Antrim Hurling

[imtommygunn]

I would agree with most of what you say. We will find it tough and Laois the big game for us. We have definitely upped it physically but kk, Wexford and even Dublin probably a step up in that regard and we might struggle in the physical stakes. Being competitive the key thing here.

It was a good win for Kerry. You looked to be getting it tight for a while.

(Donal og watched one game is the main bugbear. We had played some great stuff last year but didn't in the final. He formed his opinion on the one game which was the one we didn't play well in. Also again after a great win yesterday  he just seemed to want to piss on our parade)

Donal O'g gets paid to give an opinion and IMO in the McDonagh final he hadn't done one puff of research and trotted out a lazy narrative in trying not to trot out another lazy narrative in "yer doing a great job up there"....

Another thing that grates on me is that it's purely Darren Gleeson that has those players well coached. Now Gleeson is probably a good coach indeed but if he hadn't got the players at his disposal capable of playing that style then it wouldn't matter how good his gameplan is.
Eoghan Campbell, Molloy, McKenna probably never had any involvement with Gleeson until he took over. It was the clubs and previous development coaches all probably to a man from Antrim that developed them, which in fairness to Dowling he recognised from his club battles.

Yeah he's not a magician but he has done fantastic too. The standard of hurling in clubs in antrim and in the ards peninsula isn't bad and when there's full investment in the county setup then you can see there are very good players there. Gleeson is getting investment from players, has them believing and playing a system and the setup has just improved on the whole. Covid has been a funny thing in that some counties with typically less buy in have got more because players are not away travelling etc. The same could be said of Down. (That's not to say Gleeson wouldn't have had the buy in anyway - I think he would)

[groundlie]

Anyone fancy use against the Cats on Sunday? This team just doesn't know how to be beaten. Losing isn't part of their mind set. Kilkenny will be worried. With the form Clarke is in he's totally unplayable. I fancy us to take Dublin and Wexford in this league.

[seafoid]

It's really great to see Antrim back. There is a lot of grá for Antrim in the hurling counties.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

A lot of serious chips on shoulders about donál ógs comments last year. His comments were not that bad and he has always been much more supportive of Ulster hurling then most. Antrim were carrying few seriously out of condition players last year, they looked much improved today. Good luck to yous

Seriously? His comments were based on one match, you actually believe he's watched anything other than that Kerry game?

Antrim last year were head and shoulders above anything in that league, today they raised the bar further

I watched it back and he said that performance wouldn't match higher level, it was an accurate comment based on that match which thankfully Antrim have reacted to well, they looked much better condition yesterday, their speed, intensity and conditioning was noticeably better and I watched quiet a few games last year. Donal made some very supportive comments in the same interview and honestly Antrim supporters should just brush it off-that's punditry, I think he is a decent pundit. Shane Dowling is agreeing with there yesterday
I am thinking of buying the 89 rig

[johnnycool]

Anyone fancy use against the Cats on Sunday? This team just doesn't know how to be beaten. Losing isn't part of their mind set. Kilkenny will be worried. With the form Clarke is in he's totally unplayable. I fancy us to take Dublin and Wexford in this league.

Antrim need to maintain the same precision in their passing and TBH looked more accomplished at it than the clips I saw of Kilkenny trying to work the ball up the field against Dublin and also need that full forward line to get good ball in front of them and to turn and go like Clarke did on Sunday. Kilkenny don't allow those spaces normally but as McManus said on OTB that there's nothing expected of them, the pressures off so go and give it a lash.

[NAG1]

Great result yesterday and fully deserved.

The team has a really nice mix of player. I think the physicality of Clare suited our players and the tighter Corrigan pitch also does. The Laois and Dublin games are the litmus test for the year. Hopefully get a result in one or both and extend the stay in the division.

