Antrim Football Thread

[delgany]

League fixtures, indoor 5 a side, championship games take place in schools affiliated to Cumann na Bunscoil in football & hurling.
There are 4 or 5 graded leagues.

[bannside]

Teaching has changed. Its no longer 9 to 3.30pm. Any teachers I know complain about being up half the night with paperwork, marking tests or filling in forms. The gaa teacher who used to give up 10 hours a week to stay behind after school three days a week are like hens teeth. There arnt too many Paul Buchanans about any more! We just didnt appreciate them enough at the time, probably took their volunteer ethos for granted.

[Kidder81]

Teaching has changed. Its no longer 9 to 3.30pm. Any teachers I know complain about being up half the night with paperwork, marking tests or filling in forms. The gaa teacher who used to give up 10 hours a week to stay behind after school three days a week are like hens teeth. There arnt too many Paul Buchanans about any more! We just didnt appreciate them enough at the time, probably took their volunteer ethos for granted.

Yeah you hear that a lot from them, especially these days. It's nonsense

[delgany]

Teaching has changed. Its no longer 9 to 3.30pm. Any teachers I know complain about being up half the night with paperwork, marking tests or filling in forms. The gaa teacher who used to give up 10 hours a week to stay behind after school three days a week are like hens teeth. There arnt too many Paul Buchanans about any more! We just didnt appreciate them enough at the time, probably took their volunteer ethos for granted.

Secondary schools certainly have the staff to manage multiple teams, the facilities to  support and the financial resources to support player development. Some of the Grammar schools employ games dev officers specifically for GAA

Primary schools are struggling to employ Male teachers as a starting point ( acknowledging that female staff do step up ) . Many don't have the resources and funding to spend on sport, due to the inadequate funding from NI EXec .....but that is another saga !

[delgany]

Teaching has changed. Its no longer 9 to 3.30pm. Any teachers I know complain about being up half the night with paperwork, marking tests or filling in forms. The gaa teacher who used to give up 10 hours a week to stay behind after school three days a week are like hens teeth. There arnt too many Paul Buchanans about any more! We just didnt appreciate them enough at the time, probably took their volunteer ethos for granted.

Yeah you hear that a lot from them, especially these days. It's nonsense

Another Educational Expert !

[JimStynes]

Teaching has changed. Its no longer 9 to 3.30pm. Any teachers I know complain about being up half the night with paperwork, marking tests or filling in forms. The gaa teacher who used to give up 10 hours a week to stay behind after school three days a week are like hens teeth. There arnt too many Paul Buchanans about any more! We just didnt appreciate them enough at the time, probably took their volunteer ethos for granted.

Jesus Christ don't be saying that.

[bannside]

Have I touched a raw nerve? Ive tackled a few school principals about the lack of gaa activity and have got the consistent reply that its far harder now to get teachers to commit to after school activities than it was ten or twenty years ago.

Is that not accurate? Im not talking about the hard core here (Delgany maybe that is you) but the ones you expect to take an involvement... but cant wait to jump in the car and get out the school gates.

[delgany]

Have I touched a raw nerve? Ive tackled a few school principals about the lack of gaa activity and have got the consistent reply that its far harder now to get teachers to commit to after school activities than it was ten or twenty years ago.

Is that not accurate? Im not talking about the hard core here (Delgany maybe that is you) but the ones you expect to take an involvement... but cant wait to jump in the car and get out the school gates.

Definitely changing times for staff in schools, in terms of prep work, marking etc.  Demographic issue  as well,  just 15% of prim sch staff are males- about 1300 for all six county prim schools. So 650 in maintained sector
It is hard to get a GAA mad teacher into every school.

[JimStynes]

Have I touched a raw nerve? Ive tackled a few school principals about the lack of gaa activity and have got the consistent reply that its far harder now to get teachers to commit to after school activities than it was ten or twenty years ago.

Is that not accurate? Im not talking about the hard core here (Delgany maybe that is you) but the ones you expect to take an involvement... but cant wait to jump in the car and get out the school gates.

