Messages

It seems 'Saffron Voice' is outa business.....

You've got to pick your battles, if you are giving the county constant stick on social media don't expect a pat on the back.

You should know when you throw abuse at officials there has to be repercussions

What abuse did they throw?

Claiming the county are looking at supporters as piggy banks and not caring for player welfare ain't going to help with things..

Banter is grand once you start trying to be a 'voice' of the supporters then you are lost, they aint the voice just two lads in a bedroom talking shite, that's in their own words btw, I liked their podcast, though giving unpaid volunteers some stick about their performance won't win hearts and minds.

Trial by social media (and not their case as they don't hide behind keyboards) isn't great, you wouldn't want your son to take abuse online but happy to give to others  (not your personally of course)

There are more formal ways to express your opinion through the club committee if you are a member that is, or seeing as it is simple enough to fix get on board

100% MR

Big win for St Brigids at Toome today in the minor semi final. Conditions were very poor, Brigids the better and more composed team on the day.

Great to see the St Brigids V Moneyglass U20 game got played last night.

Productive night for St.Brigids got 4 points last night, 2 against MG  and 2 from Cargin , to win the league ! Actually played 1 game ! Utter nonsense

With 12 under 20s on senior side and several starters.....there was no way Cargin were taking that fixture.surely Brigid's will not claim the title...?

Must file this one away for the next time we see moaning on here about city teams not travelling to SW. And of course, lets castigate the team who were available to play their games when the other teams FTF, perfect logic.

Strange bit of reporting on the reserve final in Ahoghill where Creggan proved too strong for Cargin. "It was end to end stuff as both teams chased the first silverware of the season"...

Found that really odd tbh.

Elsewhere that excellent crop coming through that we spoke of previously at St Brigid's ran away with under 15 A. Congratulations to them and also to Cargin on B final victory.

How many of these 'excellent crops' do St Brigids need before they get a decent senior team. Seem to be unbeatable at U16/U15 level then fall to an arse after that. Maybe it will be different this time

A gather up if never there was one. Theme on the other side of Mallusk.

A gather-up of what? Such tripe

Yes they should have had the foresight to know that Cargin would reach both these finals

But perhaps the could have considered all options....

It seems like the football world revolves around Cargin! Such rubbish is being penned on here. Remember there are two teams in the final! Seems like the discussion is about getting as big a crowd from Cargin along to support. What about GNM. Perhaps one of their many club teams is playing that night - after all they are participating in all codes and all levels. The date for the final was fixed months ago, all teams were aware when they entered the competition.

Some bad mismatches in those U-15 Div 1 games

Really there are three levels of teams there but it would mean 5 teams in div 1, 10 in div 2 and 5 and in div 3 if you were going to avoid these scores, as the same happens in div 2.

What clubs are involved in Ard Na Rí at u-15?

Every team (in any sport) can have an off day, and today was exactly that. We were hammered today, make no mistake about that. Very few players can look in the mirror tonight and say they did well, ironically a few who can were some of the first to be taken off! There were a few who got the full tenure (yet again) and I've no idea how they managed to get full game time.

Today was as poor as I can recall. I was hoping to be able to post something much more positive, but if we are going to call a spade a spade, we have no place in division two on today's performance.

Louth looked like a well drilled team today, we were the exact opposite. We looked like we had met up in the carpark before the game....that's the stark reality! Bad weekend at office all round, hurlers hammered and minors mauled.

Correct Bannside. Outplayed in almost all sectors. Aside from Kevin Small, the players introduced looked out of their depth at this level.  One of our most effective forwards (and has been for the past couple years) taken off when we needed scores. One of out least effective forwards (and same for last couple of years) remains on for the full duration.  Great that we are in a position to push for promotion, but we have not moved forward as massively as some on here think. When it comes to the crunch games we seem to revert to old habits. 

BS any view from the players on how they felt about Lenny and his backroom during the term?

We now seem to have out best players available in both codes. It's been a long time since this has happened.

I was really pleased with both those results at the weekend. Hopefully we can build on them too.

Certainly seems like a strong panel. If we also had a number of players who were on the panel in the past two seasons we could truly say its the best players out there e.g. Mark Sweeney, Fitzy, Patrick McCormick, Ryan Murray, Paddy McAleer.  I know they are all not available for valid reasons - but think how strong the 30 panel would be with those 5 added!

