Antrim Football Thread

[Pjoe]

Surprising there are no St Brigids players listed given they won last years u16 championship. Maybe a lot of them are over age with the new Minor age.

[BrendanAntrim]

No, they just weren't selected. Good luck to the lads who were.

[Belfast GAA man]

the u17s were way off the pace yesterday - It'll take a long time for the Gaelfast primary schools initiative to come through to this level - surely we need a similar initiative for secondary schools or else we are doomed for another 8/10 years....

[Pjoe]

The two strongest teams at u16 level in the county (St Pauls & St Brigids) for the past two years have 1 player between them on the starting 15? Seems strange

[Belfast GAA man]

I believe some clubs have not taken well to the u17 management team as they have been telling the players not to go near their clubs and think of the county only. Maybe st brides and St. Paul's were some of the clubs who have not liked the approach. Taking personalities out of it  the GAA need to sort out such matters asap

[paddyjohn]

Who were the Un17 management team?

[ArmaghPaddy]

A few things...I'm part of the mgt team! St. Brigid's has 3 members in the panel...2 were injured and 1 left to concentrate on their studies...St. Paul's has 2 lads in the squad, 1 started...no one else from those clubs was available for selection! Before criticising the players, perhaps you should ask them individually what they thought of the set up, rather than speculating...and before you criticise mgt, perhaps you could put yourself forward to do the job yourself.

[jdyok]

Thanks for your time and effort...

[NAG1]

A few things...I'm part of the mgt team! St. Brigid's has 3 members in the panel...2 were injured and 1 left to concentrate on their studies...St. Paul's has 2 lads in the squad, 1 started...no one else from those clubs was available for selection! Before criticising the players, perhaps you should ask them individually what they thought of the set up, rather than speculating...and before you criticise mgt, perhaps you could put yourself forward to do the job yourself.

AP why dont you tell us about the set up from your point of view. That might give a much needed insight into how this type of squad works.
You will find that most if not all the people on this forum are contributing to their clubs etc in various ways.

[Belfast GAA man]

A few things...I'm part of the mgt team! St. Brigid's has 3 members in the panel...2 were injured and 1 left to concentrate on their studies...St. Paul's has 2 lads in the squad, 1 started...no one else from those clubs was available for selection! Before criticising the players, perhaps you should ask them individually what they thought of the set up, rather than speculating...and before you criticise mgt, perhaps you could put yourself forward to do the job yourself.

AP why dont you tell us about the set up from your point of view. That might give a much needed insight into how this type of squad works.
You will find that most if not all the people on this forum are contributing to their clubs etc in various ways.
Yes agreed - the posters here all committed gaels no doubt - the issues we are debating are why some strong teams are not represented to our detriment and if the county before club battle is a contributing factor - I thought that's what discussion boards are for! some of the answers may or may not be the fault of the u17 management

[ArmaghPaddy]

Youngsters are being overtrained at this time of the year and then end up with months without football. At the beginning of the season, I asked for a meeting with parents and club coaches, where I set out a timetable of the season, right through to minor club championship final. I set out what I thought was in the best interests of the lads, ourselves with the county and the clubs. 4 clubs turned up to that meeting along with a number of parents. At the meeting not one person disagreed with what I proposed, despite being given numerous opportunities to do so. Did it happen...no it didn't, resulting in a number of lads picking up overuse injuries because they were being overtrained. We ended up calling sessions short when it came to our attention as we preferred to look after the lads' wel being rather than anything else. Communication between county, clubs and parents is the key, along with coaching egos being left to the side. We tried our best as a management team, but the effort from club coaches was reciprocated by a very small number of people. Until this issue is addressed l, then there is no point in speaking about anything else. I am involved with my own club's under 12 team, which is proving much more rewarding an experience than county minor football, which should not be the case!!!

