Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

Aye DR we have had a load of work done to tidy up O Cahan Park and it's looking a lot better. Made existing pitch a few yards longer and wider too, with a new fence around it. A lot still to do, tarmacing etc. Not before time I suppose! Then the second phase can commence...that will really have the place looking well.

A lot going on in the club atm, getting our Gold Club Maith award was a long haul too but now it's there.

If only our footballers could get within a beagles gowl of the big guns like Cargin we could start feeling good about ourselves.

[bannside]

Cargin 1-11 Casements 0 -13. Good lively start to the year played before a reasonable crowd in Toome.  Both teams missing a few. Good clean sporting game.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

rasharkin 1-07 Dunloy 1-08

pretty decent game to watch at this stage of the year. good crowd and the pitch was in really good condition. we were up by 4 at half time and rasharkin cam back at us to go up by 1 point. we managed to get back in front with a few points and then hold on to win.

5/6 of last years minors all playing with Keelan Molloy in fine scoring form.

decent game and well contested by both teams.

[Hectic]

Couple of tight games there alright - anyone know the rest of the scores?

Great win for St Marys at the weekend - any Antrim lads in their team/squad?

[Hectic]

Good stuff - thank for the info - must not have registered with me as I skimmed along the team.

[stiffler]

rasharkin 1-07 Dunloy 1-08

pretty decent game to watch at this stage of the year. good crowd and the pitch was in really good condition. we were up by 4 at half time and rasharkin cam back at us to go up by 1 point. we managed to get back in front with a few points and then hold on to win.

5/6 of last years minors all playing with Keelan Molloy in fine scoring form.

decent game and well contested by both teams.

I see Dunloy are in the minor B championship this year, did you lose the majority of last years team DR?

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

yeah the majority of the whole team has moved on into senior. I know this group played B at under 16 grade so they felt they would be too weak to compete at A grade this year

[stiffler]

yeah the majority of the whole team has moved on into senior. I know this group played B at under 16 grade so they felt they would be too weak to compete at A grade this year

Add that championship winning team into your senior squad that has reached 2 intermediate finals in a row , and that's a great blend of youthful skill and experience. Could be dark horses for promotion, however I am sure there are competing priorities for a lot of the players.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

yeah the majority of the whole team has moved on into senior. I know this group played B at under 16 grade so they felt they would be too weak to compete at A grade this year

Add that championship winning team into your senior squad that has reached 2 intermediate finals in a row , and that's a great blend of youthful skill and experience. Could be dark horses for promotion, however I am sure there are competing priorities for a lot of the players.

Be nice if we could keep them all in there all season.they are all mostly in the senior hurling panel as well so its getting a good balance between all the games they will be playing right is important.

Theres no reason why a club like ourselves shouldnt be competing at the top grade in football again with the numbers and resources we have.

[Hectic]

Dunloy always had very good footballers, they were always the sort of team that if you drew in the Championship they would give you a far tougher examination than their league standing would have suggested. If they are in a position now where they have the resources to concentrate hard in both codes absolutely no reason why they cannot push on to senior level in football in the next few years.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

thats been the long term plan at the club after a few people sat down and basically sorted out the hash that had been created. Hurling and football had stopped working together at senior level and with the hurling being the main focus in the club it meant that football suffered for it.

Now this past number of years the two managements have sat down and sorted out sessions and come to a sensible arrangement that meant that players weren't been torn between both codes and that they got the rest that they needed in order to field at both codes. Its still working well and i hope it continues to do so as its generated an interest again in football that had died off a few years.

hurling will always be the number 1 in Dunloy but theres no reason that we cant operate both codes successfully.

[BrendanAntrim]

So, is the trip to Corrigan Park one taken in hope, confidence, or dread?? Interested to see the team for first time this year, would love to see them on the front foot, attacking Sligo, rather than sitting back with 12 or 13 men behind the ball.

No team yet?

[bannside]

Maybe Antrim can't boast 50 or 60 fast skilful quality players the way Tyrone can foe example.....but there's never an excuse in my book if we can't cobble 15 or 20 together at one time that can go out and give a good account of themselves, no matter what the opposition.

So tomorrow I'm expecting to be pleasantly surprised at how we take the game to Sligo and how competitive we remain. Sligo are not a bad team, but we are at home and football is about pride. So I be expecting a good performance and I'll deal with the result after that.

I think we can win by 2 and get the season started.

[country bumpkin]

Maybe Antrim can't boast 50 or 60 fast skilful quality players the way Tyrone can foe example.....but there's never an excuse in my book if we can't cobble 15 or 20 together at one time that can go out and give a good account of themselves, no matter what the opposition.

So tomorrow I'm expecting to be pleasantly surprised at how we take the game to Sligo and how competitive we remain. Sligo are not a bad team, but we are at home and football is about pride. So I be expecting a good performance and I'll deal with the result after that.

I think we can win by 2 and get the season started.

As to ur first paragraph I ask why not BS ?

As to yor second I say hope ur right.......and I really do wish I shared ur optimism.

[bannside]

We are a mile away from the way Tyrone do things CB that's why. From as far back as 1995 when Declan O Neill from Omagh, with the help of Mark Conway set up a fundraising initiative called "towards the millenium" dedicated to improving Tyrone county football. That seed spawned dozens of copy cat replicas  (Club Doire, and in turn Club Aontroma etc). The idea was simple. Obtain several hundred signatures to a direct debit scheme that would go towards providing the finance to support a structure designed to see Tyrone compete at the highest level.  That was the first initiative of that kind which has morphed into Club Tir Eoghan and the Garvaghy centre of excellence. And of course three All Ireland titles and numerous u 21 and minor to boot.

In Tyrone Gaelic Football is a religion. Women are as fascinated in it as men. They take ladies football very seriously too whilst lip service is paid to hurling and soccer is just a nuisance. It's not uncommon to see a thousand people at a club game and I've seen this myself.

Gaelic Football is a matter of life and death in many oarts of Tyrone and this level of sheer unbridled passionate interest simply dosent exist in Antrim.....where Gaelic Football isn't even the number one Gaelic sport.

So whilst we can't realistically aspire to producing 60 players of a very high standard at the one time, surely we can do something more to produce 15 -25. If we can hit that target then we can maybe kick on from there. But even to do that we need to start upping the ante because if we don't we will start slipping further behind.