrim replacements contributed 0-6, with Neil McManus converting three crucial placed-ball efforts, while three Kerry subs - Colum Harty, Podge Boyle, and Brendan O’Leary - each hit a point apiece.
Liam Gordon appeared to make the correct call when not awarding Antrim a first-half goal as the sliotar from Niall McKenna’s shot had not fully crossed the white paint when Kerry ‘keeper John B O’Halloran made a last-ditch intervention.
Antrim will operate in the top tier of both the League and Championship next year; Kerry, after two final defeats this season, will again compete in Division 2 of the League and the Joe McDonagh Cup.
C Clarke (0-11, 0-8 frees); N McManus (0-4, 0-2 ‘65s, 0-1 free); N McKenna, C Gunning (0-2 each); J McNaughton, C McCann, M Bradley (0-1 each).
S Conway (0-9, 0-8 frees); M Boyle (1-0); M O’Leary, D Collins (0-2 each); P O’Connor, C Harty, P Boyle, B O’Leary (0-1 each).
R Elliott; P Duffin, M Donnelly, S Rooney; G Walsh, P Burke, J Maskey; E Campbell, K Molloy; N McKenna, J McNaughton, M Bradley; D McCloskey, C McCann, C Clarke.
C Cunning for McCloskey (HT); N McManus for Molloy, D Nugent for McCann (both 45 mins); C Johnston for Bradley (64); A O’Brien for McKenna (70).
JB O’Halloran; B Murphy, T O’Connor, E Leen; J Diggins, F Mackessy, M Leane; B Barrett, P O’Connor; S Conway, S Nolan, M O’Leary; D Collins, M Boyle, M O’Connor.
B O’Mahony for M O’Connor (42); P Boyle for P O’Connor (49); C Harty for M Boyle (55); B O’Leary for Barrett (60).
L Gordon (Galway).
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