More sports and less admin needed in Antrim GAA says McIntosh

ANTRIM fans were all worried, to be honest. The bookies had us down as outsiders against Carlow but thankfully we got the result. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a new dawn or that everything is going to be great now, and Carlow did look quite poor. They seemed to underperform and only scored 12 points.

There are positives, though. If we can put in a good performance against Dublin, and if we can beat Down – and we always knew the Down and Carlow games were going to be crucial – then, barring a statistical nightmare, we should be safe in Division 1B.

To be totally honest, if we come out of this year safe in 1B, most Antrim fans would be pretty happy with that. It’s something that can be consolidated. There have been a lot of issues. People in Antrim are very critical, but while we were never going to beat Clare, what frustrated people was how poor the performance was. Then the Kildare defeat was a real shock. Kildare are a good team and proved last weekend that they’re not far off Clare at all – they ran them close the whole way. So Kildare are gradually proving they’re no slouches.

At the same time, we’re not where we want to be. What keeps niggling people in Antrim is why we’re investing money in top managers who consistently come in and simply maintain our current level. You keep asking the question: why not let one of our own grow and develop within the county?

If Davy Fitzgerald had come in and we’d reached a league semi-final or final, playing an amazing brand of hurling with a real buzz and excitement around the county, then absolutely, that’s value. But when you bring in a manager and it creates division, fans become jaded. I don’t think there has ever been a smaller crowd in Corrigan Park than there was at the weekend.

I’m fairly confident we’ll survive now, but we’re still not where we want to be. The Joe McDonagh competition is coming up – that’s probably a no-win situation for Antrim as if they don’t win it, they’ll be criticised heavily. It’s probably not a very exciting time to be an Antrim hurler, and that makes life difficult for them. What’s our goal? To survive in Division 1B and win a Joe McDonagh that they’ve won recently anyway. Those are relatively small targets. Maybe this is one of those seasons we get through and then use as a platform to kick on in the coming years.

It was actually a brilliant weekend overall – our men’s and ladies footballers won and the camogs had an incredible result against Cork. In isolation, that’s brilliant. But when you look deeper, our footballers are in Division Four and can’t get out of it this year. Things aren’t great there, and Antrim ladies’ football probably continues to underachieve slightly, although maybe they will push on. As a county, we have to strive to give everything we can to these teams so they can succeed.

Last week there was a lot of talk in the newspapers about why Antrim are failing, and you do have to ask if there’s something systemic within Antrim GAA that’s causing that.

We seem to underachieve a little, and it makes you wonder if there’s something structural at play. Personally, if I’m being critical, I don’t think there’s anywhere near enough focus on games development.

I sat in on a county committee meeting the other night with probably 100 people in the room. In a two-hour-and-15-minute meeting, there wasn’t five minutes spent discussing football, ladies’ football, hurling or camogie. It was all administrative matters. I’m not saying those things aren’t important – there was discussion about a new county draw, which is fantastic, and motions being brought before Congress, which is important business. But that’s what fills our meetings.

Personally, I think we’re bogged down with administrative issues. We don’t let the administrators administer, and we don’t let the games development people do their role. It all comes under one umbrella, and that means we don’t have the right team focused on what really matters.

Antrim County Board is the administration of games development. We’re a sporting organisation, and sometimes I feel like screaming that. We’re not the civil service. We’re here to promote and drive the best football, hurling and camogie teams we can. That’s what we should be actively focused on, and that’s where I feel we’ve become stagnant.