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Interesting game yesterday.

Oops, edit...

Best team probably won.

From Donegal viewpoint I would be a wee bit concerned about full back line though. Paddy Campbell looked poor enough yesterday and the no.2 wasn't too hot. At the end though Donegal were dropping to injuries so they did well to hold on. Devenney coming back will make a big difference and I would expect Kavanagh to make the 15.

Mayo have some good footballers. Moran was superb.Keith HIggins is a good wee player. However where was Conor Mortimer? Gardiner as well?

As a unit the forward line didn't really perform. They seem to have four or five players playing for places who are all at the same level.

Who are Na fuiseoig?

Armoy ran the gorts a lot closer than I would have expected them to.

Ahoghill should still have a lot of fitness in there from their all ireland campaign so maybe a bit early to say rasharkin to go straight back down just yet. There's an imbalance in that division 2 though - the strong teams are actually decent(ish) hurling teams while the bottoms teams are actually quite poor. I think the divisions are split well enough though so I suppose not much can be done.

Are GNM in the senior championship?

I would put them as better than Portglenone or Rasharkin.

St Brigids - well they will likely be the worst team in it.

Cregann are a good wee side who have very good underage structures in place. They may claim a few scalps this season. In Antrim there are only really two good teams about. There's no reason why Creggan can't be as good as Lamh Dhearg who in my opnion are no world beaters and are very reliant on Cunningham's accuracy from placed balls and St Paul's also. By all accounts GNM could be up around the third best team too. There are a lot of average sides in senior in Antrim at present with two exceptional ones.

Leitrim were in croke last year for the tommy murphy cup final.

Would agree to a point with JJ.

We are now producing a quality calibre of player who can compete at Sigerson level etc. However on the other side of the coin an amount of this talent has come through Derry schools - McCann, Crozier etc. Brady and Madden came from Derry schools  Belfast schools are becoming increasingly competitive in the McLarnon cup though which can only be beneficial and in this years sigerson we had some of the best young players - Cunningham, Crozier etc. and not all of these boys came through Derry schools.

We need to be producing this calibre of players year in year out. I still think the standard of coaching we have may fall a wee bit short as I think sometimes you can see in our players a shortcoming with the "fundamentals". You can have certificates till you're blue in the face but I think a lot of the youth certifications are over-rated. I think the standards here can be improved.

We have a problem Derry and Tyrone haven't got so much. Realistically the primary game in Antrim is hurling - this splits attentions and leads to vast areas not playing the big ball game. The point about the attendances at championship games is a valid one however I just don't think we have the numbers in some clubs to generate huge attendances. Cargin aside there are no rural clubs in Antrim with significant playing or member population. In a lot of rural clubs the community revolves round the GAA but there just aren't enough numbers. You have an example of Creggan - Creggan is a small small place, Portglenone has a very small nationalist population, likewise Ahoghill, Ballymena and maybe to a lesser extent Rasharkin. Glenravel is small as is Moneyglass and to be honest I've touched on most of the non city clubs worth talking about in a football sense. The city clubs are another issue altogether. Derry can't really tackle the problem of city clubs. In the city it is harder to maintain interest among youth. You could play St Johns / St Pauls etc. and see a different team each year.  St Galls are different as they are now successful and "success breeds success" and all that.

We have problems in:
- not enough population
- split between football and hurling
- the city ships a lot of players to other sports and other influences.

I do think we are moving forward though but I still believe the standard of youth coaching needs to be improved.  The U21 and minor teams we have are of a much higher standard now than they were about ten years ago. That can only be good. In five or six years time I think we will have a team who would be a good bit better than division 4 status but I think we have a way to go to get there.

The championship is a one off and Derry are no world beaters either especially if you curb Paddy Bradley. Don't think we'll beat Derry but we'll give them a better game than some people think...

In the off chance that Antrim don't do the double I'd like Waterford for the hurling and Donegal or Mayo for the football.

