By John Martin
ANOTHER Ulster final. Another Down v Antrim decider. Another Antrim win. Well, maybe not this year. Antrim are aiming to make it eight Ulster titles-in-a-row, which would match their longest ever winning streak in the competition.
They won eight on the bounce from 1924 to 1931 and are strong favourites to match that record on Sunday but simply put, Down will never have a better chance to beat the Saffrons in an Ulster final.
Down are on a roll. They have played five games in the last six weeks and have won all five. Antrim haven't played since their devastating Leinster championship debut against Dublin, they have well-documented injury problems, and some players might just have one eye on the All Ireland qualifier game against Laois which would guarantee MacCarthy Cup participation next year.
The same argument could be used for Down of course. Their priority is not Sunday's title, but the Christy Ring Cup up for grabs at Croke Park on July 11. But the difference is that for Down, this is the perfect preparation for that game. Every player is playing for a starting spot at HQ in two weeks' time and Down have shown – albeit against lesser opposition – that they are developing into a team that play for each other, and at the minute are brimming with confidence.
Under manager Jim McKernan and coaches Paul McKillen and Johnny McIntosh, Down are in great shape, and will not fear anything Antrim can throw at them.
Young players such as Conor Woods, Sean Ennis, James Coyle and Conor O'Prey are maturing into senior hurlers, and are turning into leaders on the field. When handbags broke out in the dying minutes of last week's Ulster semi-final against Derry, Down players who should know better started to get involved. Woods ran 30 yards to diffuse the situation.
Although they won't be holding back on Sunday, the domination of Antrim in recent seasons has given rise to a lethargy that the Saffrons have struggled to shake off at times.
It is that lethargy that Down can exploit in Sunday. In the past three seasons, Antrim have played and beat Down in the final. The celebration have been something akin to the non-driver who wins the car on 'Bullseye.'
It's all smiles for the cameras, but deep down the thoughts are 'what the hell am I going to do with this?' The senior players on the Antrim panel such as Karl McKeegan and Paddy Richmond would struggle to tell you how many Ulster medals they have. And with New York out of the equation these days, you don't even get a junket to the Big Apple every three years.
In 2007, Antrim humiliated Down at Casement Park. Since then, while Antrim have won the two Ulster finals and this year's league encounter, there hasn't been that much between the teams.
Antrim won last year's final and this year's league encounter by turning the screw in a 15-minute spell when they have racked up 1-4 or 1-5 without reply. If Down can keep concentration for the full 70 minutes, they are well capable of springing a surprise. Down by one.
Off the field of play, a bit of credit where it's due. The Ulster Council have in the past been rightly criticised for their lack of foresight and respect when it comes to promoting the senior hurling championship.
Cast your mind back to last year when Derry fans (not to mention the two Derry dual minors) were expected to get from Celtic Park to Casement Park for respective football and hurling throw-ins at 3.30 and 7.30.
The hurling of course was shunted to the evening start, and not surprisingly only a handful of Derry fans were at the Ulster SHC semi-final. This year, foresight and common sense has prevailed and the potential clash (this year for Antrim) was avoided for both for the Leinster championship quarter-final, and for Sunday's Ulster SFC semi-final.
NEWS
The Ulster senior hurling championship may no longer provide a passage to the All Ireland quarter-final, but players of Antrim and Down won't be thinking about that when they cross the white line on Sunday.
So says Ger Rogan who won a provincial medal as corner back on the Antrim side when the competition was reinstated back in 1989, and was Saffron selector under Dinny Cahill from 2002-04, the final years of the Liam Harvey Cup's links to the Liam MacCarthy.
"I don't think players look at it in the sense of what it is worth at the end of the game. It is an Ulster final against our old rivals, so from that point of view it hasn't changed," said Rogan.
"I know that a lot of people say it has been devalued because you don't now go on to an All Ireland quarter-final, but I think that once you put on a county jersey, it doesn't matter what you are playing. It is as important as the Ulster final of five years ago or 10 years ago.
"It's like an awful lot of other things, there's a lot more discussed in the press and by people sitting watching the games but the players are training for a game and all they are thinking about is that the winner of this game will be Ulster champions.
"At the end of the day they're our next door neighbours so the rivalry is there. I think from Antrim's point of view it is going to be a very tough game. Down have their tails up and are hitting big scores."
The format of the Ulster championship has also changed beyond recognition since Rogan's Rossa clubmate Ciaran Barr raised aloft the Harvey Cup 20 years ago. Then, the competition hadn't been contested since 1946 and there were just two teams in it – Antrim and Down. Now all nine Ulster counties, plus London, compete.
The Ulster Council have been praised for bringing all counties into the fray, but Rogan questions the commitment from the men at Market Street.
"I had been advocating that for a long time, so that the other counties feel that there was a way they could play against the big guns. The only way to find out the value of your team or to see how far you're advancing is to play against higher opposition," Rogan said.
"People can ridicule it and ask what's the value of say Down playing Monaghan or whatever. The value is in the game of hurling. These players are getting the chance to play against top quality opposition that they wouldn't otherwise get.
"I think it's been excellent in terms of all the teams participating in it but it is a paper exercise as far as the Ulster Council is concerned. I don't think the Ulster Council is really interested in promoting hurling at all."
Rogan added: "I think it has been thrown in to keep everyone happy so they can say 'we are doing something'. The counties themselves have made something of it because they are taking it so seriously."
