TWO YEARS AFTER first floating the idea, Donal Óg Cusack has once again insisted that an all-Ulster senior intercounty hurling team needs to be created to boost the game in the province.

Cusack was reacting to Antrim’s relegation to the Christy Ring Cup for the 2016 season on The Sunday Game, insisting that “team Antrim is not working.”

The Glensmen lost to Carlow in Netwatch Cullen Park at the weekend to confirm relegation from the Liam MacCarthy cup competition in Leinster’s round-robin series of games.

And Cusack has once again insisted that it’s time to bite the bullet by forming a provincial team from Ulster to compete at elite level.

Kevin Ryan's Antrim have suffered two huge setbacks this year. Source: Presseye/John McIlwaine/INPHO

“(There are) very passionate people in Antrim about hurling, Kevin Ryan (Antrim manager) is a good hurling man himself but the reality is they have been relegated to Division 2A in the League and relegated to the Christy Ring Cup.

“Team Antrim is not working, I think team Ulster is the way.

“There’s nothing I’ve seen since we raised this a couple of years ago that tells me it’s not the way forward.

“My motivation, and a lot of people would believe in the same thing as me, is that every kid and every player should have the opportunity to play at the highest level.

“The reality for a lot of hurlers in Ulster is that they’ll never get the opportunity to play at the highest level in their sport.

“This would be one way of sorting it.”