By Paul Keane

Conor Stewart is committed to making long-term progress with Antrim and, at just 20, the Ballymena man has time on his side to pull it off.

The beauty of the new Tailteann Cup is that Antrim can still be competitive and, who knows, maybe even win a coveted piece of national silverware, while building towards that brighter future.

Attacker Stewart sees the inaugural competition, which begins for Antrim tomorrow with a Round 1 tie against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon, as a free shot at summer success after exiting the Ulster championship following a heavy defeat to Cavan.

"We're in a nothing to lose situation," claimed Stewart. "We're just going to go at it. Everyone is in the same boat in the competition, they've all lost a game to get here.

"We're just going to go out, try to play a bit of football and see where we get. If you win one or two games, you'll have a bit of momentum built up and you never know, you could end up in Croke Park which would be a good place to be."

Stewart accepts that Antrim came up against a physically superior force when they played Cavan and has called for the current group of players to commit to a long-term plan to bridge that gap.

"It's not a two or three-month process, it's not going to be done in one off-season, it's probably a three, four or five-year thing S&C wise, we know that," he said.

"The boys said it after the Cavan game, Stevie O'Neill told us that it was a long process but, look, the setup is there for us if the boys stick at it, the core group. That's probably the main thing now, we need to stick together for those three, four, five years.

"The turnover of players has probably been too high in Antrim the last number of years."

Stewart believes that the revolving door situation in Antrim is down to players expecting short-term success and being left frustrated when it doesn't arrive.

"I think sometimes if you get a disappointing result, it's easy then for boys to walk," he said. "It's easier for the Dublins and the Kerrys who are winning All-Irelands to keep that commitment level so high.

"Playing for Antrim, the commitment levels are so high and sometimes the rewards (aren't there), you're playing really for one big day a year. Hopefully something like this Tailteann Cup now can reduce that turnover of players. There's a carrot there. Even having an All-Star team, it's a team game but players want individual accolades too.

"It's nice for boys to get a bit of recognition because when you're playing in Division 3 and Division 4, you have one big day out a year in the province. It was Cavan this year and Armagh last year for us. Other than that, you don't get much coverage so we'll see how it goes but it seems a good competition, definitely."

Opponents Leitrim did win a provincial championship game, overcoming London in the Connacht quarter-finals, though subsequently conceded 4-20 to Galway.

"It's a hard enough fixture," said Stewart. "All the boys have been saying how hard a place Carrick-on-Shannon is to go. I've never played there myself.

"We played them last year in the league and for 45, 50 minutes we were getting it handy and were 10 points up. They ended up getting it back to a draw before we won by a point so they're definitely a good side and we know that from our own experience."

Like Leitrim, Antrim have a gifted former inter-county forward in their setup, Tyrone great O'Neill.

"He's still got it, definitely still got it," smiled Stewart of the 2005 Footballer of the Year who kicked Tyrone to All-Ireland masters success last year. "Maybe we need to get an Antrim jersey on him! For some other coaches, the forward play can be maybe a bit general but he is really specific, specific moves. I'm a midfielder and it's probably more for the inside forwards. He's been really good for them in terms of what he wants you to do. He'll show you on video, if you missed an opportunity to make a run or if you went too early or too late. Our general forward play is very good I think."