Antrim Football Thread

[imtommygunn]

BS key hopes from the league for me would be to stay up and to blood some new talent. There are areas we are weak in. Scoring forwards - though Magill should help and I'd like to see more of Mark Dougan come championship time - marking defenders and half forwards being the key areas for me we need to develop.

Armagh were minor champions about 3 years ago were they not? Easy enough for them if I recall correctly so maybe not too bad a result.

[MickeyMacMhagUidhir]

Antrim opened their Casement 2012 yearbook this afternoon (what about Fermanagh last Sunday?)and while a 5 point defeat to Tyrone means that last year's McKenna Cup progress won't be matched, there was still plenty of positives to be taken from what was an entertaining game. 

Antrim started with a few new faces as Baker and his team continue the search for new Saffron talent, and a few boys will have enhanced their chances of a gaining a place on the team come the league. In the opening exchanges possession was shared but Tyrone had more shots at the posts. The 3 times All Ireland champions had left their shooting boots somewhere on the M1 however and hit too many wides.

Four of Antrim's first half points came from play and there some excellent scores among them from midfielder Conal Kelly and in particular Brian Neeson. Indeed Neeson shone brightly in the first half and alongside his two points he could have had two more only for one dropping short and another hitting the post. Paddy Cunningham was playing a deeper role and hit a terrific score from play and one from a free to leave Antrim with a two point half time lead.

By this stage the Red Hands had already looked to the bench for a bit of experience and had introduced someone called Stephen O'Neill. They upped the tempo at the start of the second half and hit 6 unanswered points to race into a 4 point lead.

Antrim too had experienced players to call on and the introduction of Aodhán Gallagher and Tomas McCann steadied things at midfield and provided another focal point of the attack. Conal Kelly's second point of the game signalled a Saffron revival and further scores from McCann and Cunningham brought Antrim to within a point of Tyrone.

At this time the game turned; Tomas McCann collected a great ball and hit a powerful shot on the run bringing off a great save from John Devine. Shortly afterwards the Antrim half forward unit lost possession and in the subsequent play Tyrone went the length of the field, exploiting space, and eventually Stephen O'Neill netted. Had McCann's effort gone in, who knows?

Afterwards Liam Bradley took the positives from the game.
"We don't like losing and it didn't look a 5 point game. If one of our goal chances had gone in, it could have been different but our lads will learn from that."

Next up for Antrim is the final Power NI McKenna Cup game V Queens on Wednesday night, before the national league starts on Saturday 4th February.

Brendan Mulgrew

Mulgrew must have been at a different game than the one I was at.  Pure f**king crap.  We will still be talking about the same fundamental issues this time next year and we will not have moved any further on.  You can talk about big, strong lads, strength and conditioning all you want, it will take a lot more than that in my book.  That idiot Bradley is a real bufoon.  Put it like this, if he is not good enough as the Messiah in Derry, he's not any good for us.

The Fermanagh game was played in Enniskillen, not Casement.

I stand corrected AQMP, apologies.

[Gold]

BS key hopes from the league for me would be to stay up and to blood some new talent. There are areas we are weak in. Scoring forwards - though Magill should help and I'd like to see more of Mark Dougan come championship time - marking defenders and half forwards being the key areas for me we need to develop.

Armagh were minor champions about 3 years ago were they not? Easy enough for them if I recall correctly so maybe not too bad a result.

We got beat.

We shouldnt accept ANY type of defeat to anyone ever

Acceptance that Armagh etc will beat us has to stop or the status quo will never change

[AQMP]

CJ McGourty will be out for 8 - 10 weeks.  Might be back for the end of the league.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/16574587.stm

I note he was planning this year's football around the Sigerson.

[AQMP]

Aindreas Mac An Bhaird talks about his role with the county footballers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/16574593.stm

[bannside]

Ward comes across as a true pro which is the first time in a while we have used professional services in the area of physiology. He captained a team which won the European Cup in Rugby, so lots of street cred and leadership there too.

Paul Mc Flynn should bring a steely championship edge too. All his club and county football was geared around the championship - league was something for playing in- championships were for winning!

Lots of positives, and a lot of quality players completing for places now. Competition as is is, and Niblock, Andy, et al still to come in. Plan for a big summer and it might just happen. Plan for a big league and we might as well forget about a Antrim footballers playing past June or July!

