Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

Wouldn't be dropping wee Jamie though. He's starting to look the part. Looks like he's never been away!

[NatSoSaff]

Agree totally BS. Gribben has been magnificent

[Saffsof82]

It's a good balance playing small and McCann at midfield and dropping mick back into the d. Small is growing into an inter county player, improves with every game

[bannside]

Both are definitely having great seasons to date. Long may it last.

[Saffsof82]

Club secretary saying that we're to expect a radical restructure of leagues proposed by the end of this season, anyone heard anything about this?

[Sportacus]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

[Milltown Row2]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

[Spike]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

Agree with MR here. 

[Saffsof82]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

Agree with MR here.

County have backed the motion that each individual county decides what age group its own competitions are set at and not have to adhere to edict from croke on ages

[johnnycool]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

Agree with MR here.

County have backed the motion that each individual county decides what age group its own competitions are set at and not have to adhere to edict from croke on ages

Eugene young put up something on Facebook yesterday and he skirted round the agegroups issue by talking about player burnout using statistics for intercounty underage footballers and their training load.

Yes, there is an issue there but changing the age groups won't solve that issue which he touched on, but whilst focusing on intercounty players he totally missed the mark on club players sitting on their hands as teams like ours can't fulfill fixtures without county players and therein lies the problem faced by small clubs throughout Ireland.

We need to stop treating underage county teams as teams that need to train two, three times a week on their own, not being involved with their clubs. At best once a week with their county team and twice with the club IMO and that'll do more to prevent player dropout at all levels than messing around with the age groups and reducing the workload of intercounty underage player.

[NAG1]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

Agree with MR here.

County have backed the motion that each individual county decides what age group its own competitions are set at and not have to adhere to edict from croke on ages

Eugene young put up something on Facebook yesterday and he skirted round the agegroups issue by talking about player burnout using statistics for intercounty underage footballers and their training load.

Yes, there is an issue there but changing the age groups won't solve that issue which he touched on, but whilst focusing on intercounty players he totally missed the mark on club players sitting on their hands as teams like ours can't fulfill fixtures without county players and therein lies the problem faced by small clubs throughout Ireland.

We need to stop treating underage county teams as teams that need to train two, three times a week on their own, not being involved with their clubs. At best once a week with their county team and twice with the club IMO and that'll do more to prevent player dropout at all levels than messing around with the age groups and reducing the workload of intercounty underage player.

I think the last few pages on here detailing the schools involvement on this is the biggest reason for the issues that arise around this age group and problems associated.

Schools using GAA as a way to attract pupils to the school, training them like mad for competitions with little or no thought for the club or county setups. Clubs having to pick up the pieces when these players are over trained and injured as a result.

This is bigger than just development/ county squads leading to burn out. But the schools seem nearly too powerful to tackle in a coherent way.

There has to be a complete approach to this taking everything into account. Until they are prepared to take on all the interested parties then it is going to be an issue.

For what it is worth, u18 works better for the clubs up here, but the change was made to suit the southern schooling system and they leaving cert. Hence why I think it is going to be struggle to revert back.

[delgany]

Club secretary saying that we're to expect a radical restructure of leagues proposed by the end of this season, anyone heard anything about this?

It was mentioned on Monday night, in order to ease fixture planning

[johnnycool]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

Agree with MR here.

County have backed the motion that each individual county decides what age group its own competitions are set at and not have to adhere to edict from croke on ages

Eugene young put up something on Facebook yesterday and he skirted round the agegroups issue by talking about player burnout using statistics for intercounty underage footballers and their training load.

Yes, there is an issue there but changing the age groups won't solve that issue which he touched on, but whilst focusing on intercounty players he totally missed the mark on club players sitting on their hands as teams like ours can't fulfill fixtures without county players and therein lies the problem faced by small clubs throughout Ireland.

We need to stop treating underage county teams as teams that need to train two, three times a week on their own, not being involved with their clubs. At best once a week with their county team and twice with the club IMO and that'll do more to prevent player dropout at all levels than messing around with the age groups and reducing the workload of intercounty underage player.

I think the last few pages on here detailing the schools involvement on this is the biggest reason for the issues that arise around this age group and problems associated.

Schools using GAA as a way to attract pupils to the school, training them like mad for competitions with little or no thought for the club or county setups. Clubs having to pick up the pieces when these players are over trained and injured as a result.

This is bigger than just development/ county squads leading to burn out. But the schools seem nearly too powerful to tackle in a coherent way.

There has to be a complete approach to this taking everything into account. Until they are prepared to take on all the interested parties then it is going to be an issue.

For what it is worth, u18 works better for the clubs up here, but the change was made to suit the southern schooling system and they leaving cert. Hence why I think it is going to be struggle to revert back.

The motion going forward takes this into account and asks for each county to have autonomy in deciding their age structures.

I don't think there's a one size fits all for the very reason you mention but at least if the six counties could align then we can at least have another
meaningful year of juvenile competitions for 18yo's.

[Sportacus]

Does anyone know has the county taken a position yet ahead of Congress on the best age for minor?

Not sure but I much prefer the previous under 18/minor set up, maybe going at under 20 rather that under 21 might have merit but under 17 at minor wasn't a great success

Agree with MR here.

County have backed the motion that each individual county decides what age group its own competitions are set at and not have to adhere to edict from croke on ages

Eugene young put up something on Facebook yesterday and he skirted round the agegroups issue by talking about player burnout using statistics for intercounty underage footballers and their training load.

Yes, there is an issue there but changing the age groups won't solve that issue which he touched on, but whilst focusing on intercounty players he totally missed the mark on club players sitting on their hands as teams like ours can't fulfill fixtures without county players and therein lies the problem faced by small clubs throughout Ireland.

We need to stop treating underage county teams as teams that need to train two, three times a week on their own, not being involved with their clubs. At best once a week with their county team and twice with the club IMO and that'll do more to prevent player dropout at all levels than messing around with the age groups and reducing the workload of intercounty underage player.

I think the last few pages on here detailing the schools involvement on this is the biggest reason for the issues that arise around this age group and problems associated.

Schools using GAA as a way to attract pupils to the school, training them like mad for competitions with little or no thought for the club or county setups. Clubs having to pick up the pieces when these players are over trained and injured as a result.

This is bigger than just development/ county squads leading to burn out. But the schools seem nearly too powerful to tackle in a coherent way.

There has to be a complete approach to this taking everything into account. Until they are prepared to take on all the interested parties then it is going to be an issue.

For what it is worth, u18 works better for the clubs up here, but the change was made to suit the southern schooling system and they leaving cert. Hence why I think it is going to be struggle to revert back.

There's a common denominator here - coaches.  Sadly a lot of coaches in truth are in it for themselves and the chance of glory.  They'll train a team into the ground and it's for their own hype.  I think it's an uncomfortable truth, people would rather praise coaches as great volunteers, but there's another side to it which GAA hasn't got a grip on.  I feel very sorry for a talented 17 year old whose minor coach, school coach and county coach all want success. 

I hope we see a return to U18.  Watching 17 year old lads play what will be probably be their last game has been shocking.

[delgany]

If the croke park motion to move minor to u19 is successful  then all tbe othet motions will be ruled out !