John Martin: Thankfully that’s over

DONE AND DUSTED…Antrim, and a lot of Ulster sides, will be glad to get 2016 over them

UNDERSTATEMENT alert: 2016 has not been a good year for Ulster hurling. Sunday’s Ulster final brought drew a curtain on the senior action for Ulster teams in 2016 and it’s a year best forgotten.

In the past few weeks we’ve seen Antrim beaten in the second tier decider, Derry concede their place in the Ulster Senior Championship, allowing Down a walkover in the relegation playoff, Tyrone fail to field in the Ulster Shield, Armagh conceding their Ulster MHC semi-final and Cavan conceding to Sligo in the All-Ireland u-21 C championship. For the first time since 2008, not one of the Ring, Rackard or Meagher Cups was won by an Ulster team and again next year there’ll be no Ulster sides in Division One of the League or MacCarthy Cup.

Antrim are probably the happiest of the Ulster sides to see the end of competitive action in 2016. The attention of the Antrim County Board will now turn to finding a manager capable of bringing Antrim back to the top tier in 2018.

Dominic McKinley has already stated that he feels the new manager should be someone from within the county.

Without doubt there is a wealth of managerial talent with the county. It’s not that long ago since the same debate took place when Kevin Ryan stepped down. PJ O’Mullan’s tenure proved short-lived however, demonstrating that knowing the local scene doesn’t guarantee success.

There’s no doubt that there’s plenty of managerial options from within. The names rattled off as potential contenders last November confirm McKinley’s assertion that there is plenty of genuine candidates for the job from within: Shane Elliott, Michael Johnston, Ger Rogan, Gregory O’Kane, Neal Peden, Gavin Duffy, Sean Paul McKillop, Ollie Bellew, Michael Glover, Michael McShane, Skinner McAllister, Johnny McIntosh, Ronan Donnelly, Tommy McCann… it’s an impressive list but it would be foolish to limit the search to a native Saffron.

Whoever takes over the reins should be the best man available, no matter where he’s from. Mattie Lennon immediately springs to mind, while Cork’s Ger Manley had his hat in the ring for a while as a possible replacement for Ryan.

In the 10 years in between Antrim competing in their two Christy Ring Cup finals, the hurling landscape has changed more than any other decade in the history of the GAA. Several teams have leapfrogged Antrim in the ratings – Kerry, Meath, Westmeath and Carlow. Dublin have moved to a different level while Laois are more or less as they were.

Kerry, Carlow and Westmeath have had 17 managers between them in the past 10 years. Only two of the 17 have come from within their own counties, Tommy Naughton is the only Dub to manage his county in the past decade and Cheddar Plunkett and Niall Rigney are the two native Laois managers in the same period. Meath are the county that bucks the trend with Offaly’s Cillian Farrell the only non-Royal to manage the county since 2006.

In 2003, the then Antrim captain Colm McGuckian made an acceptance speech at Croke Park after the Saffrons lifted the National League Division Two title. In his speech he thanked Dinny Cahill “for coming up and changing the way we play hurling”. That type of manager isn’t what Antrim need at this point. They need a manager who will concentrate on three key areas – leadership, lifestyle and fitness.

Managers such as Waterford’s Derek McGrath and Tipp’s Michael Ryan have brought with them a gameplan and style of play and chosen players accordingly. Antrim are in a different place. McKinley has given a number of candid interviews over the past couple of months whilst part of the interim Antrim management panel. He has repeatedly cited fitness, lifestyle choice and sacrifice as areas in which Antrim need to improve. One aspect that can be gleamed from McGrath and Ryan is the choosing of character over talent when required.

Antrim need leaders on the park players who can look in the mirror after a game and take responsibility not just for what went well but responsibility for what needs changing. Antrim players on past panels have told me that there are too many players who ‘like the idea of being a county hurler’ but who are not willing to make the sacrifices required to go along with it.

The one player who went on record with Gaelic Life a few years back, Michael Herron, spoke of senior players stopping at a shop for coke and crisps before a MacCarthy Cup match, and of the queue for the physio table at training sessions.

The skills that any new Antrim manager brings surely need to be weighted as much towards developing cultural change as much as ‘hurling change’ – and if that means choosing character over talent, then so be it.
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