Antrim Hurling

[Shamrock]

As an interested gael, reading this for the past few months i feel the time is right to join in!!! And im sure there are plenty ready and willing to give me stick about 5 in a row.........but like plenty of you say......thats for the hogan stand forum. I hope to offer some educated knowledge about antrim hurling!!!

Congrats to Dunloy on winning the Ulster. You have been a great team and unlike some of my other colleagues i hope you go on and win the "Big Yin" - because it will act as a motivating to all clubs in Antrim - and more so our own club.

We won the league for the 4th year in a row last week. But again we finished short of the holy grail the volunteer cup. But i honestly feel that some time in the near future it will happen..........

Anyway - i hope im welcomed onto the board and i hope to contribute to some good aul discussion and craic

[Shamrock]

why???

[Glensman]

I think Hardstation means that it made him laugh (as it did with me) as the relevance to Loughgeil of the saying you used.
As in Loughgeil's day will come...

Not sure if you meant it that way or not.

It might be hard to take for a fair few but it would indeed be good if Loughgeil's day came sooner rather than later.

[Ruairi Og exile]

Loughgiel havent won the league four years in a row. Cushendall won in 2004...beat Portaferry at Casement in a play-off.

Somebody should have told the County hurlers that the GPA strike doesnt start til 1st January 08. Only 12 at training on friday night.

[Guillem2]

Rossa well beat by Ballygalget.

[Balboa]

heard that liam watson is back on the panel. great for antrim if he plays this yr with the right attitude.

Usually when the words "Watson" and "attitude" are used in the same sentence the word "bad" is also mentioned. In fairness he is the best forward in Antrim and they will need all the help they can get this year. I hear the turn outs are not great at training.

[Balboa]

Rossa well beat by Ballygalget.

Am I hearing right about a bust up in the changing room?

What happened? Did Aidan Hamill say he had just signed a ten year "golden handcuffs" deal ? 

[Balboa]

From what I heard, a 19 year old was knocked out cold by a 'mentor' for very little reason.
I cannot confirm this 100% though.

Well when we played them a couple of weeks ago the only ones on the line i could see were Aidan Hamill and Jim Connolly, there was maybe other ones but i didnt know them

[PlayWithTheWind]

From what I heard, a 19 year old was knocked out cold by a 'mentor' for very little reason.
I cannot confirm this 100% though.

a rossa "selector" hit a boy christopher mc illhaton (mitchels connection) after the match for telling this selector to fu*k up during the game.

absolute disgrace and rossa should punish this so called selector immediatly! completly out of order!

[milltown row]

watched the game from the st pauls club rooms, well i was watching our footballers go down against St Pauls. the only two 'selectors' i seen on the line was Joe O'Neill and Jim Connolly, was it one of them?

oh and Shannon should have been sent off twice, the Loughgiel referee could have sent him off but being the last game maybe he couldn't be arsed

[theskull1]

watched the game from the st pauls club rooms, well i was watching our footballers go down against St Pauls. the only two 'selectors' i seen on the line was Joe O'Neill and Jim Connolly, was it one of them?

oh and Shannon should have been sent off twice, the Loughgiel referee could have sent him off but being the last game maybe he couldn't be arsed

A tr**p plain and simple. Can I guess what he did? He was in his own half back line under their puck outs and he tried to "do" the man from behind on the dropping ball? I've never seen him stand toe to toe and try to win a physical battle with an opponent in my life, always has taken the cowards way out.

Am I close?

[johnneycool]

We did our neighbours a bit of a favour on sunday by making sure that they stay above Rossa and hence will be safe as Rossa won't be relegated. It's one of the unwritten rules in Antrim.

I wasn't aware of the fracas in the Rossa changing room until this morning when a lad who teaches up in the west of the city rung me about it as one of his pupils told him that his daddy, had to 'deck' a player for slabbering at him. I didn't ask for names but it isn't good for any club or team when these things go on.

[Last Man]

One of the better analysis I've read about the Greedy Pricks Association.
By Darragh McManus
Tuesday November 13 2007

Have you ever heard of someone "striking" against their own hobby? No, me neither, but for Dessie Farrell and his cohort in the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA), the impossible is not only possible, but likely.


