Antrim Football Thread

[paddyjohn]

Pains me to say in-laws are  Tyrone... From a Junior Club who can't get out of Div 3, bottom of the Tyrone barrell

I've seen them play a load and they would be top half Div 1 in Antrim.
Full of Hogan Cup winners, pace and doggedness, boys with maybe limited sporting ability who are just hardy and brute ignorant and  wouldn't let a man go past them. We let men waltz up the middle  (look at Armagh senior game) and score in a way they never would accept

We might get the odd 'I'll knack yer ballix in" slabber hit a Judas,  cowardly dig from behind your back in an Antrim league game but about as hard as fcuk-all in comparison to the boys above, not worth a f**k

They have a depth in that County we could only dream of matching

The sport is the County's Culture, its who they are and their teams are how they pride themselves. We just don't have that.

Like nearly every non GAA playing girl in their county would nearly know who they are playing that weekend and not have a bad word said about their county......that level of passion filters down to each child and they all want to play for their county.

She's 2 cousins who started and won underage all irelands in last year who can't make full Tyrone Senior squad.....they would both start for and massively improve Antrim Seniors.

The levels are just night and day

Interviewing Henry Sheeflin and  fawning over and clapping his achievements won't change that, it might get us some money, which all Counties need to keep operating

Realistically Leitrim won't win an All Ireland in 10 or 20 years and neither will Carlow and neither will we. We can keep trying but our ceiling will never be that high. Unless schools all start competing in McCrory etc that won't change. Clubs too, demanding more of players,  coaches who know the sport and coach with a higher level in mind

Other Counties like Tyrone, now with Ballygawley, Donaghmore  and Carrickmore in McCrory are massively widening the gap

Nail on head.

[Walter Cronc]

Would you not be better going down the route of Belfast Colleges in McRory?

Understand that some of the schools will include Down players - Bredagh/Carryduff/Ards but think it would be worth it as a start.

Derry City schools are worse again. Promoting that soccer crap constantly. St Columbs Derry in particular have gone to the dogs.

[marty34]

Would you not be better going down the route of Belfast Colleges in McRory?

Understand that some of the schools will include Down players - Bredagh/Carryduff/Ards but think it would be worth it as a start.

Derry City schools are worse again. Promoting that soccer crap constantly. St Columbs Derry in particular have gone to the dogs.

Before the schools comes the clubs.  That's the problem.  That's the start of the production line.

Too late when they go to secondary if the work hasn't been put in. Competition in local clubs drives things on.

Look at Derry senior, U20 and minor teams currently. I'd say 95% of the first 15, maybe more are from south Derry. It's the clubs that are driving things on.

Tyrone have that whereas Antrim don't. That's the reality.

[bannside]

Disagree WC. Winning a McRory cup is not THE prize, even if that was achievable!  I'd rather our four or five big schools made a proper concentrated effort at winning McLarnon, at least we would have 150 players being prepared each year, than 20 Antrim and 20 Down.

We need these schools to properly aspire to putting in the work from year 8 and upwards and be competing in all their year group comps. And to give them a chance Clubs need to step up and send in better quality, and county dev squads need to take the lads under them to a higher level, at least individually (S&C etc).

Irs a long hard road and there's no short cuts.

[marty34]

Disagree WC. Winning a McRory cup is not THE prize, even if that was achievable!  I'd rather our four or five big schools made a proper concentrated effort at winning McLarnon, at least we would have 150 players being prepared each year, than 20 Antrim and 20 Down.

We need these schools to properly aspire to putting in the work from year 8 and upwards and be competing in all their year group comps. And to give them a chance Clubs need to step up and send in better quality, and county dev squads need to take the lads under them to a higher level, at least individually (S&C etc).

Irs a long hard road and there's no short cuts.

The key question is - is there a 10 year plan to achieve this?

Just seems to me that Antrim just roll from one year to the next doing the same thing...definition of insanity and all that!

Is there a plan?

[Walter Cronc]

Knock (from the outside) seems to be the best GAA school in Belfast. Poor reflection on West Belfast. St Mary's and La Salle seem to have disappeared - in both codes!

[country bumpkin]

Would you not be better going down the route of Belfast Colleges in McRory?

Understand that some of the schools will include Down players - Bredagh/Carryduff/Ards but think it would be worth it as a start.

Derry City schools are worse again. Promoting that soccer crap constantly. St Columbs Derry in particular have gone to the dogs.

Before the schools comes the clubs.  That's the problem.  That's the start of the production line.

Too late when they go to secondary if the work hasn't been put in. Competition in local clubs drives things on.

Look at Derry senior, U20 and minor teams currently. I'd say 95% of the first 15, maybe more are from south Derry. It's the clubs that are driving things on.

Tyrone have that whereas Antrim don't. That's the reality.

Gotta agree with that....
Chatted to Adrian Nc Guckin on the same subject years since and he told me clubs provide the raw product to St Pats Maghera and the college provides the finished product for Mc Crory success...

