McShane stresses the importance of Antrim conveyor belt

ANTRIM u-20 manager Michael McShane is looking at the greater hurling landscape in the county after the Saffrons regained the Ulster title on Saturday.

Winning Ulster was the number one focus at the beginning of the season but the former Tyrone and Sleacht Néill manager has been balancing the load of his players involved with Cross and Passion, Ballycastle in Saturday’s Paddy Buggy Cup final.

For McShane, it all fits into the overall picture of producing players to hurl for the county at senior level.

“If I was to think about this selfishly, as the Antrim u-20 manager and not on the bigger picture, it might annoy me that we don’t have these lads,” he said of the arrangement he has with Cross and Passion manager Joe Cassidy who he had on board with him during his tenure as manager with his native Ballycastle.

“St Killian’s won the Paddy Buggy last year and we’ve maybe six or seven of those lads on our panel,” McShane outlined.

“CPC are in the final this Saturday with nine of them on the panel. We could be sitting this time next week with 15, 16, or 17 players who have won an All-Ireland in the last 12 months.

“That breeds confidence and breeds a culture of winning and that’s what we need in Antrim. The more competitions we can win at schools’ level, at underage level in Antrim, the better it is and ultimately what we’re trying to do.

“As Antrim u-20 manager, my job is to produce players, to build players and prepare players for going into the senior and inter-county level.

“We have to have that conveyor belt coming through to our senior inter-county team if we’re going to have any chance of improving and moving up through the levels up there.”