Antrim Football Thread

[Milltown Row2]

Full steam ahead I take it for county players to be with their clubs? Will the Tommy Murphy tailteann cup mean the county lads will have to miss out on the club?

[bannside]

That's Endas call CB. Stick or run -  I heard a rumour that Stevie was probably moving on a few weeks ago. Maybe they think they can't take us any further. There's a saying in football you're only as good as your last game, and our last three have been stinkers.

Some of you here are more than happy with the job they've done to date..that's completely your call.

Re fundamentals. Please don't get me started. I can think of half a dozen aspects that do not please. Take fitness as one.

I've never seen a team capitulate do much in second halves. Remember being 11 up against Leitrim with 25 mins to go, and we sneaked a last gasp victory courtesy of Tomas point.

Armagh in the cship, draw at HT, lost by 13.
5 up against Westmeath three weeks ago, lost by 4.
Lost second half yesterday by 12 points.

These are staggering capitulations - lack of game management nous or inferior fitness, decide for yourself!

Naw, I'm not convinced. Sorry.

[marty34]

That's Endas call CB. Stick or run -  I heard a rumour that Stevie was probably moving on a few weeks ago. Maybe they think they can't take us any further. There's a saying in football you're only as good as your last game, and our last three have been stinkers.

Some of you here are more than happy with the job they've done to date..that's completely your call.

Re fundamentals. Please don't get me started. I can think of half a dozen aspects that do not please. Take fitness as one.

I've never seen a team capitulate do much in second halves. Remember being 11 up against Leitrim with 25 mins to go, and we sneaked a last gasp victory courtesy of Tomas point.

Armagh in the cship, draw at HT, lost by 13.
5 up against Westmeath three weeks ago, lost by 4.
Lost second half yesterday by 12 points.

These are staggering capitulations - lack of game management nous or inferior fitness, decide for yourself!

Naw, I'm not convinced. Sorry.

Regarding fundamentals.

I just thought of Donegal's goal today - the slick quality handpass which had to be precise to Mc Breaty today.

Compare that with Antrim's goal chance in the first half yesterday and it was overcooked to Mc Cann iirc with no real pressure on the handpasser. A relatively straightforward goal chance messed up.

That's the simple difference at the higher level.

[country bumpkin]

That's Endas call CB. Stick or run -  I heard a rumour that Stevie was probably moving on a few weeks ago. Maybe they think they can't take us any further. There's a saying in football you're only as good as your last game, and our last three have been stinkers.

Some of you here are more than happy with the job they've done to date..that's completely your call.

Re fundamentals. Please don't get me started. I can think of half a dozen aspects that do not please. Take fitness as one.

I've never seen a team capitulate do much in second halves. Remember being 11 up against Leitrim with 25 mins to go, and we sneaked a last gasp victory courtesy of Tomas point.

Armagh in the cship, draw at HT, lost by 13.
5 up against Westmeath three weeks ago, lost by 4.
Lost second half yesterday by 12 points.

These are staggering capitulations - lack of game management nous or inferior fitness, decide for yourself!

Naw, I'm not convinced. Sorry.

As I said BS....the man in question and his team will not give a flying fcuk what yourself or myself think of him, either positive or negative.

I am more than aware of our limitations and until the 'big guns' in our county start firing again I am afraid even the Tailteen or Tommy Murphy is a step too far..

The talent is just not there I am afraid and for the life of me I could not name one single player who has been overlooked...
 