Said before therein lies the key to Cargin's success....relatively small catchment area, but almost 100% attendance to South Derry schools....

[GiveItToTheShooters]

Pains me to say in-laws are  Tyrone... From a Junior Club who can't get out of Div 3, bottom of the Tyrone barrell

I've seen them play a load and they would be top half Div 1 in Antrim.
Full of Hogan Cup winners, pace and doggedness, boys with maybe limited sporting ability who are just hardy and brute ignorant and  wouldn't let a man go past them. We let men waltz up the middle  (look at Armagh senior game) and score in a way they never would accept

We might get the odd 'I'll knack yer ballix in" slabber hit a Judas,  cowardly dig from behind your back in an Antrim league game but about as hard as fcuk-all in comparison to the boys above, not worth a f**k

They have a depth in that County we could only dream of matching

The sport is the County's Culture, its who they are and their teams are how they pride themselves. We just don't have that.

Like nearly every non GAA playing girl in their county would nearly know who they are playing that weekend and not have a bad word said about their county......that level of passion filters down to each child and they all want to play for their county.

She's 2 cousins who started and won underage all irelands in last year who can't make full Tyrone Senior squad.....they would both start for and massively improve Antrim Seniors.

The levels are just night and day

Interviewing Henry Sheeflin and  fawning over and clapping his achievements won't change that, it might get us some money, which all Counties need to keep operating

Realistically Leitrim won't win an All Ireland in 10 or 20 years and neither will Carlow and neither will we. We can keep trying but our ceiling will never be that high. Unless schools all start competing in McCrory etc that won't change. Clubs too, demanding more of players,  coaches who know the sport and coach with a higher level in mind

Other Counties like Tyrone, now with Ballygawley, Donaghmore  and Carrickmore in McCrory are massively widening the gap

No they wouldn't

[Take_her_back_ref]

Pains me to say in-laws are  Tyrone... From a Junior Club who can't get out of Div 3, bottom of the Tyrone barrell

I've seen them play a load and they would be top half Div 1 in Antrim.
Full of Hogan Cup winners, pace and doggedness, boys with maybe limited sporting ability who are just hardy and brute ignorant and  wouldn't let a man go past them. We let men waltz up the middle  (look at Armagh senior game) and score in a way they never would accept

We might get the odd 'I'll knack yer ballix in" slabber hit a Judas,  cowardly dig from behind your back in an Antrim league game but about as hard as fcuk-all in comparison to the boys above, not worth a f**k

They have a depth in that County we could only dream of matching

The sport is the County's Culture, its who they are and their teams are how they pride themselves. We just don't have that.

Like nearly every non GAA playing girl in their county would nearly know who they are playing that weekend and not have a bad word said about their county......that level of passion filters down to each child and they all want to play for their county.

She's 2 cousins who started and won underage all irelands in last year who can't make full Tyrone Senior squad.....they would both start for and massively improve Antrim Seniors.

The levels are just night and day

Interviewing Henry Sheeflin and  fawning over and clapping his achievements won't change that, it might get us some money, which all Counties need to keep operating

Realistically Leitrim won't win an All Ireland in 10 or 20 years and neither will Carlow and neither will we. We can keep trying but our ceiling will never be that high. Unless schools all start competing in McCrory etc that won't change. Clubs too, demanding more of players,  coaches who know the sport and coach with a higher level in mind

Other Counties like Tyrone, now with Ballygawley, Donaghmore  and Carrickmore in McCrory are massively widening the gap

No they wouldn't

Spot on. If you can't get out of D3 in Tyrone then there's no way you'd be sit comfortably mid D1 in Antrim.

The quality is better across all 3 divisions in Tyrone but not a lot. The main difference is the gap between the top teams and lower teams is much smaller leading to many more competitive games and a bigger battle to get out of that league.

[Milltown Row2]

Tyrone teams couldn't buy a win in Ulster club ffs!! They are shite 

[Saffrongael]

Well done Tony, Lawrence and to all involved. Great to see the level of organisation behind this, probably 8 or 9 of a management team with nothing left to chance and shout out to Paddy Kelly who's doing superb work behind the scenes.

You cant underestimate the influence of Saffron Vision in all this and one of their main successes being the establishment of Saffron Business Forum which is a big driver in ensuring the funds are in place to enable our squads are properly prepared.

We are still a long way of winning silverware, but a lot of essential boxes are starting to be ticked!

This is what the PR arm of the Antrim board told us after the Armagh minor draw 🥹

A bit hasty

[bannside]

Shocking result SG, shows us how far the road ahead is that we need to travel!

[Milltown Row2]

I think we'd be top division moaners

[imtommygunn]

Leitrim , Wexford and Fermanagh.

This will be a good test for us. If we've gone to the dogs we will beat no-one there however it's a group that if we get firing we could push to win. Jury very much out yet but here's hoping...

[country bumpkin]

Lots of football action this week-end....senior and reserve games with under-17 as well as u-19 games....