Antrim Football Thread

Started by theskull1, November 09, 2006, 11:48:40 PM

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Belfast GAA man

MR2 I just would like the leadership to try something different instead of just doing the same things. My plan would b
1) A Belfast league
2) put money into secondary schools coaching not just primary
3) run the league before exams and championship after exams
But I don't really care what the plan is as long as there is a plan by those who have put themselves forward to lead

Milltown Row2

Gaelfest is one plan, leadership has changed very recently so that needs time to flourish. The schools have had varied attempts to improve on their worth but unfortunately not enough kids are interested, so if you've not got them at primary school level then they are completely lost come secondary school!

A Belfast league? The reason we go all county is to give kids more games, the reason these games aren't played can be as you've mentioned is schools, exams and so on, one other reason is having games on a Friday night, where travel to Ballycastle is difficult, the sensible fixture should be Belfast games should be during the week while weekend games should be against teams from 30 plus miles away..

how can soccer be played ever weekend on grass pitches from August through to May?! Should we look at changing the dates ?

Rugby at juvenile level is only played at school level competition wise in the north, they don't play for clubs as such until they play for senior clubs or old schools clubs.

At a leadership level putting measures in place quickly to change current systems is harder than we think I'd imagine. If someone put your proposal in place and it didn't work then where do we go?

The beauty of being a member of a club is you can put these proposals to your club committee and they can bring that to the county.
None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Ea

Kickham csc

Quote from: Milltown Row2 on March 13, 2019, 11:19:04 PM
Quote from: paddyjohn on March 13, 2019, 10:59:38 PM
Maybe it suits a few big clubs in the city for other clubs to fold, you know a few decent lads may end up down the lane or up the road..

I've said for years, there are toooooooo many clubs in Belfast. That's what needs looked at

While living in the states, my children played for a club in /NJ.

The run teams from U8 to U14.

At U 16 they stop and the kids then move to the senior club in the area.

The players and families have two allegiances. They have a loyalty to juvenile club and the senior club.

This is something that I think could work well.

Keep the individual clubs but look at establishing a Kerry like regional teams to play in a county championship

BrendanAntrim

Quote from: Milltown Row2 on March 13, 2019, 11:44:01 PM
Gaelfest is one plan, leadership has changed very recently so that needs time to flourish. The schools have had varied attempts to improve on their worth but unfortunately not enough kids are interested, so if you've not got them at primary school level then they are completely lost come secondary school!

A Belfast league? The reason we go all county is to give kids more games, the reason these games aren't played can be as you've mentioned is schools, exams and so on, one other reason is having games on a Friday night, where travel to Ballycastle is difficult, the sensible fixture should be Belfast games should be during the week while weekend games should be against teams from 30 plus miles away..

how can soccer be played ever weekend on grass pitches from August through to May?! Should we look at changing the dates ?

Rugby at juvenile level is only played at school level competition wise in the north, they don't play for clubs as such until they play for senior clubs or old schools clubs.

At a leadership level putting measures in place quickly to change current systems is harder than we think I'd imagine. If someone put your proposal in place and it didn't work then where do we go?

The beauty of being a member of a club is you can put these proposals to your club committee and they can bring that to the county.

There is something worth looking at in the idea of a Belfast league, maybe as a pre regular league competition or at the end of the playing calendar. Even a south Belfast league would be worthwhile as a mini competition

outinfront

Games are needed.  That's why young lads play.  Training to match ratio is wrong all over the GAA,, notjust Antrim.  Same in schools football, although this is improving.

Am I right in saying that the championships in Antrim are regionalised, with the winners playing eachother in an all county final?
Could leagues not be regionalised for a round of fixtures (all teams play each other once,), then a split in the leagues with top half and bottom half playing in respective all county leagues (again all playing the once, twice may not work?)  Less travel and more games

The importance of school football cannot be overlooked.  It keeps many lads playing and also gets some lads involved who maybe didn't previously play, or weren't club members.  It can be difficult for staff to give up their time but it is essential in my eyes to keep these lads interested.

Stillwater2

Who would be seen as the progressive clubs in South Antrim (Belfast) ??

outinfront

From an outsider I would say:
St Brigids and St Endas seem to be heading the right direction.
Rossa appeared to be but maybe have taken a backward step recently?
Lamh Dearg won the SFC 2 seasons ago but don't know much about their under age teams.

Open to correction on any of the above points!

paddyjohn

Quote from: Stillwater2 on March 15, 2019, 09:49:38 AM
Who would be seen as the progressive clubs in South Antrim (Belfast) ??

Playing teams or facilities wise or complete package?