[Lár na páirce 1]

Have to say Dermot McAleese is a fantastic footballer, wasn't at his best yesterday but he's an 8/10 normally and a likeable fella, looking forward to a good game Tuesday evening what should draw a good crowd to Kelly Park considering its only game of the evening, May well be JMK first real test

[City Dweller]

A lot of overreaction (shock horror). I for one can see it for what it was, a very bad day at the office. Some players froze, some spectacularly underperformed, and some played out of position which was alien to them, and 1 or 2 maybe just weren't (or sadly aren't) up to it. It was a cocktail of disappointment on the biggest day of the year for us unfortunately. However, are you seriously now saying we are in such a bad place after a couple of poor league performances against decent division 3 sides and a defeat to a resurgent Cavan side (who were Ulster champions no time ago)? Get your heads out of your ass! I for one was against the managements appointment at the time, but you can't ignore, despite the lack of merit or any form of qualifying CV's, that these lads have restored pride in wanting to play for Antrim. They've created an environment where as much is expected of players in terms of commitment and application as would be in Tyrone or Donegal etc. They've taken us from ambling around in division 4 to competing for division 2 status. Those of you now predictably turning on management as usual, what is your alternative for the county now? Let's hear it. A good bit of cop on required lads. I know we're all hurting, and questions rightly need asking, but cut the 'all is lost' bull s"@& narrative please.

Totally agree with every word NSS....
A bad day at the office was an adequate summary of events yesterday.
We started badly with several unforced errors from lads who had been leading the way all season led the narrative.

Mc Ginley and co have led us to a better place in my opinion and unfortunately there are those within, for whatever reason are more than quick to put the boot in...

A resurgent Cavan ran over us, and we must learn the lesson given.

Some former leaders of the pack in our county need to have a honest look within.

In former days we looked to clubs like, St John's, St Gall's, Rossa, to lead the way.....where are they now.
Belfast sides have obviously neglected their duties of care to their youth policies....
Watched Cargin under-15s totally demolish a Davitts side on their own patch on Thursday evening, and such underlines the demise of our games in one of the largest cities in Ireland.

Who within us would have believed if Nostrodamus had predicted six out of the last senior football championships heading to the South West in the past seven years?

I think a few within need to grab hold of their proverbial heads and acknowledge the stark realities.

Nobody cares more or hurts more today than Enda Mc Ginley, Stephen O' Neill, Sean Kelly and all those lads who have given a huge amount to raise our profile..


Some need to get a grip, look around and emerge blinking into the real world.

Cargin U15s are playing in Div 2, there are 5 Belfast clubs playing in Div 1

[paddyjohn]

A lot of overreaction (shock horror). I for one can see it for what it was, a very bad day at the office. Some players froze, some spectacularly underperformed, and some played out of position which was alien to them, and 1 or 2 maybe just weren't (or sadly aren't) up to it. It was a cocktail of disappointment on the biggest day of the year for us unfortunately. However, are you seriously now saying we are in such a bad place after a couple of poor league performances against decent division 3 sides and a defeat to a resurgent Cavan side (who were Ulster champions no time ago)? Get your heads out of your ass! I for one was against the managements appointment at the time, but you can't ignore, despite the lack of merit or any form of qualifying CV's, that these lads have restored pride in wanting to play for Antrim. They've created an environment where as much is expected of players in terms of commitment and application as would be in Tyrone or Donegal etc. They've taken us from ambling around in division 4 to competing for division 2 status. Those of you now predictably turning on management as usual, what is your alternative for the county now? Let's hear it. A good bit of cop on required lads. I know we're all hurting, and questions rightly need asking, but cut the 'all is lost' bull s"@& narrative please.

Totally agree with every word NSS....
A bad day at the office was an adequate summary of events yesterday.
We started badly with several unforced errors from lads who had been leading the way all season led the narrative.

Mc Ginley and co have led us to a better place in my opinion and unfortunately there are those within, for whatever reason are more than quick to put the boot in...

A resurgent Cavan ran over us, and we must learn the lesson given.

Some former leaders of the pack in our county need to have a honest look within.

In former days we looked to clubs like, St John's, St Gall's, Rossa, to lead the way.....where are they now.
Belfast sides have obviously neglected their duties of care to their youth policies....
Watched Cargin under-15s totally demolish a Davitts side on their own patch on Thursday evening, and such underlines the demise of our games in one of the largest cities in Ireland.

Who within us would have believed if Nostrodamus had predicted six out of the last senior football championships heading to the South West in the past seven years?

