John Martin: More important things than hurling?

QUICK EXIT…PJ O’Mullan had a short spell in charge of Antrim

“YOU say to me that there is more to life than hurling but if you want to carry on like a fella who is not an inter-county hurler, well then there will be more to life than hurling. Lots more. But there won’t be hurling. That’s the reality of it.”

Brian Cody’s famous quote sprung to mind last week as the news of the departure of Antrim manager PJ O’Mullan reverberated round the Saffron hurling fraternity. O’Mullan stated that he stepped down for personal reasons but he had already resigned himself to the reality that for some of his former charges, there is “more to life than hurling”.

In a media interview just a few days before he stepped down, O’Mullan was fairly damning in his assessment of the overall attitude towards hurling in Antrim, lamenting a “relentless apathy” in the county, and also appeared to question the commitment of a number of players when referring to “three or four guys who you think are doing the work, but at the end of the day are out drinking on a Sunday and a Monday”.

Whether this apathy paid a part in his decision to step down is difficult is difficult to say, although like every manager and player, O’Mullan does indeed have a life outside hurling and that part of any person’s life has to take precedence. Even for Brian Cody I assume.

The resignation came as a shock to players and backroom team, given that O’Mullan had acknowledged that there was no quick fix and seemed to have steeled himself for the long haul. And after every poor result this year, when speaking to the media after the game he always pointed out that, as manager, the buck stopped with him.

Although in charge for just 141 days, he oversaw 12 competitive games in charge between Walsh Cup, McGurk Cup and Allianz League mathes, winning the McGurk Cup along the way. His record is Played 12 Won 7 and Lost 5.

While those statistics aren’t particularly unfavourable in themselves, it is the mid-table finish in Division 2A of the Allianz League that will most bring a grimace to his face. Antrim managed just two victories against Kildare and Derry with losses to Carlow, Westmeath and London. For a man who loves his county and lives and breathes hurling, it’s not the legacy he would liked to have left behind on his first foray into senior county management.

The apathy that so vexed O’Mullan didn’t start 141 days ago. It’s been brewing for a number of years. I’ve noted on these pages a few times in the past that the Antrim support at Casement Park was outnumbered by such counties as Carlow and Westmeath for both league and championship games. I sceptically read interviews with players such as Neil McManus who predicted that crowds would come out in force to watch Leinster Championship hurling when it came to Ballycastle a couple of years back. The crowds didn’t come out in force. Far from it in fact.

The North Antrim trio of Sambo McNaughton, Dominic McKinley and Gregory O’Kane have just a couple of weeks before the Christy Ring Cup campaign starts to try and prepare a squad for a serious championship push. And despite the disruption of recent days, Antrim are still favourites to lift the second tier championship.

The last time Antrim changed managers in mid-season, it was after Jerry Wallace stepped down in June 2012 after a defeat to Westmeath in the championship. An interim management team, led by Jim Nelson, faced Limerick in the next round of the qualifiers and fell to a 33-point defeat.

This time round, it isn’t Limerick on the horizon, it’s Kildare and realistically, they should defeat the Lillywhites at Ballycastle in the opening round. Sambo et al may even have a quick chance for revenge on London, depending on how results go.

I remember interviewing an Antrim player immediately after the Saffrons won the Christy Ring Cup in 2006. “We entered a competition and we won it. That’s about it. Nobody died,” he said. That was basically all he said. The players were almost embarrassed about winning it, such had been the nature of their stroll through the competition.

They didn’t want to be there in 2006, and they don’t want to be there now. But that’s where the similarities end between now and a decade ago. Two wins from five in Division 2A of the Allianz League and a couple of weeks of unwanted column inches have brought Antrim hurling to its lowest ebb since the start of the Millennium.

Ten years ago it was almost an embarrassment, but given the 2016 Christy Ring Cup has now become the most important piece of silverware that this group of Antrim hurlers will ever play for.