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They were very good in the league last year too bu dropped off come championship. Maskey, if he's not away, is probably helping. They must have a few at county too.

Yeah - you'd be hopeful we'd go through. I don't think the final appearance as a minimum is a reasonable expectation mind you. Knockout stages and see how we go from there. Same standard as any year tbh so it's a good test to see whether we've made much progress.

You wouldn't expect Dublin to take us for granted as we drew last year though and were on a par in the league.

Tough enough group. Wexford are not a bad side. You would still hope we go through. Tipp have fell away a lot so hopefully that continues...

Money aside, as its standard across the country. Spoke to Darren a few times and his passion is very real and commitment to the task (from what I see) is what you are looking for in a manager.

3 to 4 years is generally enough for both players and management, I've seen some good kids come through recently at club level to suggest that the future at senior hurling in Antrim could get better.

Dealing with the younger generation is tough though, was at a under 14 I think development games at the weekend and while we were on top over Derry, I still think we are miles away from other hurling strongholds

Basics need addressed I feel across the clubs, catching, striking left/right dipping the ball, speed of delivery, spatial awareness, these are the basics that the club should be on top of before coming into development squads.

Club is still king and some clubs don't (maybe understandably in cases across both codes) have faith in them and would rather develop their own kids to succeed with them.

What's the answer? We really do have a lack of togetherness that other counties have for whatever reason, I think in most counties County is king and club comes a very close second, but the carrot of getting to Croke with your club is easier here than with the county might be one reason

In the football and hurling we've invested a lot at senior level and tbh while we are not going to win all irelands I think both setups are considerably better and something that younger ones can hopefully aspire to. The hurling setup is considerably more professional than we have ever had before irrespective of the outcome of the upcoming games and the football would be the same. However the underage results aren't inspiring in either code - I kind of hope maybe there's a plan to start with senior but we will see.

I would doubt Shefflin would come anywhere near antrim. Gleeson has done a fantastic job in antrim. I hope we hold onto him for much longer.

No - major disappointment I would have thought though I think they were going backwards anyway but you would have thought he would have helped.

Yeah it's a tough game which I think Dublin should probably be favourites for ,particularly if they're at home, but I definitely think we're in with a good chance. They do tend to be a lot bigger than us but we're a much more physical team than we used to be.

I'm not convinced Shefflin is cutting it with Galway.

Cork are really up against it now and will have to beat Limerick or I would say they're out. Waterford need to beat Tipp or they're likely out too and same if Tipp don't beat Waterford. Tipp beating Waterford would help Cork a bi though.

Dublin a big game for both teams now. It's the kind of game we have got to before and got hammered. We're better prepped this time I think though.

The comparison would be Dublin not Derry...

Cork will need to beat limerick now which if limerick have qualified is I suppose a possibility.

McManus wasn't too happy with the Irish news article.

Dublin game massive. Drew with them last year and tbh were the better team in the league only for a very fortunate goal for Dublin. They'll be a different team now though and all to play for. If we could get something and then have a must win game against Carlow last that would be great. I don't think we'll get anywhere with score difference so to have any chance need to beat Dublin. We never beat them but then we never had beat Wexford either.

That is a fantastic result. The Dublin game will be very interesting now.

On another note how many goals did Joe McLaughlin score against ballygalget? I saw on cushendall twitter some updates and it just seemed to be Joe McLaughlin goal repeatedly.

Dare I say it but it's a bit like Dublin. Financial advantage, an obviously brilliant manager and a well run setup in terms of actually using money well as opposed to just throwing money needlessly at stuff.

Money on its own won't buy you success. It's definitely a big help mind you.

Kildare Louth a wee bit interesting but Offaly Dublin is just a question of how much Dublin win by. Any less than a dozen points in it would be a surprise.