Paddy Burke: 'It's exactly where you want to be'

By Cian O'Connell

Paddy Burke knows these are exciting times for Antrim.

Being relevant, competing in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship. Important matches are on the agenda with Kilkenny visiting Corrigan Park on Sunday.

Ultimately, Burke appreciates these occasions so much. "In maybe my first five years with Antrim, we weren't playing at this level," he reflects.

"Watching on was all you could do. You were looking at the Leinster and Munster Championships and thinking, 'They're unreal games' and telling yourself it would be unbelievable to play at that level and all the rest of it.

"Now that we're actually here and have been for a few years, it's obviously ridiculously competitive, but it's exactly where you want to be.

"This is where we'll get the most out of ourselves as individuals and as players competing at that level. You train long enough for the days when you can go out to play Championship matches. You put in all the work to go out and see if you can compete at this level."

So, retaining Allianz Hurling League Division 1B status was vital for Antrim. Avoiding the drop mattered deeply to the Saffrons, who earned a crucial win over Laois. "There's no doubt it would have been a setback," the Ruairí Óg, Cushendall clubman says.

"Unfortunately, being in relegation games, either in the league or the championship, is something we've gotten used to over the last couple of years.

"But it's not anyone else putting pressure on us, it's just our own desire to stay at this level and keep competing.

"It's no disrespect to other teams but you want to be competing with the best so it definitely would have set us back. It's also about what you're leaving in place for players who are 18, 19, 20. What are they going to come into and will they be getting the best development and the best games?"

Darren Gleeson occupied a central role in restoring Antrim to respectability. The former Portroe and Tipperary goalkeeper enjoyed a productive spell in charge.

Now, Davy Fitzgerald is on the line, trying to make further progress. "There was a serious buzz at the start, obviously, when Davy was announced, which is brilliant for just the general profile of Antrim hurling and encouraging more and more interest in it," Burke says.

"So, that was brilliant, and then from a playing point of view, obviously you're extremely excited to get going and seeing how things will be or what's going to be different or whatever.

"As soon as he came in and we started training, it was just like getting to work. So, it's been very good, tough, but it's very good."

Burke is enjoying working under Fitzgerald. "Definitely, passionate now, that's definitely the side of him that you see," Burke says.

"You know that that's what he's like, but that's brilliant, he just wants to win. But then obviously that's only about 10% of what he's like to us the whole time, you know. But you do obviously need that as well.

"He's very good at that, like raising the intensity of what we're trying to do in training and just games and stuff, which is brilliant."

Another demanding test awaits for Antrim in Belfast on Sunday against Kilkenny.