St Galls seem to get caught on the hop sometimes early on - well twice with both being from Cargin and one not counting in the end but they'll have no momentum going into this one so Lamh Dhearg to cause a surprise. St Pauls are poor so Cargin to beat them. The rest to be honest will be no challenge to these two and you take Cunningham's frees out and Cargin are a good bit better so Cargin again.

Intermediate - Dunloy

Junior - the aggies or odonnells should be too good for this level. Prediction- the aggies.

I'd say St. Enda's are your best bet. They play at a higher standard for a start. Ardoyne won Antrim junior but the standard of it would be very very low.

St. Enda's are probably in transition as they had a strong team for a good while but all the good players - Darby, Coogan etc. were the same age and are probably on the way out if they're not already.

They do however have a few knocking round underage county panels which bodes well. They also, from what I mind, are a decent enough bunch and could ,if they got it together, make a reasonable push for the intermediate championship. Ardoyne would be a long way off.

There would be more "blow ins" in the st endas hurling set up than the football one. That's not to say they'd not make them welcome!

Also - I've no idea of your ability but St Endas have two teams. Ardoyne wouldn't have this.

N.B. I have no affiliation to either club!

Excellent win and one which brings Dublin right back down to earth with a bang.

In a lot of these matches I don't think Antrim even believe they can compete whereas Dublin are a team they have always believed they can beat. Therein is a big difference.

Good to hear McManus improved and Ciarn Herron has been off the boil a bit for a while so would be good to see him back to his former self. Shields is too young and slight for this level but there is a serious dearth of forward talent in this squad so I would say managements hands are kind of forced here. I think we have the makings of a good full and half back line but from there up I'm just not so sure the talent is there.

McFall's attitude has always stank. This is the boy who in a club match, when winning by a cricket score against GNM, hit a penalty from down on his knees. That says it all really.

Donaghy apparently out for 8 weeks with a dislocated shoulder.

It'd have been interesting to see what tactics master tactician Harte would have employed against him. I suspect Gormley dropping back to sweep up a la 2005 final against Gooch would have been his answer.

Raymoond Mulgrew looks an excellent prospect but would he really have the physical power yet to play in midfield??

He looks to have the makings of an excellent half forward but midfield??

Yeah that admin sometimes seems like an arrogant gob****e- wonder who he is.

Milltown or skull I'm not sure about your attitude though. We just got to the AI minor quarter finals, have had some hugely impressive performers in the sigerson(yes some are in the antrim squad), had a team in the AI club final last year etc. etc. We are by no means utilising our resources to the best of our ability and that needs to be looked at but the standard of football in this county is considerably better than 30th, 31st or 32nd in the country. Granted the league campaign thus far has been duff but we'll get better. Like someone says we'll not win Sam but things can only get better.

I could see your point in the hurling with go back to clubs bu not the football.

I still reckon we'll give Derry a rattle. Just because Derry beat a shadow Armagh team yesterday and a flu ridden antrim sauqd got beat by wexford doesn't mean anything.

Sligonian your rants are akin to Thierry Henry's after the champions league final last year. They stink of being a sore loser.

I've heard that your man isn't the greatest referee in the world right enough but do you really think he went out of his way to cheat Sligo out of a game? This man , say what you like about him, gives up his spare time to referee games. He can have his bad days and should be entitled to a bit of criticism for them but to call him a cheat and go the way you are going about it is a bit OTT.

Bad refereeing performance - by all accounts yes.
Bad referee - again by all accounts yes.
Cheat - I wouldn't have thought so.

At the end of the day and it's like other people have said if Sligo were that much better they should have put them away bad ref. or not.

Rice and McMenamin...

Ah these must be the two sides to Ryan McMenamin. Who put the knee down - Rice or McMenamin or did one knee velong to each side of his personality...

How did this thread descend into this shite?

Good win for Tyrone. 10 points for one player in a championship game is some scoring. They'll be hard to beat.

Am I missing it - or did someone post who won the intermediate hurling?

There were at least three boys on the antrim team - cushendun, cushendall and loughgiel. Check the antrim site as there's an article on it.

Are any of these on the TV?

PS Come on the Clooney Gaels!