THE words of Queen’s University – and now also Cavan – manager Ollie Bellew when talking about the Antrim hurlers earlier this week were that they “look like the real deal”.
With Darren Gleeson at the helm, Antrim have been flawless so far in both the Kehoe and McGurk cups, coasting to double-digit victories over Armagh, Meath and Wicklow, with another game against Longford conceded by the Leinster men.
The Saffrons also played Galway in a challenge match last weekend and ran the 2017 All-Ireland champions close in a 2-22 to 1-19 defeat at Abbottstown. But when Bellew’s words are put to Conor McCann, the Antrim stalwart is a lot more reticent about assessing their potential for the year ahead.
“It’s fairly early to know how it’s panning out,” the Kickham’s, Creggan clubman said before he headed out the door to training last night.
“I suppose Ollie is looking at it from the outside and seeing everything going well. We’re pushing hard to try to get ourselves in as good a position as we can. It’s four weeks till the start of the league, we’ll break away for Christmas shortly as well, so it’s not long really until then.
“We’re moving in the right direction, we’re definitely on an upward curve compared to this time last year, if you look it at that way. But we still have a lot of work to do if we’re going to get the week in, week out performances, the back-to-back wins that we’ve struggled with over the last few years.”
McCann didn’t play in last Sunday’s game with Galway, but he watched on from the sidelines at Abbottstown and was content with what he saw.
“It was competitive, Galway by the look of them, are at a similar enough stage to ourselves,” he added.
“They’re just building up their squad again, there’s a lot of their bigger names weren’t playing, but they’d Jason Flynn and a couple of others on the pitch. We’d a poor enough first-half, but in the second-half we were better, we held our own a bit better, but I think we’re happy enough.
“That’s the sort of opposition we want to be striving to play, that’s the level you want to be playing at all the time, so it was good to be able to at least hold our own and match them for most of the game.”
With Antrim into the last-four of both the pre-season tournaments they are competing in, their Christmas break will be a truncated one. Next Sunday afternoon, they line-out against Bellew’s Queen’s at the Dub in the McGurk Cup, while on Saturday, January 5, Down will provide the opposition in the semi-finals of the Kehoe Cup. From what’s he has seen so far, McCann is confident the Saffrons have the panel to cope with the challenges ahead.
“The teams have been changing a fair bit, with a big panel the coaches are trying to get a look at a load of players, but there’s a lot of players showing up now,” he said.
“Domhnall Nugent’s been hurling fairly well, he’s been up there in terms of most impressive newcomers; Gerard Walsh has been hurling pretty well; Alex Derlagy from Cushendall has been good in his first season in with the county, scoring pretty well too.
“I think it’s clear that it’s going to be tough to hold down your position and get a starting spot. There’s a good few new faces who are staking their claim.”