[Rasharkin Gael]

BS key hopes from the league for me would be to stay up and to blood some new talent. There are areas we are weak in. Scoring forwards - though Magill should help and I'd like to see more of Mark Dougan come championship time - marking defenders and half forwards being the key areas for me we need to develop.

Armagh were minor champions about 3 years ago were they not? Easy enough for them if I recall correctly so maybe not too bad a result.

We got beat.

We shouldnt accept ANY type of defeat to anyone ever

Acceptance that Armagh etc will beat us has to stop or the status quo will never change

In years gone by we would have been beat by Armagh by 15 points and up. This is the best crop of talent i have seen at this age since butcher, m johnston, maccers team in 89. This hopefully shows that we are narrowing the gap that has existed between us and other Ulster counties and i know Russ hasnt really even settled on the final panel yet so all looks good for this age group.
Bannside, great to see such optimism on here. We in Antrim tend to be too negative towards our county teams and management. Baker is doing all you can ask at the moment. He has replaced his backroom after things seemed to go stale last year, and is giving lots of players the opportunity to prove they are county standard , so i dont think you can ask much more at this stage of the season.

[Rasharkin Gael]

Revenue to swoop on GAA

County boards on alert as team expenses and payments come under scrutiny

Friday January 13 2012

GAA officials throughout the country have been alerted to an impending Revenue swoop on their books and have been warned to have them in order.

Revenue's visits are expected to include examinations of the increasingly huge sums that counties are paying out on inter-county team expenses and are also likely to probe payments to team managers.

Under the GAA's rules, the only payments that team managers can receive are vouched expenses for travel (at a set rate nationally) and meals.

But there is a strong belief within the association that this rule is being broken both at club and inter-county level and GAA president Christy Cooney himself has described 'illegal payments' to managers as "a cancer running through our organisation."

A meeting of all county chairmen in Croke Park before Christmas informed them that the Revenue Commissioners have already met with the GAA centrally and discussed what will be involved.

All county boards have been told to expect to have their local books audited in 2012.

Croke Park has promised that members of the GAA's central finance committee will visit each county in the coming weeks in order to advise exactly what Revenue's audit will entail and to give local organisers practical advice in preparing for their inspections.

The Irish Independent has also learned that at least one county board -- Limerick -- underwent a full audit by Revenue in 2010.

That looked at every aspect of Limerick's finances, including some queries about payments to inter-county managements.

The latter is believed to have been sparked by a complaint from a member of the public.But Limerick secretary Michael O'Riordan said yesterday that the County Board had contacted Revenue independently to seek clarification on some of their own tax liabilities, including those of people who had been employed to run the stiles at the county grounds.

"We approached Revenue with our own queries because we were putting some new procedures in place that we needed clarification on. They also approached us about another matter," said O'Riordan.

"We had absolutely no problems with the process. It took three days, was very thorough and afterwards we were fully approved by Revenue and there were no grey areas whatsoever."

With government coffers so bare, Revenue has been exploring every last avenue to recoup outstanding taxes. It has introduced a particularly strict 'shadow-economy project' in the past year and has come under fire in the past week for the way it went about recovering taxes from pensioners.

Meanwhile, the GAA's top brass seem certain to veto the idea of an All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final being staged at Semple Stadium this year.

Thurles Town Council is preparing to write to the Munster Council and GAA authorities, seeking to have the provincial decider and an All-Ireland semi-final staged in Thurles to coincide with the town being the European Town of Sport for 2012.

- Cliona Foley

If this is extended to the North with HMRC involved some Treasurers may be sweating.

[MickeyMacMhagUidhir]

Revenue to swoop on GAA

County boards on alert as team expenses and payments come under scrutiny

Friday January 13 2012

GAA officials throughout the country have been alerted to an impending Revenue swoop on their books and have been warned to have them in order.

Revenue's visits are expected to include examinations of the increasingly huge sums that counties are paying out on inter-county team expenses and are also likely to probe payments to team managers.

Under the GAA's rules, the only payments that team managers can receive are vouched expenses for travel (at a set rate nationally) and meals.

But there is a strong belief within the association that this rule is being broken both at club and inter-county level and GAA president Christy Cooney himself has described 'illegal payments' to managers as "a cancer running through our organisation."

