Antrim Hurling

[BlackandAmber]

Do any of you boyos know anything about Alan Kelly (Galway)? He's been given the refereeing job for the final next week according to the GAA.ie site.

He reffed Antrim Laois in the first round last year. Thought he was pretty pernickety (certainly more so than Anthony Stapleton would be). Sent off Neal McAuley with a straight red for an off the ball incident that I didn't see and I dont think he saw (but relied on a linesman, I think) so not gun shy!

Think he sent off Matthew Donnelly when playing for Antrim minors against the Dubs in Crossmaglen - game was very even at the time and that effectively ended it. Was not at that game but heard from a couple of people at the Antrim Cork quarter final the next day who considered it very very harsh decision.

It would seem a man not afraid to give a red card!

Lucky the Town is'nt in the final.  Agin the Town so must be for the Shams?   

[btdtgtt]

Too many posts about a ref in a game that hasn't happened yet!

SIE u are very touchy on that! No such queries before na piarsaigh game?

Hopefully he us a peripheral figure - unless he gives winker a few 21s in which case we will all be happy!

Oh and while I am here - still no league fixtures!
I think a certain official is enjoying keeping people waiting.

[Seamroga in exile]

Not at all touchy. You're just someone else reading too much into an innocent post. You're in good company in that regard.

Not the worst failing in the world.

[maxpower]

Have the Dates for championship even been released, surely in the middle of March these are known, very difficult to plan holidays, events, work for the summer until these are released. 

[btdtgtt]

The all Ireland champs elect play Rossa on 4/5 august in the prelim.

Quarters are 1st weekend in September.

League fixtures are in lord lucan's pocket!

[Milltown Row2]

Have the Dates for championship even been released, surely in the middle of March these are known, very difficult to plan holidays, events, work for the summer until these are released.

These games are usually late August, always have been, league games normally start after Easter sometimes Easter Sunday, this has happened for years!!!!!!!!!!

Why people get worked up over it is beyond me. Christ knows why it hasn't come out but they will be out soon

[btdtgtt]

Loughiel Rossa earlier this year because lamh dearg into senior means 9 teams so prelim needed.

Hurling leagues start 11 April.

[Seamroga in exile]

Clare 0-03 Antrim 0-03  15 mins

[Tony Baloney]

Christy O'Connor has a full page profile/interview with Winker in The Sunday Times today. He manahed to get a wee jag at the Dall too...

[clootfromthe21]

Clare 0 20 Antrim 0 12

Bit of a collapse in the second half - it was 0 8 to 0 7 at half time and (from comments on An Fear Rua) Antrim seemed to be giving them a real go of it.

Clare had a man sent off about 20 mins into the second half but I think McManus got sent off just before the end. Not sure if a red or second yellow, he got a yellow in the first half.

According to bits of it I got on Clare FM, Antrim were playing with a 2 man full forward line and the ball just kept coming back out.

Anyway, reality bites.

It would seem Wexford had a miraculous recovery to pip Offaly at the death which makes things very interesting in the division, with Clare in front, Laois at the tail and everyone else bunched in the middle.

[the colonel]

The all Ireland champs elect play Rossa on 4/5 august in the prelim.

Quarters are 1st weekend in September.

League fixtures are in lord lucan's pocket!

Those are the dates lads...

Christy O'Connor has a full page profile/interview with Winker in The Sunday Times today. He manahed to get a wee jag at the Dall too...

What has he said?

[Tony Baloney]

The all Ireland champs elect play Rossa on 4/5 august in the prelim.

Quarters are 1st weekend in September.

League fixtures are in lord lucan's pocket!

Those are the dates lads...

Christy O'Connor has a full page profile/interview with Winker in The Sunday Times today. He manahed to get a wee jag at the Dall too...

What has he said?

"If I went in to a bar today and drank two pints, the word in Cushendall would be that I was drunk off my head".

[Minder]

Watson stands his ground

Watson stands his ground

Loughgiel's sharp shooter says he is a reformed man ahead of the club final
Christy O'Connor Published: 11 March 2012
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Liam Watson lines his hurleys up against the wall, each one delicately garnished with red and white coloured grips. The handles are thicker and the bas bigger than normal but Michael and Denis Scullion know Watson's exact requirements. On Wednesday, Watson followed his usual ritual the week before a big game by picking up three new sticks from Scullion's workshop opposite Loughgiel's pitch. The clean ash was all that differentiated them from Watson's mini-forest of timber, each stick as primed as the next. Perfect.

Watson gathers the new hurleys and makes his way down Lough road, entering Fr Healy Park through the little back-gate. He crosses the gravel track and jumps the three-foot wall before emptying a batch of sliotars on the pitch. The quality of ash is soon authenticated by the smooth cracking sound from the sliotars pinging off his hurley as Watson goes through his free-taking routine. His striking is almost flawless. Perfect.

Watson has been in the zone for a while. In the All-Ireland semi-final against Na Piarsaigh, he bagged 0-16. Watson's sublime striking on a wet day illustrated his talent but that performance was fermenting for 12 months before he uncorked it. "I was useless in last year's semi-final against O'Loughlin Gaels," he says. "I wanted to go back to Parnell Park to prove a point. I knew that whoever I was marking against Na Piarsaigh was going to be in for some treatment."

Big scoring returns have been a constant throughout Watson's career; he scored 0-13 out of 0-16 in the 2007 county final defeat to Dunloy. His talent was never in doubt. His attitude and mentality always was. He has carried the tabloid caricature of a maverick and his indiscipline has consistently rhymed with that reputation. Hurling often operates on the dynamics of a village and one bad word often borrows another. Yet most of Watson's indiscretions were so public that he had no defence against the gossip which accompanied them.

