Taking a holiday in July is a dangerous pursuit for a GAA fan, and increasingly so for Antrim followers. I headed off on the morning of the Casement double header, relying on text and twitter updates to hear of the demise our footballers and the victory for the hurlers over Carlow.
Those results have taken on a new light in the weeks which followed. in retrospect our big opportunity to beat Kildare was in Newbridge the first time round. Chances at the very end of normal and extra time weren't taken; since then Kildare have pushed on and are now one game away from an all Ireland quarter final. Could have been us, but there is little point pining for what might have been. A win for the hurlers over Carlow was expected; what nobody outside the Barrowsiders thought was that they would push the Saffrons all the way. The comeback manner of that victory stood Antrim in good stead last Saturday. We now appear to be a team which refuses to accept defeat and battles to the end. But along with fighting spirit and the deterimation it was a source of pride to look at the hurling skills on display last weekend.
The media previews, not to mention the bookmakers, all assumed an easy passage for the Dubs. That amused me, apart from last summers 10 point defeat, games between Antrim and Dublin have been 50/50 affairs, always with very narrow margins of victory. Onwards to the quarter final versus Cork - of course we are already being written off by many of the 'experts'. But this year has already been a successful one for the hurlers, we are now in bonus territory and who is to say it has to end this weekend?
Remember the barren years when following Antrim seemed to be a pennance? Yet last year our footballers final game was July 26th. This year our hurlers have taken us to the end of July and are still going strong. Be thankful you belong to a dual county, be thankful for Dinny Cahill and his backroom team, thankful for a squad of players giving their all, refusing to accept championship defeats and laying down a new marker for Antrim hurling.
Our minors, under 21 and senior hurlers are all in action this week. Wonder what the odds are on a treble?
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