[BigBallWeeBall]

Youngsters are being overtrained at this time of the year and then end up with months without football. At the beginning of the season, I asked for a meeting with parents and club coaches, where I set out a timetable of the season, right through to minor club championship final. I set out what I thought was in the best interests of the lads, ourselves with the county and the clubs. 4 clubs turned up to that meeting along with a number of parents. At the meeting not one person disagreed with what I proposed, despite being given numerous opportunities to do so. Did it happen...no it didn't, resulting in a number of lads picking up overuse injuries because they were being overtrained. We ended up calling sessions short when it came to our attention as we preferred to look after the lads' wel being rather than anything else. Communication between county, clubs and parents is the key, along with coaching egos being left to the side. We tried our best as a management team, but the effort from club coaches was reciprocated by a very small number of people. Until this issue is addressed l, then there is no point in speaking about anything else. I am involved with my own club's under 12 team, which is proving much more rewarding an experience than county minor football, which should not be the case!!!

Was this the CBS school meeting, if so I believe several clubs sent representatives, not all were lead coaches at their clubs.
You refer to communication being key, I agree but it's not helpful if the clubs are being communicated to in a fashion of teacher to pupil. I take it that the club coaches are at fault
here for not doing what they were told

[Peileadoir]

Never mind over trained, I have it on good authority that one of the starting full forward line on the team v Fermanagh has not played ANY football for his club in 18 months and only plays hurling. His club did not put his name forward for trials as he told them he was only playing hurling this year and yet somehow he was selected for the minor county team. The club did not even know he was on the panel until last week. Bizarre! Great communication from the management. Would a kid in Tyrone who doesnt play football for his club and who doesnt go to a school that plays football even be considered for county selection? Not a chance! Not a bit of wonder we only scored 8 points!

[Milltown Row2]

And who on this board stepped up to take this job? You all must assume that there was a huge selection process with detailed interviews, power point presentations on how they were going to improve Antrim's footballing fortunes!! It's grand to have a plan, but someone needs to step up to the plate sometimes, instead of being a keyboard warrior

Get real. Antim can only work with who comes forward who has a interest in taking the job.. no one is lining up to take these jobs, never have and unfortuntely never will, unless there is a father son interest or the potential of a great set of players become available, after that they are gone, one maybe two seasons.

It's possible that this job needs a steady coach for 5 or 6 seasons, who works very closely with the underage development squads and develops great working relationships with the clubs and their underage mentors.. Minor is a strange age, for a lot of good underage players its very possible that you can lose them to other things, college (when they played at the old minor level)  in a different country, employment, girls! drink and even drugs or to another sport..

How many years did Mickey Harte take the underage teams in Tyrone? I know they were very successful but was it the commitment shown by the management/county or just a great bunch of lads that came through? There was no doubting their success but it had to start somewhere, there had to have been some coaching, training and skills picked up at their clubs and development squads..

Again the county needs to look for someone to come in and take it long term, regardless of the initial results look for small gains along the way until it bears fruit at the other end, senior level!

[ArmaghPaddy]

BigBallWeeBall...you are misinformed re the amount of coaches and club reps at the meeting!!! How else are we meant to effectively communicate? Perhaps we should phone each person individually?!? The problem I had was that those who were there agreed with me, I assume, as they didn't once question or correct anything I said. We did speak to a few club coaches directly throughout our time and sometimes we agreed and sometimes we didn't! That's the nature of debate!!! At all times, however, I can honestly say that the best interest of each player was at the centre of our arguments! The county minor season is most of the way through at this stage and the club minor season is 2 games old. Which of the two had the more urgent need of training Players and sorting systems? Clubs preparing their teams for championship in February, which was the line that came back to us a number of times, is just laughable! Perhaps you disagree?!? I would love to hear your rationale for it though? Just to reiterate my point about us not wanting to overtrain players, no player involved with McRory/Hogan Cups trained with Antrim until they were out of that competition...they were at latter stages and therefore more urgent a requirementnship  than ours! All we asked was for similar favours! Would club coaches be happy if we called county training sessions in the 2/3 weeks leading up to the championship later in the year?!? I doubt it!!!