A meeting of all county chairmen in Croke Park before Christmas informed them that the Revenue Commissioners have already met with the GAA centrally and discussed what will be involved.

All county boards have been told to expect to have their local books audited in 2012.

Croke Park has promised that members of the GAA's central finance committee will visit each county in the coming weeks in order to advise exactly what Revenue's audit will entail and to give local organisers practical advice in preparing for their inspections.

The Irish Independent has also learned that at least one county board -- Limerick -- underwent a full audit by Revenue in 2010.

That looked at every aspect of Limerick's finances, including some queries about payments to inter-county managements.

The latter is believed to have been sparked by a complaint from a member of the public.But Limerick secretary Michael O'Riordan said yesterday that the County Board had contacted Revenue independently to seek clarification on some of their own tax liabilities, including those of people who had been employed to run the stiles at the county grounds.

"We approached Revenue with our own queries because we were putting some new procedures in place that we needed clarification on. They also approached us about another matter," said O'Riordan.

"We had absolutely no problems with the process. It took three days, was very thorough and afterwards we were fully approved by Revenue and there were no grey areas whatsoever."

With government coffers so bare, Revenue has been exploring every last avenue to recoup outstanding taxes. It has introduced a particularly strict 'shadow-economy project' in the past year and has come under fire in the past week for the way it went about recovering taxes from pensioners.

Meanwhile, the GAA's top brass seem certain to veto the idea of an All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final being staged at Semple Stadium this year.

Thurles Town Council is preparing to write to the Munster Council and GAA authorities, seeking to have the provincial decider and an All-Ireland semi-final staged in Thurles to coincide with the town being the European Town of Sport for 2012.

- Cliona Foley

If this is extended to the North with HMRC involved some Treasurers may be sweating.

Sure if Rasharkin pay their big fine, at least that would lessen the financial burden to the county

[bannside]

Rasharkin Gael - agree with you that this is a good crop of under 21s and the 89 team was well above average too. Think Timmy Connolly was also on that team.

Regards the best in recent years - surely that mantle belonged to the team of 2005. Beat Armagh in a pre season by 12 points in Lurgan, beat Fermanagh by 12 in the first round of Ulster, and lost by two 0-13 to 0-11 in Omagh when we were without Crozier and CJ who had both played in the first round.

I maintain we would have beaten Tyrone comfortably with a full team. Tyrone won Ulster and lost to winners Mayo by a point in extra time. This won was lost by the administration of the day, but I have aired that several times before, and sure, so what. It was just an all -ireland! No one listened back then - the admin had no idea of the quality coming through at that time.

Back to Armagh though. We lost to them in Crossmaglen by 3 points in 2004, without Paul Doherty, Michael Magill and Stephen O Connell. After that Armagh went the whole way.

I will contend that those two year groups, Mick, Paddy C, Niblock, Locky, Andy, Tomas, not to mention Aidso, CJ, Crozier, were actually our best group since the 69 team that won.

[Rasharkin Gael]

Bann side, do you remember who the coach was of the 2005 u21 team?

[bannside]

RG, I could tell you EVERYTHING about that particular team. I could tell you that in their first three challenge matches, against Antrim seniors, St Galls in training for AI semi versus Nemo, and Derry (up at the Loup) they were still undefeated.

I could tell you David Mc Alernon (class talent too) scored eleven points the following week against Armagh in a challenge in Lurgan, and after that beat Down at UUJ on a Saturday morning, beat Meath in Trim, lost to Laois the next day in Portlaoise, and were well pitched for their twelve point championship victory against Fermanagh in Casement.

CJ and Crozier played that day, but had an Ulster minor league game on the day of the next round, and dont start me on the Shannigans that followed, but they werent released to play for the under 21`s. Its an old sore with me and its been well documented on here before.

Twas the one that got away. If theres anything else you need to know about that era, or team, I will get my coaching diary out and let you know!

[Rasharkin Gael]

no idea firehill, troubles me to remember who scored last week!
bannside, thought i was on the right track! lol

[bannside]

No secrets there RG. The best of days - the worst of days!

[imtommygunn]

BS how many of that team have made it to senior? (No agenda to question, just curious as I don't know)