Antrim find fertile oasis in midwinter

Those in search of an alternative to the brandy, glitz and hype which whirled around the weekend's All Star awards ceremony could have journeyed to Casement Park on Sunday.

Few GAA venues lend themselves well to the greyness of Irish winters but the Andersonstown ground, even more than most, is purely a summer park. On Sunday afternoon, though, it hosted the All-Ireland B football championship final, that unfashionable footnote in the GAA calendar which is played out under the shadow of All Star hangovers and, as was the case this time, provincial club fare.

The game itself was probably at least as entertaining as the Munster and Leinster club finals which dominated the column inches and airwaves and several thousand did stand on the bleachers in Casement to follow their teams. Fermanagh v Antrim does not capture the imagination, but the most remarkable aspect of the weekend fare occurred at that match. Antrim won.

"Yeah, it was a significant win for us, certainly and I think that we will just take stock now and try and decide where it leaves us and how we might build on it," said Brian White, the Antrim manager, yesterday. It is hard to associate championship success with December ties played on gloomy afternoons. But on Sunday night, the northern team had a tangible achievement - and silverware - to celebrate. It was, as the report on these pages put it, the county's finest hour since the last big win in 1951. Antrim took Ulster honours that summer.

"Well, we aren't running away with ourselves here but it is nice to go into the Christmas break knowing we have beaten a Division One team. I mean, I think it's worth noting that we hit 17 wides in that game and while that is something we need to correct - and soon - it gives an idea of the kind of possession we had. But our goals are still immediate, to consolidate our league position."

White caught the eye as manager of the Antrim minor sides which were perhaps unlucky to lose two Ulster finals in 1997 and 1998.

"Those lads lost finals but at least they had the experience of winning games in the summer, getting some sort of consistency going."

White was asked to take Antrim through the first round of league games in a caretaker capacity and as yet, the precise details of his tenure have to be ironed out. But he knows this team; eight of the side that defeated Fermanagh are former minor charges of his.

"Most had been on the panel when I arrived and yes, they are starting to come through now. But look, it's a slow road. We haven't even mentioned the championship yet."

Mere thoughts of the summer games are painful around Antrim; they have not won an Ulster championship game in almost two decades.

"The reasons are too varied to account for," shrugs White. "Even last year against Down in Newry, we lost Paddy Logan and Joe Quinn, players of massive influence. Counties like ourselves can't replace that straight away."

The galling aspect of Antrim's abysmal record is that the losses are rarely so comprehensive that there can be no regrets. In 1998, they lost a first round game to Donegal by just a goal; Donegal went on to the Ulster final. The year before that, the same side defeated them by just two points. Maybe this year will bring a similar story of woe. But in 1996, Fermanagh, the team they beat on Sunday, won the B championship. They lit bonfires around the lakelands and told themselves they'd turned a corner. And they have done, albeit slowly.

"We are in a different arena to the Meaths of this world," says White, "but we are at least trying to put ourselves in a position where we can take on the top teams."

And just maybe, at the tail-end of the year, Antrim fortunes have begun to turn.

Around 400 seats from the old Hogan Park Stand at Croke Park have found a new home - at Pairc An Crocaigh, 160 miles away in west Limerick.

The GAA authorities contacted clubs throughout the country advising them that Hogan Park seats were free and were available.

The Croagh/Kilfinny club in County Limerick, who have christened their ground Pairc an Crocaigh, seized the opportunity.

This is not the only link between Croke Park and Limerick. When the original Hogan Stand was demolished in the late 1950s, it was purchased by the Limerick County Board and rebuilt at the Gaelic Grounds. It was scrapped 10 years ago.