"I'm the type of man who does what he wants to do," he says. "Some people can take that, some people can't. I would never look back with regrets but I will admit that I have done piles of things wrong. I'm far from perfect but God gives everyone a talent and the main one I was given was hurling. Once you're given it, you have to try not to waste it. I wasted it for a couple of years but I'm trying hard to redeem that now."

He first showed that renegade streak as a 19-year old in Antrim's 2002 All-Ireland quarter-final against Tipperary when he struck Paul Ormonde on the side of the head with the butt of his hurley. A yellow card was later upgraded to a red and red cards became a recurring theme throughout his career. He was sent off against Derry in 2008 while he was also red-carded twice in the 2010 season, including the All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork when he was marched after scoring six excellent points from play.

It also blighted him at club level. Watson was the pulse of Loughgiel's scoring power but he was also their jugular vein and teams often went for the jugular. "I have been targeted but I was letting my family and my teammates down for years," he says. "I got sent off in a championship game against St John's one year. I came home afterwards and Eoin (his seven-year-old son) had this wee stick. He jagged it into the side of me and goes, 'You shouldn't have done it'. He's very close to me and I had to cop on. I've nearly been sent off more times than I've got up in the morning so you have to catch on some time."

His indiscipline on the field though, was too often a reflection of it off the field. One year he missed a club championship game when he disappeared on a lost weekend at the motorcycle world championships in Toomebridge. He didn't play with Antrim in 2007 and 2009, while he was dropped from the squad the night before they played Galway in the 2008 qualifiers for playing a low-key soccer tournament in Limavady two nights previously. Joint-managers, Terrence 'Sambo' McNaughton and Dominic 'Woody' McKinley, were building a new team and Watson's reputation conflicted with their standards and ideals. It wasn't just them. Watson breached a drinking ban imposed by Dinny Cahill before the 2010 Leinster championship against Offaly by going to a close friend's stag in Liverpool. He was also involved in a fight in training with a fellow player. He was dropped from the panel before being restored and not all of Cahill's management team were happy to see him come on against Offaly.

Yet he became an All-Star nominee and there has always been a conflict between his immense talent and the perception of him as a liability. "If I went in to a bar today and drank two pints, the word in Cushendall would be that I was drunk off my head," he says. "I like getting out, having a drink and enjoying myself. If people think I'm an alcoholic or drinking as much as I'm supposed to be, I'd hardly have scored 0-16 against Na Piarsaigh. Everyone is entitled to their opinions but I'll have my opinion after March 17."

In such a passionate hurling heartland, opinions have often been easier to form with Watson's soccer commitments. He spent three seasons in the IFA Premiership with Donegal Celtic, where he was popular with the supporters, before signing for Ballymena United last August. "The supporters were crazy, I was as crazy as them, we enjoyed our football and we had a drink afterwards," he says. "That's what life is all about: enjoyment. This guy said to me one day, 'Are you a hurling or soccer man? I said, 'If a bill comes in my front door, will you pay it if I only play hurling? The soccer was giving me a few pounds to pay bills but I've always been mad into all sports."

Watson wasn't immune from controversy either on the soccer field; he was sent off after 15 seconds against Coleraine in 2010, while he was suspended by Ballymena last November for an alleged breach of discipline. It doesn't provide him with a defence but Watson has been troubled at times.

"I'm my biggest critic and I'm always beating myself up," he says. "There are always people trying to knock you and there would be times when I wouldn't want to come out of the house, win or lose. If I came out, I could end up hitting somebody. Everyone has good and bad days. I'm usually upbeat and cheery but there were times when I might have been in bad form and I just didn't want to go to the field. Maybe I was suffering a bit from depression. I wouldn't say yes or no but there were times when I was very down."

Jim Nelson and Joe McGurk are two outsiders in Loughgiel's backroom team and their input has helped Watson reform. "Joe is a teacher but I call him my counsellor," says Watson. "Sometimes he might be able to tell that I'm not in great form. If I'm not happy with something, I feel I can speak to someone. Joe keeps me right."

They have all benefited from management's guidance. Loughgiel lost six county finals in a row from 2003 before cracking it in 2010. Nelson had built his reputation on bringing organisation and structure and his methods created the conditions to move forward. He got them working harder, removing the individualism which had often blighted their play.

The calmness they showed in extra-time was also mirrored by Watson's composure. Na Piarsaigh tried to twist his tail but he didn't take the bait. He sees the bigger picture now reflected in his son's excitement. Last week, Eoin got a new Loughgiel fleece with his father's picture and name on the back.

"I want to make my family and Loughgiel people proud," says Watson. "I feel at the top of my game at the minute. Everything is going well for me on and off the field. All I can promise is that I'll give 100% work rate. I can't say that I will reproduce what I showed against Na Piarsaigh but I love the big challenge, the hype, the atmosphere. The big stage is definitely for me."

The stage is set. And Watson finally looks primed for it.

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[gelvis]

Christy O'Connor has a full page profile/interview with Winker in The Sunday Times today. He manahed to get a wee jag at the Dall too...

What has he said?
[/quote]"If I went in to a bar today and drank two pints, the word in Cushendall would be that I was drunk off my head".
[/quote]


Must have been edited...he doesn't even say "yano" in the paper

[Sleeping giant]

didnt think there was much wrong with any of the above?