Antrim slowly rising from the ashes

FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP:THE SEASON'S biggest shock to date saw Antrim defeating Donegal in Ballybofey on Sunday to reach an Ulster semi-final with Cavan – the county's third senior football championship victory in 27 years.

This decade has been relatively upbeat for the county, which has 10 Ulster titles to its credit, but none since 1951, with all three of the above championship successes recorded in the past 10 years.

Eamon Grieve is a former player, manager and county administrator. He managed the team that held Tyrone to a draw in 1987, the season after they had been All-Ireland finalists, but lost the replay.

He also played corner back on the last team from the county to reach the Ulster final.

That was in 1969, on the same day future Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill scored a decisive goal in the minor final.

At that stage, Antrim were going somewhere. The county’s under-21s had won the All-Ireland a year previously and the feeling was that a senior breakthrough was just around the corner.

“We reached the 1970 Ulster final against Derry,” says Grieve. “I was 25 and had been playing for a while, but there were a number of lads from the under-21s coming through.

“They thought they’d be doing this every year. I’d been playing long enough to know that getting there was a big thing.

“That was very difficult to instil in the under-21 lads – their confidence was so high. Little did we all know that another 39 years would pass and we’d still not be back.”

The eruption of the Troubles played a significant role in the failure of the county to build on that promising situation.

“A lot of people focused on other things,” says Grieve. “It was easy to take your eye off football and get distracted.”

There was also the impact on plain, day-to-day administration, with travel after dark often too dangerous for players to undertake.

Sectarian attacks on GAA property left pitches unplayable and conventional sporting activity was frequently rendered impossible.

Antrim’s football fortunes reached a nadir in the years that followed, with the county failing to win a single championship match between 1982 and 2000.

In more recent times there have been faint signs of revival. Three years ago, St Gall’s from Belfast were unlucky not to win the All-Ireland club championship and the fortunes of the county team have begun to revive.

This season, under the management of Liam Bradley, father of Derry players Paddy and Eoin, Antrim have secured promotion to Division Three of the NFL.

“I think it’s acknowledged that he has done well,” says Grieve of Bradley. “He’s established discipline, which can be a problem in lower-ranked counties where players tend to do their own thing to a greater extent than in more successful counties.

“There’s been improvement as well. The county’s been to two Tommy Murphy Cup finals and won one and this year got promoted from Division Four. What’s more they’ve acquitted themselves well, playing good football.”

And as for the semi-final and the chance to bridge a gap of 39 years: “Well, they won’t fear Cavan anyway.”

Meanwhile, Tyrone captain Brian Dooher has declared himself fit for Sunday’s Ulster semi-final clash with Derry. Dooher pulled up in a recent club game and had to go off with a recurrence of a groin problem. But he came through a full training session at the weekend and is set to play at the weekend.

“He’s training again, came through a full session, so we’re very pleased about that,” said manager Mickey Harte. “It’s always a case of taking it one training session at a time, but the prospects look a lot better than they did from soundings last Sunday after his game.”

Harte declared a clean bill of health among his squad, with Stephen O’Neill recovered from a knee injury and Joe McMahon available despite picking up an ankle knock in training.

And there was confirmation from the Leinster Council that Dublin’s provincial football semi-final with Westmeath on Sunday week will be played as a stand-alone senior fixture, but on the same bill as the Leinster junior final between Louth and Longford.