Just disapointed as a fan that we went from a resurgence of sorts 10 yrs ago for a few years to the bottom. Those days in Clones, Tullamore and Newbridge were class....like we suddenly had a proper county team. Besting Meath in Div 2 at Casement.

Kerry football fans are notoriously demanding re their team.  Here we dont have radio shows discussing our team or holding the mgt to account...we have about 5 of us who care on Gaaboard discussing it

Very well said and this sums it up for me. Jeez, for a few years there I never missed a match. My kids, admittedly they are older now and more wordly wise, pestered me to go to every game, with no worries about distance. And we went - some brilliant days and nights  that I hoped were the start of something, rather than the effing highlight of a lifetime supporting the Saffrons. Now I can barley convince myself to go to Corrigan. On my own.

Interesting point you raise Brendan & its a circular issue. On the one hand supporters demand and deserve a team winning and progressing up the divisions. On the other hand the players & management deserve to have supporters turn out to back them (regardless of results). Players feed off supporters and will raise their game.

However, when you have 86 (maybe 20 from Antrim) as a total crowd in Waterford you can kind of see why it was a flat performance. Not saying that excuses the flat and poor performance on and off the pitch. But I could also argue its less effort for the supporters to turn out for a game than it is for the players to commit to 3,4,5 sessions a week. So I think the apathy from lots of people within the county seeps through to the players. If "regular punters" within the county really wanted to effect a change in the fortunes of Antrim football then the easiest and most impactful thing they can do is attend the games. Don't underestimate the impact this would have on players & management and as a consequence their performances. Like I say its a circular issue and EVERYONE has their part to play (and not just on forums like this).

That's our level for sure, going up would be pointless. Very impressed with Westmeath who dominated all over the field, beat us in the air and the dirty ball. Better movement and when they played against the breeze they worked the ball up the field intelligently and some great finishing. The two point deficit was flattering to our lads.
Stay in this group and try and improve.

I thought when we played hurling intelligently in the first half we looked the much better side - moved the ball fast and accurately. In the second half we reverted to lashing the ball 80 yards from the puck-out in the hope we would win it under the high ball - don't think we won a single puck-out in the second half. If we had persisted with the style of play from the first half we would have gained the victory. 

must say on another note i was disappoint in the Brigids line and management constantly calling for a black card in the second half to get a player out of the game.

they were pissed at the ref black carding two of their players in the first half so felt the need to constantly harass the ref to try and get him to get our players out of the game. at the end up the black card and red card we did get were totally deserved at the end of the game and down to frustration.

it was very poor imo.

Thought the game was played in the right spirit for the vast majority of it.  There may have been calls from the St Brigids sideline for black cards - I couldn't hear if they did/did not as I was at the top of the stand and they were on the far side. However, I'll take DRs word for it. The reaction of some Dunloy players towards the end (DR puts it down to frustration) was also a little disappointing and not the best way to react in defeat. In fairness to the Dunloy line they prevented their players from escalating things on the final whistle.

Great game of football and end to end stuff with either side unlucky come out on the wrong side of the result at the end. St Brigids had that little bit more composure when it counted. One u21 win however does not make a senior club! Let's see if they can back it up in the years ahead.

If the Gaa feel it's against the ideals of the association then they need to change the rules or at least make some proper call on the whole reimbursement thing. In the absence of that their is a vacuum that allows for a club to do what it wants in this regard.

Until that happens you just have to go with the flow because something that cannot be properly policed is not going to change any soon.

I think the rules of the GAA are fairly clear - expenses should be for genuine travel to and from games/training/meetings.  Payment should not be any more than Civil Service rates.  In an amateur association I question wether anyone should be claiming even these basic expenses.  The real problem however lies with the clubs/counties who deliberately abuse the rules to pay "managers" who are only interested in earning money.  a rule that stipulates managers must be a member of the club would go a long way to sorting out the money grabbers.

Can anyone stop the Cargin juggernaut?  Relentless stuff.  I actually cant see them losing a game this year in league or championship under this new management.  The real test though is will they be able to mount an Ulster challenge this time around.

Have you seen them this year? I've watched them a couple of times - I wouldn't describe them as a juggernaut - more like a mini with dirty petrol in the tank!

Watched them play St Teresa's on Sunday - one of the poorest games I've seen at any level for some time.  St Teresa's had the game for the taking - missed a penalty and then pressed the self-destruct button with 3 men sent of. 

The two strongest teams at u16 level in the county (St Pauls & St Brigids) for the past two years have 1 player between them on the starting 15? Seems strange