Look take away the getting into the semi finals after the Ulster campaign, the fact that we played div 1 for a lot of years and then for spells yo/yo'd between the divisions, we never feared Dublin Westmeath Laois Carlow, they were below us and have overtaken Antrim and Dublin have went on to become a top team...
Yes Antrim has to take responsibility of its own actions and hopefully we are on a progressive upturn, Like when Dinny came in we had a great lift in terms of attitude and the clubs bonded better when they were grouped together, I can see a change similar to that at the minute.
But we can't just dismiss the reasons I've outlined, distance between hurling counties, Antrim is surrounded by footballing counties, less competitive teams around us means travelling and that cost's money, we can only pit ourselves against the better teams if we play them more often. School/college hurling also needs a boost, grand getting Ulster but the likes of the traditional schools are being hammered at the semifinal stage nearly every year.
Something happened and I'm not sure when but there was an increase of skill, physicality, a change of approach and attitude with the traditional counties that Antrim didn't see, I've no reason why but the gulf started to appear and we have never been able to get back to that place, when we were able to hang onto the coat tails of the big teams, or steal a win here and there.
Antrim clubs can't be sure of even winning their Ulster club titles at club level (juinor, interm and senior) anymore! so while we have a great club championship at the minute with 4 competitive teams, we need to sort that out, and basing on what I've seen of S'neil these last few years we'd need get our act in order!