Allianz Hurling League Division One, Section B
Antrim v Clare (Corrigan Park, Sunday, 1pm, Live on TG4 app and deferred in full at 5.30pm on TG4)
 
IT has been almost five months since Antrim’s hurlers wrapped up a glorious 2020 with victory over Kerry in the Joe McDonagh Cup final at Croke Park, but after a much longer than anticipated break, they return in their opening Allianz Hurling League Division One, Section B fixture.

It may be a long way from Clare to here, but the Banner County will arrive at Corrigan Park on Sunday determined to make it a baptism of fire for Darren Gleeson’s Saffrons who earned the right to return to hurling’s top table and they will hope that the momentum of last year will carry over this weekend.

Last year was a rather up-and-down season for Brian Lohan’s Clare who went unbeaten in their opening run of five League games with four wins and a draw before Covid-19 arrived and put the season on hold.

Their record in spring saw the Munster SHC quarter-final clash with Limerick double as a League final that went the way of the Treaty and after just about squeaking by Laois in the playoffs, a Tony Kelly-inspired Clare scored an impressive win over Wexford before their season ended with defeat to Waterford at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.

Antrim will certainly have their hands full on Sunday, but there is no place they would rather be and all are relishing a crack at the big boys again this season.

“It’s a huge challenge and every game in Division One is going to be,” said Gleeson this week.

“We have momentum coming in and that will stand to us as well. I don’t think any of the counties are going to give you handy wins or anything like that, so we just have to attack every game and get something out of it, whether that’s a performance or result.”

The 2021 GAA season was initially planned to begin in late January, but the return of lockdown and the removal of ‘elite’ status once again left the players in limbo.

With Antrim only wrapping up last year’s campaign in mid-December, that planned return will have basically meant that one season would have rolled straight into the next, so a bit of an extended break would not have been viewed as the worst thing in the world, but finally getting the green light to start in early May was not ideal either.

“We were living in limbo there for a while but it’s great to be back in action,” said the Tipperary native.

“They came back to us in great shape and that made our job easier for the last couple of weeks.

“From a management point of view, we’d like to have been able to keep control of it so we could see how the players were progressing.

“From the players’ point of view, the break was probably needed because last season ran from November 2019 to December 2020. That’s an awful long time for players to stay tuned in, so how they managed that was a huge achievement.”

Gleeson has brought in eight new faces to his 36-man panel for 2021, but three will be unavailable this weekend due to injury.

Seaan Elliott has a broken thumb, Niall McCormack a dead leg and Conal Bohill is suffering from a hamstring strain, but just like last year, there is an impressive strength-in-depth so competition for places on the team and match-day squad will once again be fierce.

That was a huge secret to the success of 2020, but Gleeson and his players will know that they must raise it this time around as any mistakes will be ruthlessly punished by the top teams.

“It’s the split seconds,” he said of the difference between playing in the top tier.

“If you have a ball-handling mistake in 2A, you might get the chance to recover it, but handling errors here lead to turnovers and a team put on the back foot.

“Statistically, a lot of scores come from that area so I would say your ability to make a mistake and get punished is a lot lower in 2A than it is when you go into Division One.”

With Division One split evenly into two sections, Antrim’s opposition will be as strong as it would have been in the A group and fixtures against Clare, Kilkenny, Wexford, Dublin and Laois proves as much.

Many observes will consider Antrim consolidating their position as a successful campaign, but their ambitions are much higher going forward.

Of course, they know that performing and banking points will be far from easy and they face a huge examination of their credentials, beginning on Sunday, but there will be no targeting of certain fixtures, simply a will to go out and find consistently in their performances and challenge for results every weekend.

“Everyone outside our bubble will say success is staying up in both of them (League and Championship) but we have an ambitious group and won’t be going out thinking that we shouldn’t be beating ‘A’ or ‘B’, but might have a chance against ‘C’,” he insists.

“I always tell the lads to not undersell themselves as they are top-quality hurlers, proven at the highest level in club hurling. I have no problem in saying it in public that they have to be ambitious.

“They have to think we belong at this level and play to the level we know we can. If we do that, it can end up anywhere.”