Eleven hurling players and managers came together virtually at the weekend to highlight the merits or otherwise of a 'Team Ulster' initiative which would see the best players from across the province amalgamate to challenge for the Liam McCarthy Cup.
Among the video link-up panel were Slaughtneil manager Mickey McShane, Down boss Ronan Sheehan and Tyrone manager Mattie Lennon.
Playing stars included Chrissy McKaigue, Declan Coulter, Cahal Carvill, Sean Og Grogan, Lorcan McMullan, Eoghan Sands, Eddie McCloskey and Graham Clarke.
The evening was chaired and compiled by veteran sports and video journalist Jerome Quinn, contact jeromequinn@yahoo.com...
Chrissy McKaigue
Slaughtneil and Derry
‘’If you we’re doing it properly, two thirds of your team would probably be from Antrim, and you don’t want to go away from putting your best players on the starting 15 irrespective of what county they’re from.
Your job in this initiative is to gather up the best hurlers in Ulster, to form the best 25 / 30 players in the province, have a crack at Liam McCarthy put the correct resources, get the right management team in place and see where it takes us.
Because at this stage, it’s worth a gamble, things can’t really get any worse.’’
Cahal Carville
Middleton and Armagh
‘’Before this interview I sat down and set out a team, without Antrim, and to be completely honest with you, that is a team that would put it up to any team in the country.
People might say that’s madness but there is the quality there in each of the individual counties without Antrim to be very, very competitive.
To my mind, that 15 against the current Antrim 15 and there would only be one winner, controversial you may say, but that’s how I see it?
It needs out-of-the-box thinking in these unprecedented times to bring in unprecedented change for the promotion of hurling in Ulster.’’
Sean Og Grogan
Carrickmore and Tyrone
‘’Antrim are a good side but you bring a Chrissy McKaigue, you bring others, Brendan Rodgers, Declan Coulter, Conor McNally, Dermot Begley, etc, you go to Armagh… the likes of Ryan Gaffney, Nathan Curry. These are some superb hurlers.’’
Eddie McCloskey
Loughgiel and Antrim
‘’Would Team Ulster need to have an Antrim to work?
Not necessarily, obviously they would be a much stronger team. They’d have a much bigger pool to pick from but you have your strong players in Down, in Derry and others and they have the potential to be competitive at that level.’’
Mickey McShane
Slaughtneil manager
‘’Team Ulster would have very good chance.
You can pick the best eight players out of Antrim, eight players out of Derry, Down, players from Tyrone, from Donegal, Armagh and maybe other counties, you’re going to have a very strong panel.’’
Ronan Sheehan
Down manager
‘’Even without the Antrim lads I think it’s worth a go
‘’Mickey McShane did an absolutely brilliant job this last number of years with Slaughtneil. He’s shown what he can do. What would that man if he was able to mould a team of hurlers right across Ulster?
What a challenge for him, what a challenge for the players, and what an opportunity for the game up here.’
Declan Coulter
Donegal and former Armagh
‘’If you take best 30 or 40 hurlers in Ulster, can they compete? Absolutely.
If the right structures were put in place and you had enough time to come together as a team, to get to know each other, get systems of play in place, and really bond as a team, I think absolutely we could compete.’’
Mattie Lennon
Tyrone manager
‘’Team Ulster in the Leinster Championship, you’d have Wexford coming to the Athletic Grounds or Pairc Esler or wherever it is, you’d have 16 or 17,000 people there.
The younger people are essential to this if we are going to push on.
We have to do something, were standing still as it is.’’
Graham Clarke
Ballygalget and Down
‘’To me it is a very easy thing to do.
The main base doesn’t have to be Casement, the main base could be Owe beg, it could be somewhere that’s central to everyone.’’
Eoghan Sands
Portaferry and Down
‘’As a player playing on the big stage, playing in the Liam McCarthy Cup playing against the Corks, Kilkennys, Galways, in front of 10 or 20000 people at Thurles or Croke, I don’t think that would not appeal to any fan or player.’’
Lorcan McMullan
Dublin and former Bredagh
‘’I think what you have to do is appreciate that we have fallen behind, it’s just a fact. There’s a lot of really passionate people in Ulster and a lot of really good hurlers.
I’ve an uncle and a few of his mates and they travel to support Tipperary hurling, they would go down to the Munster Championship, why not let him support Team Ulster, why not have let him cone and support where he’s from?’’
