ANTRIM hurling captain Conor McCann has said that the lesson that the team will take forward into next year is understanding the lift in standard between league and championship.

McCann has had plenty of time to reflect on the Antrim campaign after it ended over a month ago. The intercounty hurling season ended last weekend with Limerick’s All-Ireland title win.

McCann said that there was one important element that the Antrim players will take with them when the new season starts in 2022.

“The biggest thing is that we had a big league campaign, and we never looked out of place, but we struggled translating that to championship.

“That has to be our aim. The level of work that we do for the league can’t be the same for the championship. The work we do for the championship has to be a couple of steps up. That is the biggest learning for us.”

McCann said that the period since their exit from the All-Ireland series has allowed them time to reflect on what went right and wrong.

“After time to reflect on it, I am disappointed as we felt that we didn’t get out what was in ourselves, and show the way that we could play.

“There were a lot of positives there in terms of keeping our presence in Division One of the league.

“There were a lot of huge performances during the year, but everyone wants to perform at championship time and we didn’t feel like we did that.

“The way it ended was tough to take, but there are positives.”

Antrim’s season came to an end in July when they lost to Laois, 2-27 to 2-21, in the Senior Championship play-off.

“After the game we were really, really disappointed. The players felt that we didn’t perform and didn’t show what we could do. That was the most disappointing thing. If you go out and are beat by a point or two you feel like the game was in the melting pot. We didn’t get out of the game what we put in. The performance didn’t match up.

“Against Laois we gave ourselves too much to do after the first half. And against Dublin in the Leinster Championship we just didn’t get going.”

McCann said that they couldn’t work out why they didn’t get the performance that they deserved. He said they had worked hard in the lead up to the match.

“The disappointing thing is that we are not sure why we couldn’t perform. Nothing stands out that we could have did differently. There were a few players missing in the last game, but that aside. We didn’t show what we could do.”

The team has now returned to their clubs and are currently in the middle of the championship which began this week.

“Players will keep in touch and the management will keep in touch. We will be working away on our own, to keep ticking over in certain aspects, whether that is strength or gym stuff. As a collective we will leave that to pre-season next year.”

McCann said he was excited about getting back to playing with his club.

“There is a bit less pressure. There is less hype around the games. You can get out and enjoy the games and get back to your roots.”

DISAPPOINTMENT… Antrim’s Conor McCann