No, what you are saying is true. But people don't like to think teachers are busier these days. Sure we only work half a year and finish at 3 each day.

I've found the Antrim primary school leagues to be poor enough. There wasn't enough games or tournaments for the children. I now teach near Lurgan and it is much better organised but they have a few more things going for them like the proximity of schools. The South West primary schools were so spread out that it was always a pain in the ass to organise a tournament without having to get buses etc, plus some schools were far bigger or better than some schools. Not much fun for children when they're getting completely tanked every tournament. Whereas there are nearly 20 primary schools close to Lurgan that the most you need to drive is 5/6 mile. Because of the amount of schools it is easy to then divide teams up into size of schools to try and make it a fair competition. I think we had 12-14 blitzes in our league and then there are a good few stand alone tournaments spread out over the year. No soccer tournaments, all just GAA.

Maybe this has started in Antrim recently but Armagh clubs all pay money for coaches to go into schools and coach twice a week. It's a big enough investment but it helps out the club with numbers are underage level. There just seems to be more interest and more GAA people working in the schools around Lurgan and that makes a massive difference. A lot of the schools in Belfast, Crumlin, Antrim and Lisburn couldn't care less about GAA and were more soccer orientated. Silly things like non uniform days shows the difference in interest when there's hardly a GAA top in sight and in my school and my nephew's school it's nothing but club and county gear on those days. No one is driving it in the schools. There are huge numbers in these areas and very few people playing Gaelic or hurling.

Gaelfast has a much bigger task on its hands than Dublin GAA ever had and the money they're getting isn't going to scratch the surface.

[Belfast GAA man]

im hearing JImmy Darragh from the Ulster Council is temporary chief of Gaelfast chief but still no county statement on matter - pontius pilate at play by county Board? i also hear the county noard interfering in Gaelfast was a reason for both departUres - Happy Friday Gaels!

[whatwillbwillb]

im hearing JImmy Darragh from the Ulster Council is temporary chief of Gaelfast chief but still no county statement on matter - pontius pilate at play by county Board? i also hear the county noard interfering in Gaelfast was a reason for both departUres - Happy Friday Gaels!

Been saying this the last few weeks BGM....Political etc etc etc no one seems to be willing to grasp the proverbial nettle!!!

[marty34]

im hearing JImmy Darragh from the Ulster Council is temporary chief of Gaelfast chief but still no county statement on matter - pontius pilate at play by county Board? i also hear the county noard interfering in Gaelfast was a reason for both departUres - Happy Friday Gaels!

Who's the two departures?

[BigBallWeeBall]

im hearing JImmy Darragh from the Ulster Council is temporary chief of Gaelfast chief but still no county statement on matter - pontius pilate at play by county Board? i also hear the county noard interfering in Gaelfast was a reason for both departUres - Happy Friday Gaels!

Been saying this the last few weeks BGM....Political etc etc etc no one seems to be willing to grasp the proverbial nettle!!!

I don't understand what is the point you're making. Can you please provide some details

[whatwillbwillb]

im hearing JImmy Darragh from the Ulster Council is temporary chief of Gaelfast chief but still no county statement on matter - pontius pilate at play by county Board? i also hear the county noard interfering in Gaelfast was a reason for both departUres - Happy Friday Gaels!

Been saying this the last few weeks BGM....Political etc etc etc no one seems to be willing to grasp the proverbial nettle!!!

I don't understand what is the point you're making. Can you please provide some details



We are not following a Gaa and whats good for Antrim agenda anymore thats the point Im making, the rest I'll leave to your own due diligence.

[Dunsilly King]

The day of relying on teachers to do the clubs job are over. We in Antrim are late to the party realising it. A question for u, when is the last time a Dublin college won the Hogan? You would think with all those GPOs in clubs the schools would have the players. The answer is they have the players but the teachers won't put in the extra free time. Also most primary schools teachers are female and have no football coaching knowledge. The Dublin GPOs are club focussed lads