Joe McDonagh Cup Final: Antrim v Kerry
(Croke Park, Saturday, 4.30pm, live on RTE2)
 
THE favourites’ tag has weighed heavily on Antrim shoulders in the past, but team captain Eoghan Campbell believes the Saffrons have learned to cope with that status in recent years.

When the pressure was on against Kerry in the 2020 2A and McDonagh finals, the Saffrons prevailed, just as they did in a relegation playoff win over Offaly earlier this season and again against the Faithful and Carlow as they found a way to win when it looked as though things were slipping away.

Going into Saturday’s Joe McDonagh final against the Kingdom, Antrim are widely tipped to claim the victory but that is just background noise to Campbell.

The focus will be on what they can do, controlling the controllables once the ball is thrown in with pre-game predictions or bookmakers’ odds the last thing on their minds.

“It’s something that we’ve struggled with over five or six years going in as favourites, but I think we’ve coped better with it,” the Cushendall man offered.

“In the group, we won the tight games and the ones we were supposed to win by big margins we won by big margins.

“The squad is happy to go in as favourites as the experience is there but at this stage, it doesn’t matter if we are favourites or underdogs.

“The games against Offaly and Carlow, maybe two or three years ago we would have lost, so learning how to win the dirty games is something we’ve developed. We just want to go in, express ourselves and enjoy the day.”

Antrim certainly enjoyed the day back in December 2020 when they emerged two-point winners to win the McDonagh Cup for the first time and promotion to the Leinster Championship.

However, with no fans or family members in attendance, there wasn’t the same sense of occasion for the players who left the field and then the stadium as Covid regulations didn’t permit them to stay for the All-Ireland final that followed.

It would still have felt a little emptier for Campbell given his father, Tommy, passed away in 2019. He is always in his thoughts, but his place in the stands will be filled with his family there on Saturday and while his focus is solely on the game, he remains aware of what it will mean to the Campbell family circle.

“It was quite a dull day back then - you could hear the pigeons going about and just like another game that day as you turned around and there was nobody there,” he recalled.

“It meant a lot to us getting into the Liam MacCarthy, but on Saturday I’ll have the girlfriend, my mother, two aunties who have been to every Antrim match and have kinda taken over from my father since he passed away, so it will mean so much more.

“It will probably mean more to them being there and seeing me being captain, hopefully lifting the cup in the Hogan Stand, but the who occasion will be so different, hopefully not a different outcome.”

To ensure the outcome is repeated, Antrim will have to deliver a huge performance against a free-scoring Kerry side that will feel their name may be on the cup after losing the past two finals.

The manner of their passage to Saturday’s decider when they defeated Antrim at Corrigan Park and got the result they needed elsewhere to squeak through on scoring difference will have given the Munster men added belief.

But there will be no shortage of confidence from Antrim who have produced some excellent displays this year, highlighting the progress they have made under Darren Gleeson over the past three years.

“They have been in the last three finals, but this is a different team than what we played in 2020,” Campbell acknowledges.

“They’ve found a few new lovely hurlers like Eoin Ross at wing-back and Colin Walsh at 10 is flying.

“They won’t fear us and will know what we can do. We know what they can do, so it may be a tactical, but a massive battle for both teams.

“One of the best things we’ve done as a squad is being able to develop ourselves as a team, going from Division Two and competing in Division One - the progress over the last two or three years has been great and the boys’ hurling ability has come on massively.”

Those who have followed the journey of this group over the years will surely concur with those sentiments and while Saturday is not the final destination, it is a significant stop along the way and one that Eoghan Campbell believes can highlight how far along the road Antrim have travelled.