Leinster Senior Hurling Championship
Kilkenny v Antrim (Nowlan Park, Sunday, 2.30pm)
 
ASSIGNMENTS in championship hurling don’t get much tougher than Kilkenny away, but Antrim will relish Sunday’s trip to Noreside for their opening fixture in Leinster’s round robin.

Last year, the Saffrons opened with a home draw against Dublin, but failed to build on it with a disappointing loss away to Wexford followed by heavy defeats to the Cats and Galway before finding their mojo in the second half against Westmeath to retain their MacCarthy Cup status. This time, they will have ambitions to push on.

After this week, there is a home game against Wexford and after a week off, there is a run of three games beginning with Dublin away, followed by games against Galway and Carlow in Belfast.

It’s extremely tough, but the top table is always going to be this way, so setting the tone with a good performance this week is imperative.

“It’s a hard place to go and I don’t ever remember coming out of it successful as a player,” said Antrim manager and former Tipperary goalkeeper, Darren Gleeson.

“We won a few games down there against different opposition, but it’s always hard to get a win against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park.

“That’s the challenge we have to start the Leinster Championship. The boys are very focussed on getting a good performance and let’s see where that takes us.”

For those who pay little attention to Antrim hurling, a cursory glance at their league campaign may suggest they had gone backwards, losing all five games to see them confirmed as part of next year’s new-look Division 1B.

However, scratch the surface and it will have painted a fuller picture as Gleeson was working with a squad ravaged by injuries.

A big plus is that injury list, once as long as manager Darren Gleeson's arm, is beginning to ease and included one starting 15 are the returning Elliott trio of goalkeeper Ryan and his cousins, Nigel and Sean who are included in the attack.

Conall Bohill was one of those missing through injury and is named at wing-back, while his St John's club-mate Michael Bradley starts at wing-forward having undergone shoulder surgery over the winter. 

James McNaughton is also back, named at midfield, while Keelan Molloy and Gerard Walsh are named on the bench as they return to full fitness.

Kilkenny's injury list is also clearing at just the right time and TJ Reid is fit to take his place at full-forward where he will have Ryan McGarry for company, while Mikey Butler and Mikey Carey have also returned to the defence.

“You have to set your stall out in every game and perform,” Gleeson stressed.

“We’ve a good-sized panel now and we’ll need to use them all over the five games. The 26 named for the weekend will probably look very different to the last couple of games and that’s just the nature of a very taxing championship, but it’s where we want to be.

“There are a lot of guys back after knocks and niggles and more nearly there. But this group is experienced, and they have been through this championship run last year where we had a few close shaves.”

The squad ramped up preparations for the championship with a training camp in Portugal last week and it is a testament to their ambitions that once again, it was player-driven.

The Antrim County Board helped with the cost, but a huge chunk of the money came from the recent golf day that was organised by the players.

“It’s important to thank everyone who supported it, either by playing or sponsoring,” Gleeson insisted.

“This doesn’t happen anywhere else I know of, where the players drive it and make it happen and that’s fantastic. It doesn’t come from anywhere else but within the county to fund it.

“When Antrim won the Joe McDonagh a couple of years ago, the players insisted the prize money was put back into the team rather than just go on a holiday and that’s a great sign of their ambition.”

Antrim will arrive in Kilkenny as rank outsiders to cause an upset but as mentioned, they are an ambitious group and won’t be overawed by their surroundings, especially when it’s considered they performed well in league games there in 2021 and 2022.

Championship is of course a different animal and therefore, a good start to the game this week is crucial as in the meeting between the teams last year at Corrigan Park, allowing the Cats grab early goals set the tone as they had the game wrapped up by half-time.

The challenge is to bring a good intensity and leave themselves in it for as long as possible and if they manage to do that, then who knows.

“We had a comprehensive win at the end of the year against Westmeath, but we’ll take the learnings from the games we didn’t get over the line, especially Wexford and Dublin,” Gleeson continued.

“A few harsh lessons were given out by Kilkenny and Galway, so we have to learn from that and make sure we keep ourselves in the game in the early part as that’s there we got hurt. You need to be in the game by the 45th or 50th minute, but those games were dead and buried by that stage.”