I think a few within need to grab hold of their proverbial heads and acknowledge the stark realities.

Nobody cares more or hurts more today than Enda Mc Ginley, Stephen O' Neill, Sean Kelly and all those lads who have given a huge amount to raise our profile..


Some need to get a grip, look around and emerge blinking into the real world.

Cargin U15s are playing in Div 2, there are 5 Belfast clubs playing in Div 1

What 5?

[City Dweller]

St Pauls, St Brigids, St Galls, St Endas, Sarsfields

[Milltown Row2]

St Pauls, St Brigids, St Galls, St Endas, Sarsfields

Ah but...

[paddyjohn]

St Pauls, St Brigids, St Galls, St Endas, Sarsfields

St Endas SW team. Have been for years due to failings in South Antrim. 😉

[Milltown Row2]

St Pauls, St Brigids, St Galls, St Endas, Sarsfields

St Endas SW team. Have been for years due to failings in South Antrim. 😉

The rise of SW has brought this current Antrim team on to new levels

[City Dweller]

St Pauls, St Brigids, St Galls, St Endas, Sarsfields

St Endas SW team. Have been for years due to failings in South Antrim. 😉

That's a bit disrespectable to the SA volunteers, and wrong. NE play Go Games, and at U13 Level in SA

[country bumpkin]

St Pauls, St Brigids, St Galls, St Endas, Sarsfields

St Endas SW team. Have been for years due to failings in South Antrim. 😉

That's a bit disrespectable to the SA volunteers, and wrong. NE play Go Games, and at U13 Level in SA

Indeed it may well be a tad disrespectful, but may I remind you the last three minor titles came to the South West and having had a close look at one of the top Belfast base club in Division One of the minor league yesterday the immediate future is not likely to be Blue..

Can I remind you CD that Belfast is a huge city of over 600k souls within, whilst most South West parishes only approach 1k....and having ruled to roost in football terms for almost a century the wheels do seem to have come off the proverbial wagon in recent times...

[bannside]

We need both regions strong and all club's to step up the quality of their juvenile programmes. Even though SW clubs are clearly in the ascendancy, I would be of the opinion that nothing in Antrim atm would live with the great St Galls of over a decade ago, or the generation before that when St Paul's were the force. Before that an almost unbeatable St Johns. Lamhs would come and go too, and from SW only Cargin delivered a consistent, and quality challenge.

Instead of seeing things purely from an own club view, wouldn't it be great if all club's raised their game by 50%, and this county could have players that are talked about throughout Ireland, for the right reasons.

[Milltown Row2]

Jesus, this is getting tedious.. We are better than you, nope, we are better than you !!

I certainly hope after all these years that Antrim will improve, but I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. St Teresa's pulled out of div 4 hurling, that's no senior hurling in their club this year, I've said it many times, we have too many clubs, and too many dual clubs, the sooner they fix that the better..

Its handy being a single code club, all efforts are put into one basket, you have mad examples of the likes of S'neil and others that buck that trend, it won't last long as that set of players will drop off and the cycle continues. The reality in Belfast is the numbers that people throw up is completely wrong, you don't have 600k looking to play GAA and any fool that throws those numbers up is daft.

When you live in a small town/village and the only sport in town is football or hurling then you have a captivated pool of players, you live in a city where the schools encourage multiple sports then you look at those numbers and they start tumbling.

Reduce the clubs at senior level, have more focused one code clubs and players will, unfortunately need to decide which sport they want to excel at and which sport will be recreational.

Teams and the players will only improve that will feed better into the senior county set up, we ain't Dublin or even Cork or Limerick.

Was watching some of the games yesterday and the thing that struck me was obviously the numbers at the games, Mayo game looked like Croke park in terms of the people at it, but the passion showed by the kids when the cameras were focusing in on them during play or after scores. Corrigan not so much. I don't know how you get that passion back into the kids or even get it going, but that's what Antrim need at its basic level