[imtommygunn]

I think there has been a right bit of weight training going on too as the likes of Burke , Campbell, Molloy, Clarke (to be honest the lot of them really) have bulked up and in a better position physically. Burke definitely broke a lot of tackles to make clearances yesterday and a few years ago I don't think he could have done that. That said as others said Clare wouldn't be known for being too physical.

[Milltown Row2]

I think there has been a right bit of weight training going on too as the likes of Burke , Campbell, Molloy, Clarke (to be honest the lot of them really) have bulked up and in a better position physically. Burke definitely broke a lot of tackles to make clearances yesterday and a few years ago I don't think he could have done that. That said as others said Clare wouldn't be known for being too physical.

The Clare team of old had some big heavy hitters on it!

Anyways is this the same Clare team that the pundits were raving about last year when Tony Kelly was single handedly rocking them through the championship?

Watched the Laois and Wexford game, Laois were staying with Wexford for good parts of that game, 2 soft enough goals in the first half put a better look on it for Wexford who until Chin came on looked ordinary enough, he's the type of player that grabs the game by the scruff of the neck, the last few scores were against a 14 man team after the sin binning.

Physically Wexford were bigger and may be bigger than our lads, I thought our hooking and blocking and defending in numbers was great to see as we'll need to up the anti again.

On the sending off for Laois did we no carry out the same offence in Corrigan, Clare lad running in and was pulled down?

[imtommygunn]

The tackling intensity was the best I've seen in years from an antrim team to be fair. Reminded me a bit of Loughgiel in 2012 with the intensity they brought.

[johnnycool]

I think there has been a right bit of weight training going on too as the likes of Burke , Campbell, Molloy, Clarke (to be honest the lot of them really) have bulked up and in a better position physically. Burke definitely broke a lot of tackles to make clearances yesterday and a few years ago I don't think he could have done that. That said as others said Clare wouldn't be known for being too physical.

The Clare team of old had some big heavy hitters on it!

Anyways is this the same Clare team that the pundits were raving about last year when Tony Kelly was single handedly rocking them through the championship?

Watched the Laois and Wexford game, Laois were staying with Wexford for good parts of that game, 2 soft enough goals in the first half put a better look on it for Wexford who until Chin came on looked ordinary enough, he's the type of player that grabs the game by the scruff of the neck, the last few scores were against a 14 man team after the sin binning.

Physically Wexford were bigger and may be bigger than our lads, I thought our hooking and blocking and defending in numbers was great to see as we'll need to up the anti again.

On the sending off for Laois did we no carry out the same offence in Corrigan, Clare lad running in and was pulled down?

Wondered about that myself...

Is there something in the rules about a goalscoring opportunity? Maybe with the other defenders back the ref in Corrigan decided Walsh didn't deny the goalscoring opportunity but the Laois lad wasn't afforded that same leeway.

I'd say the ref in Corrigan might get a call for some retraining....

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

Darren and his set up really have went all out looking how to bring out the best. I noticed yesterday he has Clinton Hennessey now as the keeper coach for the set up. I mean who better than a former Waterford keeper to add those extra touches to the improvements.

If Antrim can continue to keep making the improvements off the pitch as well as on it we can continue to be in a place where we can stay at the top tier.

[clootfromthe21]

I think there has been a right bit of weight training going on too as the likes of Burke , Campbell, Molloy, Clarke (to be honest the lot of them really) have bulked up and in a better position physically. Burke definitely broke a lot of tackles to make clearances yesterday and a few years ago I don't think he could have done that. That said as others said Clare wouldn't be known for being too physical.

The Clare team of old had some big heavy hitters on it!

Anyways is this the same Clare team that the pundits were raving about last year when Tony Kelly was single handedly rocking them through the championship?

Watched the Laois and Wexford game, Laois were staying with Wexford for good parts of that game, 2 soft enough goals in the first half put a better look on it for Wexford who until Chin came on looked ordinary enough, he's the type of player that grabs the game by the scruff of the neck, the last few scores were against a 14 man team after the sin binning.