Let's be clear about what hurling and football are to inter-county players: a pastime, freely chosen, which they do because they enjoy it. Despite extravagant declarations about player "sacrifice" which is costing them time and money, they are not forced to play, by anybody or for anybody.

They are free to quit entirely or swap to other sports at any time. Indeed, there is a club level in GAA to suit all tastes, from top-quality senior sides to Division 10 junior teams who only meet up for matches.

The essential point again: this is a hobby. To expect to be financially recompensed for your hobby -- and to threaten a so-called "strike" if your demands are not met -- is totally unreasonable, not to mention absurd.

It's also unworkable. These players are not employed by the GAA, so who exactly do they intend to "strike" against, what form will it take and what effect do they expect it to have?

Inter-county players are voluntary members of GAA clubs who are invited, by their county board in the person of the team manager, to play on the county team; nothing more nor less. Should they decline that invitation, as is their right, the county board has the responsibility and obligation to extend the invitation to alternative players.

There are thousands of fine talents across the country who would give their right arm to play for the county, and the paying public will follow these players in their thousands. GPA mouthpieces may say that the big stars are the main attraction, but this is untrue.

While they have affection for individual players, GAA people follow their club and county -- team members are considered privileged to wear that coveted jersey. This is why inter-county and club competitions have thrived for 13 decades, long before the current era of hype and "the big occasion", and why the recent inter-provincials in Croke Park -- despite gathering an impressive collection of star players -- were attended by less than 10,000 people.

And please, enough of the loaded terminology, like "crossing the picket line", to emotionally blackmail other players into supporting this "strike": nobody's employment is under threat, and replacements have every moral right to play. (Enough, also, of self-fulfilling prophecies which declare, like Sean Diffley in this paper on Saturday, that professionalism in the GAA is inevitable. It only is if you keep saying it is.) A GPA "strike" will not succeed, and should not. The GAA was set up as a cultural and community organisation, to foster indigenous games and arts.

It exists so that every child or adult who wants to play has a field, a dressing room, a hurley or football, and someone to coach them and arrange matches.

It is an elemental force in Irish life, and cannot be held hostage by a contentious, and tiny, group of elite players. (The GPA represents less than 2,000 members of an organisation totalling more than 800,000 -- not even a quarter of one per cent.)

The GAA is immeasurably bigger, and more important, than individual players, managers, club members, famous stars, media commentators or anybody else.

And it is worth preserving at any expense. The inter-county championship may be the jewel in the crown, but the GAA can survive without it.

But it won't come to that, anyway. Despite claims to the contrary, I don't believe the ordinary grassroots member supports this GPA brinkmanship; I don't even believe they support the principle of grant payments for inter-county players. Many nervously see it as the thin end of the wedge regarding full professionalism, and considering how money-oriented the GPA has proven itself, they are right to be nervous.

If I had GAA President Nickey Brennan on the phone, I would tell him, hold fast in the face of this provocation -- the people will support you.

Donal Og Cusack and his ilk endlessly recite the mantra, "It's all about respect". Well, you have to give respect if you want to receive it. Where is the GPA respect, for example, for GAA officials at all levels, those sneered-at "suits" who do the tedious, unglamorous jobs behind the scenes?

All they get is contempt and abuse, despite the fact that their dedication is as great as inter-county players and their work just as important.

Where is the respect for the club member who doesn't want to see his association threatened by avarice and discord? Or the hugely committed inter-county camogie player or women's footballer, or senior club player?

Here's one example: my father was club chairman for 18 years. He coached primary schools teams, boys and girls, under-age and adult club teams, played, attended meetings, drove us to matches, sold lotto tickets, helped gather the grass when the pitch was mown. Post-retirement he is still involved, as a club-man, supporter and selector on the county U21 football team.

People like this made the GAA the most remarkable sporting organisation on the planet.

To concede the principle of elitism, to stratify the assocation, to yield to threats and media pressure, to open up the appalling vista of professionalism, is to betray the values and principles that inspired them.

My father was not unique, but the GAA is -- let's keep it that way.

Darragh McManus is author of 'GAA Confidential (Everything you never knew you wanted to know about Gaelic games)'

- Darragh McManus

[maxpower]

Excellent articule, but does it not belong on another thread.

[milltown row]

are you sure you weren't there Skull? the first one went like that. he was playing half-forward high ball in he drew into the chb and well you know the rest