Antrim Football Thread

[paddyjohn]

Cargin to win another Championship in 2nd gear? Creggan knock on the door each year but we all know they will not beat the Toome men.
Aghagallon will beat PG1 in my humble opinion - the prize for them will be a county final hammering.

I just hope the Antrim county board sees sense for next year and it finds a better Championship system instead of a long slow group system. Teams started this competition in August. Only came to life this weekend.

Spot on. It's dragged on far to long for everybody.

It'll be Cargin again, All Saints & Rasharkin I think.

[asaffgael]

What date is final down for?

[Saffsof82]

14th November for senior final

[Saffsof82]

Any update on the Adam Loughrey injury? Cam on the last 7-8 minutes in the 1/4 final but was obviously not fit, will he start on Sunday? Big player for St Marys

[Christmas Lights]

Cargin to win another Championship in 2nd gear? Creggan knock on the door each year but we all know they will not beat the Toome men.
Aghagallon will beat PG1 in my humble opinion - the prize for them will be a county final hammering.

I just hope the Antrim county board sees sense for next year and it finds a better Championship system instead of a long slow group system. Teams started this competition in August. Only came to life this weekend.

Yep, the group stages have got to go.

[Dunsilly King]

Group stages are important as you play an entire league without your county players. Clubs like Creggan and Cargin who have 5/6 panel members need to be supported otherwise their county  players will prioritise their club at the expense of the county. Therefore the group stages allow county players to play for their club to prepare for knockout football, just need to condense the group and the gap from the group conclusion to quarter final closed.

[Saffsof82]

Agree Dunsilly, with a tighter time frame the group stages would work so much better.

[bannside]

Was there not a total of 17 players from Cargin and Creggan on last year's panel?

[rogercasement]

Make the league single round then championship 2 groups of 7, top 2 in each into semis, bottom 2 play off for intermediate relegation.

[Flanker]

Agree Dunsilly, with a tighter time frame the group stages would work so much better.

The tighter timeframe would be ideal

Where does that leave dual clubs though

If you take last weekends business end fixtures you had Dunloy, Creggan & StJohns who were at the latter stages of the hurling championship (apologies if I have forgotten anyone)

Hard to get a schedule that works for everyone

Throw U20 on top of it as well

[themac_23]

Group stages are important as you play an entire league without your county players. Clubs like Creggan and Cargin who have 5/6 panel members need to be supported otherwise their county  players will prioritise their club at the expense of the county. Therefore the group stages allow county players to play for their club to prepare for knockout football, just need to condense the group and the gap from the group conclusion to quarter final closed.

Tyrone won an All Ireland and were able to go with straight knock out and everyone seems to agree that their championship this year has been excellent, groups have to go they aren't good, so many dead rubbers. The split season next year should mean clubs aren't playing as many games without county players, even play the league everyone play eachother once, then do a split for promotion and relegation where county players must be available. as soon as the league is over straight into knockout championship. Clubs get a lead in to championship of 5/6 games with their full panel and no excuses for missing out on promotion or getting relegated due to not having county players.

[Sportacus]

I enjoyed the group stages and it shakes out the best teams for the quarter-final run in.  I'd rather have a prolonged championship than a prolonged league.  What is the player view?

[themac_23]

I enjoyed the group stages and it shakes out the best teams for the quarter-final run in.  I'd rather have a prolonged championship than a prolonged league.  What is the player view?

Equally you could say it gives big clubs a 2nd or 3rd bite at the cherry, I think players prefer straight knock out. Championship is supposed to be about a raised intensity, we had group games being played within 3 days of each other, how can players raise the intensity for them? the league by its definition is longer, we dont need group games to make a longer championship, we need straight knockout, or if we really must give teams a 2nd chance then go for a back door but the groups really have to go. Look at the IFC and JFC groups, they were a farce, in IFC you had a group of 6 where after 3 games 2/3 teams were already out yet they had to wait 2/3 weeks to finish their group games which meant nothing to them. You're telling me thats better than straight knock out? Or Creggan missing out on their last competitive game before knock out because the team they were playing had nothing to play for?

[GiveItToTheShooters]

Championship is championship. It should be straight open draw knockout, no back door and no seeding. 

[bannside]

It's as much about revenue as anything else. Straight knockout would give you about 11 senior games (in senior cship) in total. Current format gives us at least three times that. I think we need to take that into consideration as well. Many counties rely heavily on cship gate receipt revenue.