Remember me
Antrim are without almost an entire team for their 2026 opener against Derry in the McKenna Cup at Owenbeg on Wednesday night (7.30pm).
Injuries have robbed new manager Mark Doran of Peter Healy (who missed his club Ballyboden’s All-Ireland semi-final loss to Dingle last Saturday and is expected to be out of action for up to four weeks) as well as Conor Hand, Paddy McAleer, Niall Burns, Eunan Walsh, Conal McGirr, Jamie Gribben and Ryan Murray.
Meanwhile, Joe Finnegan, Cathal Hynds, Niall Hynds, Ronan Quinn, Tiernan McCormick and Ryan McQuillian are all involved in university games.
Read more: Feargal Logan expects big test from cohesive University of Galway side
Doran expects his squad to be in better shape for Donegal’s visit to Cargin on Sunday and, whatever the results, these are the first competitive fixtures of a “long-haul” project for the Down native.
“I don’t have a magic wand,” he said.
“There’s no quick fix for Antrim and, to be fair to the county board, they made that clear to me when they first approached me about it (becoming manager). They said it wasn’t a quick fix, it was a long haul trying to build a culture and trying to build a team that Antrim supporters would be proud of.
“Antrim players put as much effort in as the Galways, the Kerrys since I’ve been in the effort has been fantastic, they’re training really hard, the buy-in has been really really good and, as a management team, we couldn’t be happier with the energy so, so far, so good.”
Doran is looking forward to running his eye over his players against two counties that have won the last four Ulster championships between them.
“I’m delighted the McKenna Cup is back and I can’t wait to get going,” said the Longstone clubman who has taken his first job as manager after a comprehensive grounding as a coach at Down, Clare, Wicklow and Roscommon.
“I have worked under a lot of good men and if you can’t pick wee bits and pieces up under them men, you’re in trouble. Hopefully I can bring a couple of them wee bits of nuggets into the Antrim set-up and hopefully that’ll work in our favour.”
Read more: Fermanagh manager Bonner puts trust in youth as Ernemen begin new season
As well as his inter-county knowhow, Doran has vast experience at club level and he will be familiar with the Derry players from his time as manager of the Sleacht Neil footballers.
“They’re challenging, tough games against Derry and Donegal and we’re playing the two of them in the space of four days,” he pointed out.
“But we’re delighted because we’ll know after the Donegal game exactly where we are. It’s a brilliant challenge for the players to be up against two of top counties in Ireland.
“The McKenna Cup is brilliant, if we’d no McKenna Cup we’d be touring the country trying to get challenge games. We’ve Derry at Owenbeg and then, four days later, we’ve Donegal in Cargin so it’s brilliant for the and as a management team we’ll get to look at a lot of lads and see where they’re at.”
"There is no quick fix for Antrim," says manager Mark Doran Antrim had been working with a squad of almost 50 players and Doran intends to give his young hopefuls as much game-time as possible before cutting the panel. His hand has been forced because of the injuries and university commitments so there’ll be several debutants against Derry and Donegal.
“We’re hoping players put their best foot forward in the McKenna Cup because then we have seven ‘championship’ games in Division Four,” he said.
“Consistency is massive. It’s massive no matter what county you’re in. If the team’s consistent, they’re doing well and they’re at the top of the table so we need to try and get consistency in the performance.
“And we need consistency with a panel, consistency with players buying into the panel and being brilliant teammates. We want them to be committing to each other for two or three years and then see where the whole thing goes.
“Talking about it is the easy bit, as a management team we have to get the players to really buy into it, get them to be good teammates to each other and really max out their potential.
“We want them to do that for two or three years and see where the thing goes but we’re under no illusions about where we are. We’re in Division Four for a reason and it’ll be a dogfight getting out of it and we have no divine right to get out of it
“I’m hoping the Antrim players realise it’s a serious, serious opportunity for them. It’s a new management, a clean slate and we have made it very clear to the players that we don’t care what they’ve done last year, or two years ago, or three years ago, we’re going to judge them on what we see at training and over these McKenna Cup games.
“Hopefully we get a few young players in putting their best foot forward but Antrim’s no different than other county - they need their best 10 or 12 players in the field all the time. If we can do that then we have a good chance.
“The most important people in the process are the players and you want them to be enjoying it. I’m a great believer in players coming to training every night because they want to be coached and they’re enjoying it.
“We want to be leaving training saying: ‘That was really good’ and if you can get that for six or seven months then maybe certain players start telling other players around the county and going: ‘Oh this is different, this is good…’ It’s small steps at the start but it’s a long-term goal.
“Again, we’re under no illusions: We want good results. How do you keep a happy panel? The answer is winning games but there’s 31 other counties sitting thinking the same.”
