Antrim Football Thread

[Milltown Row2]

Well it was Mitchels that played on it, was a div 2 senior hurling game, we were short on a team and I can remember that both managers played, they were both in their 60's 

Not sure where they played previously to that, I'd assume the falls park

60 Yr old players.
That's worse than St Paul's DADS ARMY from last week reserve game.  I'd be afraid of a herat attack
[/quote]

Was gilly for Mitchels and Pat Sheehan from our club, was in his tan suit too, told him to stay in the corner and be the 15th man, didn't stop him doubling on balls as they made their way into the box!

[marty34]

HS would know better. i think they are twinbrook? Not aware of underage structures but don't know the belfast underage scene that well.

Poleglass, no real tradition in that relatively young 'Belfast' outskirts...

Haven't ref'd Mitchels in years and can't remember the last juvenile game either, been a while..

Always said there are too many clubs in Belfast, but I get tradition and members and families wanting to keep it going..

How many clubs are there in Belfast?

Lagmore gaels
Mitchels
St Pauls
Sarsfields
Rossa
Lamh Dhearg
St Teresas
Gort Na Mona
St Johns
O 'Ds
St Galls
Davits
Laochra Loch lao
St Endas
Pearses
Ardoyne
East Belfast
Eire og
St Aggies
St Brides

Anyone else?

St Endas are SW... 

Is that too many clubs do you reckon or over saturated in certain areas?

You'd imagine Bredagh, East Belfast, Carryduff and St. Brigid's will/can stand steong going forward?

But you'd think in Ireland's second city that all them clubs could field teams at underage and senior etc?

Is there a Trinity Gaels at underage or is that somewhere else?

[Milltown Row2]

The most saturated is west Belfast where you have about 14 clubs. I think west Belfast has somewhere in the region of 90,000 people. I'm sure someone looking from the outside in would be dividing those figures and thinking "Fcuk, we'd love to be working with that" but alas it's never that easy.

Can only go with the numbers that are turning up... clubs actually do have bigger numbers that my day, a lot of that is down to ladies football!

We are donkeys years behind Dublin in harnessing those numbers, Galefast is here to hopefully rectify that

[marty34]

The most saturated is west Belfast where you have about 14 clubs. I think west Belfast has somewhere in the region of 90,000 people. I'm sure someone looking from the outside in would be dividing those figures and thinking "Fcuk, we'd love to be working with that" but alas it's never that easy.

Can only go with the numbers that are turning up... clubs actually do have bigger numbers that my day, a lot of that is down to ladies football!

We are donkeys years behind Dublin in harnessing those numbers, Galefast is here to hopefully rectify that

True, times are changing.

You'd think underage would be strong enough and at senior then there would be issues re: numbers.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

East Belfast are the current fad for people to attend. After a few years of getting tanked and playing at D4 level you will find people drift off - they always do. Also the large numbers look nice on paper but in reality when you have 40 players and only 15/20 will play it also tests peoples 'commitment' when they arent getting on the pitch.

the feel good factor is all fair and well but the need to be making progress at underage level very quickly and get that in play. without it they wont survive.

I really hope it works out for them and they flourish but i was involved in helping Ballymoney set up the first GAA team with their footballers for a season and its really really hard to sustain it, no matter how many good luck messages you get.

[Milltown Row2]

Was such a big thing seeing, and actually playing against that Ballymoney team, think it was played at the school, small enough pitch with barely 15 in attendance.

As you say maintaining this needs to be done from the bottom up and interaction from the schools in at area... otherwise you can't feed into it and eventually it falls apart..

Like you I genuinely wish them well and I hope they have looked at the structures required to achieve a lasting membership and budding future

[imtommygunn]

I haven't heard much about underage setups etc from them. Interesting about Ballymoney - I'd forgot about them. You would imagine though that there would be significantly more numbers than Ballymoney might have.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

yeah they did play there. i played the first season despite only wanting to help them on the coaching side of things. eventually i got dragged out of retirement to play a few games. even played in their first ever win! lol

but it was never getting any support in the local community from nationalists in the town with the fear of reprisals from loyalists in the town. Ballymoney is not a diverse town and its still stuck in the 1970's where the only thing they have is band parades.

I think East Belfast have put the right messages out there online and are saying the right things for them to survive but they need underage structures in play from next season to be able to sustain themselves over the years.

Really hope they do

[imtommygunn]

I sometimes click into the twitter replies on their tweets and there are still a good few neanderthals out there. The old they name their grounds after terrorists will always be used There are "notorious" people on social media who stir things up.

The East Belfast one is interesting with demographics. East Belfast would have a lot of adults have moved in from the country in antrim, tyrone etc etc and that would seem to be their player base just yet. You would hope they could link up with schools for underage. It could end up just being the children of those people and it's a club that just reflects changing demographics as opposed to a club which attracts a lot of cross community but I would hope they get some buy in from cross community too and between the two can maybe move up divisions.

[johnnycool]

I sometimes click into the twitter replies on their tweets and there are still a good few neanderthals out there. The old they name their grounds after terrorists will always be used There are "notorious" people on social media who stir things up.

The East Belfast one is interesting with demographics. East Belfast would have a lot of adults have moved in from the country in antrim, tyrone etc etc and that would seem to be their player base just yet. You would hope they could link up with schools for underage. It could end up just being the children of those people and it's a club that just reflects changing demographics as opposed to a club which attracts a lot of cross community but I would hope they get some buy in from cross community too and between the two can maybe move up divisions.

That would depend on these people settling there for life. I would imagine a lot of boys from out the country would live in east Belfast in their 20s but look to move home or elsewhere after that.

They could do worse than follow the Bredagh model who hurling wise had mostly relied on people moving into the area to live to play on their adult teams until they put down underage structures and no doubt early days were still reliant on the same families but that has grown now and they're thriving and should be looking upwards with lads who started in their underage ranks making their way onto their senior teams.

[imtommygunn]

Yeah JC that's what I could see that happening unless there gets too much unrest for them to continue but I'd be hopeful it won't come to that.

[paddyjohn]

Was such a big thing seeing, and actually playing against that Ballymoney team, think it was played at the school, small enough pitch with barely 15 in attendance.

As you say maintaining this needs to be done from the bottom up and interaction from the schools in at area... otherwise you can't feed into it and eventually it falls apart..

Like you I genuinely wish them well and I hope they have looked at the structures required to achieve a lasting membership and budding future

Mind playing against them also.

[Belfast GAA man]

I hear county chair wrotE a threatening email to the s ClubS to close their social clubs even though tHey are breaking no rules.
He'd be better writing to his own club to stop paying managers which against Gaa rules

[Calm Down]

Incoherent email at 12:05am, were you in the Social Club when you heard this perhaps?? Hicccupppp

[imtommygunn]

Is it not posted in another thread? Doesn't look overly threatening.