PROGRESS..John Martin has been impressed with Meath’s Christy Ring performances over the year

ANTRIM 1-5 Meath 4-1. Not a predication for Saturday’s Christy Ring Cup final but the odds available on both teams. That the Saffrons aren’t much shorter odds is testament to where Ulster’s stand-bearers currently are in the hurling hierarchy.

For comparison, the last time Antrim played in the Christy Ring Cup was in 2006. During the group stages of that year, they played London. The odds for that game were London 12-1 Antrim 1-66.

On this season’s form, London, Meath and Antrim are all much of a muchness, although it’s maybe worth noting that back in 2006, Antrim only beat London in the above game by 2-12 to 1-7, despite being 66-1 on and in the same campaign had just five points to spare over Meath.

Indeed, past meetings between the two counties aren’t as cut and dried as you might think. I remember back in 2003, Dunloy’s Darren Quinn coming off the bench against a 14-man Meath to score a 72nd minute goal for Antrim to save their blushes in a Division Two game under Dinny Cahill.

Antrim have got the better of the (relatively) modern day clashes, and prior to a Meath win in 1997, the Royals would have to go back nine meetings to 1969 for their last victory. In the MacCarthy Cup quarter-final in 1993, Olcan McFetridge’s silky skills put paid to any chance of an upset as Antrim ran out 3-27 to 4-10 winners. The ‘hammerings’ dished out by Antrim are few and far between however.

So what bearing will the exploits of yesteryear’s men have on Saturday’s outcome? Maybe not much, other than to demonstrate that Meath’s hurling tradition has to be respected. Like many football-dominated counties, the level of the county team can ebb and flow depending on what club and county football managers are demanding of dual players in any given year.

A case in point being dual star Michael Burke who according to Meath manager Martin Ennis “isn’t allowed to play for the county” this year due to his county football commitments, but there has always been a core of decent hurlers in the county. They do, after all, have more adult hurling activity than Antrim, with 38 teams in the county championships, including a 12-team senior competition.

Their recent Christy Ring pedigree can’t be overlooked either, reaching the semi-final stage in 2012, 2013 and 2014, with the 2013 encounter going to a replay against Down – so a final appearance was on the cards.

This year they have found form since the National League, due in no small part to a number of injuries clearing up and the arrival of corner forward Gavin McGowan to the panel. McGowan has scored 4-6 in three games and either Conor McKinley or Odhran McFadden will need to curb the influence of one of the dual players who is apparently allowed to play hurling for his county.

Full forward Neil Heffernan is another with an eye for goal, while James Toher is accurate from the placed ball.

Antrim have switched between a sweeper system and a more conventional line-up during the Christy Ring Cup campaign and it would be great to see them present an attacking formation at Croke Park on Saturday.

It’s 2016 and hurling has never been more tactical. When you watch Cork playing with a sweeper system in the Munster Championship, it’s a sign that hurling has probably changed forever but somehow what Cork needed to do against Tipp this year is metaphorically and physically in a different ball park to what Antrim need to do against Meath.

When I watched the Antrim v Kildare opener in this year’s Christy Ring, I wondered if they really needed to play a sweeper. Granted they had conceded 3-13 to the same team in the League at Ballycastle but despite the seismic changes in tactics over the past couple of years, I still associate the sweeper with a lack of confidence in a team.

Anthony Daly’s Dublin – and indeed successive Antrim u-21 teams who have gone south for All-Ireland semi-finals – used it as a damage limitation tactic, and that’s always my association with it. Yes I agree with the argument that Kilkenny’s swarming of the middle third led to the current tactical trend, but the Cats always trusted forwards to win their own ball and take their scores. In the top tier, teams have tried to design a style of play to beat Kilkenny, not Meath.

The results of the past 12 months have undoubtedly sapped confidence from this Antrim squad. Teams who traditionally they would have bettered have now eclipsed them on the field and in the rankings, so maybe the thinking is that they have no right to be in any way cavalier when facing anyone but surely you have to have confidence in a forward line that includes Ciaran Clarke, Conor Johnston, Nigel Elliott and Eddie McCloskey?

I’m not expecting a repeat of the 17-point annihilation of Carlow in the 2006 final but there is a performance in this Antrim team that has only been seen in dispatches so far. They have convincingly won the second half of their three games so far and if they can produce the same in the first half, they can indeed announce their return to the top flight in style on Saturday night. Antrim by 10 points.
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