Antrim Football Thread

[Gizzy15]

Rossa U-16s flying the flag for Antrim Football down in Paul Mc Girr tournament. Another good win today this time over the hosts. Final next Sunday. More signs that we have plenty of genuine talent to work with in the underage ranks. Go win it now.

Didn't Rossa win this already just a few years back?

Aghagallon won the south west championship and never got to play Rossa in the county final. Rossa may well have won but bit stupid from the county not to let the champions from both sections play off in the final. Only in antrim.

i may be wrong here but i am near certin Rossa played an All County Final against All Saints this year which would suggest Ballymena won South west, or at least were selected by South West to compete in the final.

Southern Gaels v O'Donovan RossaThe third Quarter Final in the Pall McGirr U16 Club Champions Tournament takes place on Saturday morning at 12:00 in Gardrum Park Dromore and it is an intriguing tie between the highly promising Antrim champions O'Donovan Rossa and tournament debutants Southern Gaels of Cavan. Both teams have had great season so far winning league and championship double's and indeed in Rossa's case it has been an extra special season having also secured the Antrim hurling title as well with 16 of their players being on both panels. Rossa also have pedigree in the tournament having won it on their last visit and this is something team mentor Hugh McGettigan pointed to as a motivating factor "Having won the Paul McGirr in 2011 O'Donovan Rossa, Belfast are very happy to return to this prestigious tournament. These current crop of lads stood on the sidelines 4 years ago cheering on their older club mates hoping some day they would reach the pinnacle of u16 club football in Ulster. Having progressed from u14 with a winners and runners up medal in All Ireland Feile in hurling and football respectively, This team, this year have won all county championships and league titles in hurling and football undefeated. In progressing to the Paul McGirr Rossa had to overcome a strong All Saints team from Ballymena by 6 points in the county final.


taken from Dromore gaa facebook.

[JimStynes]

Rossa U-16s flying the flag for Antrim Football down in Paul Mc Girr tournament. Another good win today this time over the hosts. Final next Sunday. More signs that we have plenty of genuine talent to work with in the underage ranks. Go win it now.

Didn't Rossa win this already just a few years back?

Aghagallon won the south west championship and never got to play Rossa in the county final. Rossa may well have won but bit stupid from the county not to let the champions from both sections play off in the final. Only in antrim.

i may be wrong here but i am near certin Rossa played an All County Final against All Saints this year which would suggest Ballymena won South west, or at least were selected by South West to compete in the final.

Yeah but Aghagallon beat Ballymena handy in the South West Championship at some stage. The Breslin Cup I think it is called. But the South West put forward Ballymena to play in the final as they are league champions.

Edit: Not sure what stage they played Ballymena

[SaffronHeart]

Sarsfields are looking to change the league for self-preservation and as a result haven't really put proper planning into their proposal; Antrim clubs would definitely object to playing games without their county contingent as *starred* games are alien to the Antrim club scene. 10-12-12 may work better. As a division 3 player I do not mind either way if the proposal passes, as I feel playing the better teams improves standards as a whole. Contrary to popular belief, division 3 bar Aghagallon was quite competitive before the split.

I do like the idea of aligning the leagues with championship and the 12-12-10 would work better in that instance

[Stillwater2]

To say that proper thinking didnt go into the proposal is nonsense. There is less hurling games this year due to the Hurling league changes that come into affect this year so more chance to play the extra football fixtures under the proposals. Proposal prob wont go through but debate is good.

[Gold]

Good to see a lot of bigger names back in the County Senior Panel (see in today's Irish News).

There's nothing like it when the County are going well in the Championship, with those players available (and if fit) there's no reason why we couldn't beat Fermanagh in the prelim round and hopefully get the ball rolling

Any other names back/new names added?

[imtommygunn]

Is the squad anywhere online??

[jdyok]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/northern-ireland/35004823

[Gold]

Is John McCarron good?

No sign of the squad list--presume it isn't finalised yet

Mick McCann not back?

TS Express still retired?

Sean Kelly?

[country bumpkin]

Gold, John Carron was the Cargin and S West footballer of the year.............and he has made giant strides forward in 2015.
Michael Mc Cann is up to his eyes in the gym.....moving bis business to a new location.....but do not rule him out.
The TS express is 'retired' at the moment, but I fully expect his return to the fold in 2016.....

[jdyok]

U-21 Final St John's v Aghagallon will be played at Corrigan Park tomorrow at 2pm. Clubs tossed for venue...

[bannside]

Johnnies do the business as expected. That's some collection of medals this group has in football and hurling the whole way up from underage.  Credit where it's due to the Whiterock men.

Aghagallon weren't out of it and will like the look of their own crop to work with in the next few years.

Casements just got the better of Glenavy in a close fought B semi. Alex Gallagher looks a tremendous prospect.

[JimStynes]

Agahagallon only lose 1 player from that team and the others coming in are cracking footballers. St John's were massive compared to most of our boys. Some good footballers on St. John's team but nothing that lived up to the hype.

[Milltown Row2]

Agahagallon only lose 1 player from that team and the others coming in are cracking footballers. St John's were massive compared to most of our boys. Some good footballers on St. John's team but nothing that lived up to the hype.

So Cargin wont be quaking in their boots just yet?

[stiffler]

St John's team didn't look powerful for all the talk.

Def not in same league as the St galls team from 10 years ago (IMO).

Credit where credits due, great achievement to win both u21 grades.

Will be interesting to see how this team pans out.

[Hectic]

Think last years St Johns team were better and should have won Ulster only to throw it away against Glen.  That said they were pretty comfortable most of the way yesterday against a spirited Aghagallon.  Not sure if venue had much sway though would have been interesting had St Johns been the away team.  And I was wrong twice in saying that nobody would get within 10 pts of St Johns though I did say Aghagallon would run them closer than St Endas.  On hindsight and from I saw in the semi final Glenravel would also have came within a closer margin than the 10 pts so good to see a few reasonable teams within the county at this age-group.  As expected McDonald controlled the game excellently.