Antrim Football Thread

[Saffron_sam20]

Agree with this NorthAntrim. I think the junior B in hurling has been very good and with the new teams etc in division 3 football it would give some of them a chance to win silverware which would be great for them.

3 divisions is probably not enough regardless of the size of division 1.

16 teams in div 1 is completely inflated.I genuinely cant believe it'll get voted through.
 I think looking at the idea of junior B is a good idea, does seem to work well in hurling in previous years where it fed into the Junior proper.

we currently have 35 clubs (including Ballycastle)

3 divisions of 10 and a division with the other 5 and also invite clubs who wish to put in a 3rd or reserve team in can do so. for example, im sure some div 1 clubs would prefer to play their reserves in div 4 rather than a div 1 reserve.

link the league to championships, league winner goes up along with championship winner, if that is the same team then 2nd bottom in the higher league plays 2nd in lower league to see who goes up/ down.

[AllStar15]

I think it would be better as follows

1A - Senior Championship
1B - Intermediate Championship
2A - Junior Championship
2B - Junior B Championship

Winners of leagues get promoted, winners of champs get promoted. Play everyone home and away in the league. Push the leagues to start later with the Championship being a straight knock out. Antrim leagues would be then more reflective of standards in Ulster. Each of those leagues in their own right would be highly competitive.

[Saffron_sam20]

I think it would be better as follows

1A - Senior Championship
1B - Intermediate Championship
2A - Junior Championship
2B - Junior B Championship

Winners of leagues get promoted, winners of champs get promoted. Play everyone home and away in the league. Push the leagues to start later with the Championship being a straight knock out. Antrim leagues would be then more reflective of standards in Ulster. Each of those leagues in their own right would be highly competitive.

But realistically we wouldnt be doing that, be uproar if we went from a 12? SFC to 8 (1a) and so on, with that restructure you'd be dropping 4 clubs to IFC then 8 or so from iFC to JFC, couldn't see clubs going for it

[Caesar]

I think it would be better as follows

1A - Senior Championship
1B - Intermediate Championship
2A - Junior Championship
2B - Junior B Championship

Winners of leagues get promoted, winners of champs get promoted. Play everyone home and away in the league. Push the leagues to start later with the Championship being a straight knock out. Antrim leagues would be then more reflective of standards in Ulster. Each of those leagues in their own right would be highly competitive.

But realistically we wouldnt be doing that, be uproar if we went from a 12? SFC to 8 (1a) and so on, with that restructure you'd be dropping 4 clubs to IFC then 8 or so from IFC to JFC, couldn't see clubs going for it

Agree it would be unlikely to get voted through but this approach makes a lot of sense to me. Smaller, competitive leagues is the way to improve overall standards, not adding more intermediate level teams into the top division.

[NorthAntrim]

I think it would be better as follows

1A - Senior Championship
1B - Intermediate Championship
2A - Junior Championship
2B - Junior B Championship

Winners of leagues get promoted, winners of champs get promoted. Play everyone home and away in the league. Push the leagues to start later with the Championship being a straight knock out. Antrim leagues would be then more reflective of standards in Ulster. Each of those leagues in their own right would be highly competitive.

This is best for me. Would raise standards in ulster. Would make everything more competative and may also revive some teams. Mitchels still play south antrim? They may come back into a junior B

[Milltown Row2]

I think it would be better as follows

1A - Senior Championship
1B - Intermediate Championship
2A - Junior Championship
2B - Junior B Championship

Winners of leagues get promoted, winners of champs get promoted. Play everyone home and away in the league. Push the leagues to start later with the Championship being a straight knock out. Antrim leagues would be then more reflective of standards in Ulster. Each of those leagues in their own right would be highly competitive.

This is best for me. Would raise standards in ulster. Would make everything more competative and may also revive some teams. Mitchels still play south antrim? They may come back into a junior B

Mitchells? Jesus most of their players would be older than me I'd say!

[imtommygunn]

i think they're finished are they not?

[NorthAntrim]

Ive no idea. Why i asked. Dont think clubs 3rds is a good idea in junior b

[Delgany 2nds]

i think they're finished are they not?

Mitchells play in SA Div2 football league, fielding a younger team than MR is, for sure, and winning games too!