Belfast GAA man

Quote from: Milltown Row2 on March 13, 2019, 11:44:01 PM
Gaelfest is one plan, leadership has changed very recently so that needs time to flourish. The schools have had varied attempts to improve on their worth but unfortunately not enough kids are interested, so if you've not got them at primary school level then they are completely lost come secondary school!

A Belfast league? The reason we go all county is to give kids more games, the reason these games aren't played can be as you've mentioned is schools, exams and so on, one other reason is having games on a Friday night, where travel to Ballycastle is difficult, the sensible fixture should be Belfast games should be during the week while weekend games should be against teams from 30 plus miles away..

how can soccer be played ever weekend on grass pitches from August through to May?! Should we look at changing the dates ?

Rugby at juvenile level is only played at school level competition wise in the north, they don't play for clubs as such until they play for senior clubs or old schools clubs.

At a leadership level putting measures in place quickly to change current systems is harder than we think I'd imagine. If someone put your proposal in place and it didn't work then where do we go?

The beauty of being a member of a club is you can put these proposals to your club committee and they can bring that to the county.
I wish the process of putting a motion to your club / getting club agreement / get board and other clubs agreement was that easy. The set up makes change very slow

Stillwater2

Both I guess, they not go hand in hand?

cfclg

We all have various 'tweaks' to current systems to improve the situation for young men/ladies in either code. Here's what i'm thinking for u16 & minor:

Trying to keep these high level:
1. Organise our fixtures to accommodate the exam timetable.
2. Increase the number of games dramatically.
3. Schedule these fixtures in a logistically sensible way (i.e Belfast teams can play each other mid week/friday night. NA would do the same. NA vs Belfast games must be a sat/sun).

If we could tick these boxes it would be a great start.

imtommygunn

If you look at underage leagues though there are a load of games where teams are not fielding. How would more games help that? I think it's deeper than just the more games thing.

paddyjohn

Quote from: Stillwater2 on March 15, 2019, 10:11:06 AM
Both I guess, they not go hand in hand?

Some say they and some say they don't. Look at St Galls, 10/11 in a row without massive facilities.

Sarsfields new set up is impressive and great to see them thriving, I'm sure they'd love to stay in Div2 for another year and build from there.

inabsentia

Quote from: BrendanAntrim on March 14, 2019, 11:25:47 PM
Quote from: Milltown Row2 on March 13, 2019, 11:44:01 PM
Gaelfest is one plan, leadership has changed very recently so that needs time to flourish. The schools have had varied attempts to improve on their worth but unfortunately not enough kids are interested, so if you've not got them at primary school level then they are completely lost come secondary school!

A Belfast league? The reason we go all county is to give kids more games, the reason these games aren't played can be as you've mentioned is schools, exams and so on, one other reason is having games on a Friday night, where travel to Ballycastle is difficult, the sensible fixture should be Belfast games should be during the week while weekend games should be against teams from 30 plus miles away..

how can soccer be played ever weekend on grass pitches from August through to May?! Should we look at changing the dates ?

Rugby at juvenile level is only played at school level competition wise in the north, they don't play for clubs as such until they play for senior clubs or old schools clubs.

At a leadership level putting measures in place quickly to change current systems is harder than we think I'd imagine. If someone put your proposal in place and it didn't work then where do we go?

The beauty of being a member of a club is you can put these proposals to your club committee and they can bring that to the county.

There is something worth looking at in the idea of a Belfast league, maybe as a pre regular league competition or at the end of the playing calendar. Even a south Belfast league would be worthwhile as a mini competition

I swear people forget so easily how things were set up before. Underage wasn't all county 11 years ago and it had its drawbacks. The main one? There isn't  enough teams to have proper divisions. One week we'd play a fantastic Creggan team and beat by 5/6 the next week we held St Comgalls to two points over 60 minutes. Swings and roundabouts.

This is like people saying we need to look at adding more divisions, 11/12 years ago we had divisions and it fostered a more competitive scene as reserve teams of varying quality were spread throughout these divisions. A galls/cargin second team was regularly finishing quite competitively in div 2/3.  It also meant that reserve matches didn't swing wildly from one week to the next as they do now as it was in essence an actual seperate team.

We don't have the depth of other counties in terms of numbers of teams and I still a home/away fixture set is a more accurate setup than the current implementation of the top/bottom.

cfclg

Quote from: imtommygunn on March 15, 2019, 10:21:39 AM
If you look at underage leagues though there are a load of games where teams are not fielding. How would more games help that? I think it's deeper than just the more games thing.

Yes, there are many different strands to this issue. This might relate back to MR2's point about too many clubs in Belfast. Or maybe the way the fixtures were scheduled in the first place. A minefield