Physically Wexford were bigger and may be bigger than our lads, I thought our hooking and blocking and defending in numbers was great to see as we'll need to up the anti again.

On the sending off for Laois did we no carry out the same offence in Corrigan, Clare lad running in and was pulled down?

Wondered about that myself...

Is there something in the rules about a goalscoring opportunity? Maybe with the other defenders back the ref in Corrigan decided Walsh didn't deny the goalscoring opportunity but the Laois lad wasn't afforded that same leeway.

I'd say the ref in Corrigan might get a call for some retraining....

Presumably the fact that there were two more defenders between the Clare player and the goal was the decisive factor?

[north_antrim_hound]

I think there has been a right bit of weight training going on too as the likes of Burke , Campbell, Molloy, Clarke (to be honest the lot of them really) have bulked up and in a better position physically. Burke definitely broke a lot of tackles to make clearances yesterday and a few years ago I don't think he could have done that. That said as others said Clare wouldn't be known for being too physical.

The Clare team of old had some big heavy hitters on it!

Anyways is this the same Clare team that the pundits were raving about last year when Tony Kelly was single handedly rocking them through the championship?

Watched the Laois and Wexford game, Laois were staying with Wexford for good parts of that game, 2 soft enough goals in the first half put a better look on it for Wexford who until Chin came on looked ordinary enough, he's the type of player that grabs the game by the scruff of the neck, the last few scores were against a 14 man team after the sin binning.

Physically Wexford were bigger and may be bigger than our lads, I thought our hooking and blocking and defending in numbers was great to see as we'll need to up the anti again.

On the sending off for Laois did we no carry out the same offence in Corrigan, Clare lad running in and was pulled down?

Wondered about that myself...

Is there something in the rules about a goalscoring opportunity? Maybe with the other defenders back the ref in Corrigan decided Walsh didn't deny the goalscoring opportunity but the Laois lad wasn't afforded that same leeway.

I'd say the ref in Corrigan might get a call for some retraining....

I think Walsh got away with it because there was still two defenders between shanaher and the goals and maybe the Ref evaluated he wasn't clean through on the keeper if not dragged down. When it's your day you get away with these marginal calls. Isn't it great to have southern refs officiating with some balance.

[johnnycool]

I think there has been a right bit of weight training going on too as the likes of Burke , Campbell, Molloy, Clarke (to be honest the lot of them really) have bulked up and in a better position physically. Burke definitely broke a lot of tackles to make clearances yesterday and a few years ago I don't think he could have done that. That said as others said Clare wouldn't be known for being too physical.

The Clare team of old had some big heavy hitters on it!

Anyways is this the same Clare team that the pundits were raving about last year when Tony Kelly was single handedly rocking them through the championship?

Watched the Laois and Wexford game, Laois were staying with Wexford for good parts of that game, 2 soft enough goals in the first half put a better look on it for Wexford who until Chin came on looked ordinary enough, he's the type of player that grabs the game by the scruff of the neck, the last few scores were against a 14 man team after the sin binning.

Physically Wexford were bigger and may be bigger than our lads, I thought our hooking and blocking and defending in numbers was great to see as we'll need to up the anti again.

On the sending off for Laois did we no carry out the same offence in Corrigan, Clare lad running in and was pulled down?

Wondered about that myself...

Is there something in the rules about a goalscoring opportunity? Maybe with the other defenders back the ref in Corrigan decided Walsh didn't deny the goalscoring opportunity but the Laois lad wasn't afforded that same leeway.

I'd say the ref in Corrigan might get a call for some retraining....

I think Walsh got away with it because there was still two defenders between shanaher and the goals and maybe the Ref evaluated he wasn't clean through on the keeper if not dragged down. When it's your day you get away with these marginal calls. Isn't it great to have southern refs officiating with some balance.

But Laois also had other defenders back and the Wexford lad was just inside the D..

IMO Walsh got away with it, but you take your luck when it comes.

[seafoid]

Antrim have to stay up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_uwrsXploY