[Ghost+Tommy]

As I stated,this has nothing to do with Ciaran MC,this is purely on Quinn and Brady we are at our level now which is div 2,moneyglass being weakened shouldn't be in div 1 either proving by results this year when they were full strength,so how can any man tell me aldergrove and all saints deserve to be in it,when both ourselves and mg struggled and both teams are stronger than aldergrove and as

[referee]

Totally agree G&T,earn your spot in the div ,both teams finished 2 & 3 in div 2 fs,look at what happened in the div 1 versus div 2 relegation/promotion game last year when Aghagallon had been on the tear most off that week and still won at a canter,that was the true barometer

[thegladiator]

As I stated,this has nothing to do with Ciaran MC,this is purely on Quinn and Brady we are at our level now which is div 2,moneyglass being weakened shouldn't be in div 1 either proving by results this year when they were full strength,so how can any man tell me aldergrove and all saints deserve to be in it,when both ourselves and mg struggled and both teams are stronger than aldergrove and as

100% agree about aldergrove and Ballymena not being strong enough to compete at D1 level. No complaints about glenravel going up, they earned their shot and I wish them all the best, they were the best team in D2 by some distance. The whole league  restructuring just stinks of  personal agendas and back room deals. Is there another county in Ireland of any notable size that has nearly half their teams graded senior? It could be coincidence that the current chairman's club stands to benefit, but having been at the receiving end of some very very very curious decisions from county administration this season, I wouldn't be so sure. Does the restructuring get them out of a hole re Dunloy going to D3? Yes- half their team was gone county hurling and rightly could use that along with their championship run to argue that they are too strong for d3 and could have been challenging at the top end of D2 if they had all their players available. This isn't being done to advance football in antrim, its to soothe the ego of a few inviduals and their clubs. Increasing competition in league and championship
should lead to better players, these proposals will kill the leagues and ensure that 1 or 2wins in a convoluted  championship constitutes a successful  season. Sorry for the rant!

[thegladiator]

The proposals are to help the county and clubs that could struggle without those players. Aldergrove and All Saints getting promoted is a by product of that. Same way it would save Dunloy playing Mitchell's and Eire Og. Having no relegation is the ludicrous thing about it. Only way out of it is to reduce the number of games - 14 max in league and spread out over an extra 4-6 weeks with a condensed championship is the solution to our problems imo

14 league games seems about right for a league but it was how this has been arrived at which doesn't sit right. If these  proposals  were voted in and everyone  knew what the plan was before leagues started this year- then it might be  palatable, but the fact this appears to  be being driven for different motives isn't right. I  think that there  needs to be joined up thinking between the hurling and football fixtures to allow for county involvement. We played football up until the split this year without 3 county hurlers, did they make a difference  when they came back to us- yes! Would our league position  have been different  if we had them for the first load of games-definitely.  Dunloy were the same and no doubt other dual clubs were the same. There seems to be a need to just tick a box and get the leagues run off. D2 was done by 28th June this year. That means if you didn't  make it out of your group, you had 2 or 3 championship games in July and August and wont play again until march. How does that drive standards? We played 4 league games in 10 days in June, that's a 1/4 of our league campaign. Never mind throwing a hurling match in the mix too (although we couldn't field in the hurling due to the football being less than 24 hrs before and a players stag do taking place away). Mental.
A condensed championship (straight
knock out) and running the leagues still parallel to championship
ie  still play league games once you are out of championship, against other knocked out teams of the same division, on football championship weekends, say on a Friday night, which gives the championship  games Saturday and Sunday to get played and take "precedence" and likewise  in the hurling. Just a (rather long) thought!

[Ghost+Tommy]

What must the rest off the teams think in div 2 re GNM,Davitts,Glenavy, Sarsfields,surely these teams would have gripe about this

[thegladiator]

What must the rest off the teams think in div 2 re GNM,Davitts,Glenavy, Sarsfields,surely these teams would have gripe about this

I would have thought they are happy enough because it gives them a better league standing and chance of championship success. With a proper intermediate championship from previous years I don't see any of those teams winning it but they now will be thinking they have a great chance to win Intermediate and to break into the top table (a mighty big table) but I can see how those teams would buy into it. If you were to ask them if they wanted Div 1/Senior championship next year I don't think any of those clubs would take you up on it.

TBH the intermediate  league & championship  in both hurling and football  have been the most competitive over the last few years, so why fix something  that was not broken? It's the senior grades that weren't really competitive outside of a top 3 or 4 teams. So in order to boost that, they bring in weaker teams? Doesn't  make sense. I still stand by the belief that its to keep st endas  in D1 and not for the benefit  of football in the county, no matter  how they dress it up.