Antrim Football Thread

[asaffgael]

BS any word on team news for the weekend? Should we expect any surprises?

[bannside]

No word yet Asaffgael. The four returnees are all pressing hard for game time and thats increased the competition for starting places as well as places in the 24. Great position for Lenny to be in, no complacency, and everyone bursting a gut at training to impress. I cant remember a time when we had such a high percentage of our better players available. With the obvious exception of Matt Fitz and the peerless Mr Niblock.

[bannside]

See the county minor football panel on Antrim Twitter feed. 31 players...of which only 5 are from the city clubs. This is a very rare statistic, anyone know the reasoning behind it?

[Milltown Row2]

See the county minor football panel on Antrim Twitter feed. 31 players...of which only 5 are from the city clubs. This is a cery rare statistic, anyone know the reasoning behind it?

Same could be said about the lack of Loughgiel and Ballycastle players that made themselves available for minor hurling, considering they were both finalists!

Kids are strange

[restorepride]

How many would have been at Casement on the big games?

20, 000+???

The largest I remember was the 1992 Ulster football semi-final, Down (reigning All Ireland champions) and Doire.  I think that there was 34,000 at that match.  As I state that, I'm nearly questioning myself!  But definitely over 30,00.  Doire won but lost to Dún na nGall in the final.

[Milltown Row2]

I've seen plenty full or near full houses at Casement, unfortunately not many had Antrim playing there.

I remember a McKenna cup final that was rammed too

[JimStynes]

I remember we played McDermotts in an intermediate final and it was a full stadium. Must have been 40k at it.

[imtommygunn]

I've seen plenty full or near full houses at Casement, unfortunately not many had Antrim playing there.

I remember a McKenna cup final that was rammed too

Ulster hurling finals early 90s had a right few at them though maybe just seating packed. Antrim Horne a couple of times in noughties and Antrim down one Saturday night had a load at it too.

[jeremiah]

How many would have been at Casement on the big games?

20, 000+???

The largest I remember was the 1992 Ulster football semi-final, Down (reigning All Ireland champions) and Doire.  I think that there was 34,000 at that match.  As I state that, I'm nearly questioning myself!  But definitely over 30,00.  Doire won but lost to Dún na nGall in the final.

https://youtu.be/Grr0nPdeWtE

It was definitely the largest crowd I remember

[Milltown Row2]

That be up there

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

See the county minor football panel on Antrim Twitter feed. 31 players...of which only 5 are from the city clubs. This is a cery rare statistic, anyone know the reasoning behind it?

Same could be said about the lack of Loughgiel and Ballycastle players that made themselves available for minor hurling, considering they were both finalists!

Kids are strange

Be something to do with how that final ended. Ended up a trade with some cowardly strokes by some lads with the stick at the final whistle. No love between the two groups.

[Milltown Row2]

See the county minor football panel on Antrim Twitter feed. 31 players...of which only 5 are from the city clubs. This is a cery rare statistic, anyone know the reasoning behind it?

Same could be said about the lack of Loughgiel and Ballycastle players that made themselves available for minor hurling, considering they were both finalists!

Kids are strange

Be something to do with how that final ended. Ended up a trade with some cowardly strokes by some lads with the stick at the final whistle. No love between the two groups.

That may be the case, as I said, kids are strange. Playing for your county should be top of your list.. In Antrim (I'm sure there are other counties in same place) we view the club more important, is that because we win more as a club than a county?

[bannside]

Well why then is it more of  a priority for SW minors than SA minors to play for their county. Not many are winning stuff with their clubs (except Cargin who are very well represented on the panel). Are there lots of talented minors in SA who dont care, or were they at trials and not get picked? No matter what way you look at it, 5/31 is not a normal statistic for this age group.

[imtommygunn]

These are not normal times we live in either though.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

to be honest playing football for Antrim isnt very high on most our young lads agendas. There's not been much if any representation from our club at County level in football over the last 30 years and interest in the County football team would be very very low in our parts.

I suppose with hurling being more popular football will always be second best to many in the club but there has been a lot of talented underage players come through the ranks. There was some ill feeling after how the minors were overlooked a few years ago but id still hope that we would get more lads into development squads but i dont think any of them have (maybe im wrong here??).

The underage numbers are there - we can field 2 U12 and U14 hurling teams - so theres plenty of young lads playing.