Antrim Football Thread

[down22]

A bit of both - meath let things slip a little, antrim were a (little) bit better. Antrim goal came very late. But Antrim never really looked liked coming back.

[Syd The Sailor]

How much did the thiefs charge in to it? I was all geared up to go then thought it will be pure shite and didnt bother.

[Caitlin]

It was 7 quid in. Antrim were second best. I have an interest on the team and Gormley seems to be committed but this was a lot worse than Wicklow.

[Syd The Sailor]

I think i made the right decision then, did young Mc Gourty come on?

[johnjoe]

Aye, young CJ made his official inter county senior debut. The announcer got his name wrong, the suit musnt have known what he looks like. Mc Gort got a good dig in the mouth from one of the Meath players, probably for slabbering about his mother or girlfriend. Thought Beller had put that nonsense out of him a few weeks back!The person manning the scoreboard made a c**k up, and the national anthem failed half way thru.

From a football perspective, it was a hard game to analyize. Meath looked bigger, better, stronger, sharper and played better football.

Antrim as usual took 25 passes to get across the half way line, and were made to work hard for every score. How hard can it be to stick a hightower in the edge of the square and put one or two in to test them. For me, Joe Quinn would be ideal in there, with Close or Cunningham playing off him. Or even Paddy Logan. Better still Benny Hasson.

At the end of the day, for all that, Meath won with two very soft goals. Finucane looked completely blinded for the first one, and their second looked a definite Square ball. Throw in the fact that the average age of the team is very young, and I wouldnt be over critical. Still think we are starting to produce a lot better type players  than ten-fifteen years ago and we must be patient.

As the eternal optimist, we can but hope, but can we really cut it at c`ship level without the following players?

Convery, Kelly, Magill, Micko, O`Boyle, Mc Gourty, and big Eddie Quinn is still the best midfielder in the county, and has been for ten years.

Every county needs their best players out, and for a variety of reasons we arnt gettin some of ours. If most of those seven were in there fighting it out for places, then think of the quality Jody would have to pick from.

Without them, well, its just going to take a bit longer!

[SlimShady]

Aye, young CJ made his official inter county senior debut. The announcer got his name wrong, the suit musnt have known what he looks like. Mc Gort got a good dig in the mouth from one of the Meath players, probably for slabbering about his mother or girlfriend. Thought Beller had put that nonsense out of him a few weeks back!The person manning the scoreboard made a c**k up, and the national anthem failed half way thru.

From a football perspective, it was a hard game to analyize. Meath looked bigger, better, stronger, sharper and played better football.

Antrim as usual took 25 passes to get across the half way line, and were made to work hard for every score. How hard can it be to stick a hightower in the edge of the square and put one or two in to test them. For me, Joe Quinn would be ideal in there, with Close or Cunningham playing off him. Or even Paddy Logan. Better still Benny Hasson.

At the end of the day, for all that, Meath won with two very soft goals. Finucane looked completely blinded for the first one, and their second looked a definite Square ball. Throw in the fact that the average age of the team is very young, and I wouldnt be over critical. Still think we are starting to produce a lot better type players  than ten-fifteen years ago and we must be patient.

As the eternal optimist, we can but hope, but can we really cut it at c`ship level without the following players?

Convery, Kelly, Magill, Micko, O`Boyle, Mc Gourty, and big Eddie Quinn is still the best midfielder in the county, and has been for ten years.

Every county needs their best players out, and for a variety of reasons we arnt gettin some of ours. If most of those seven were in there fighting it out for places, then think of the quality Jody would have to pick from.

Without them, well, its just going to take a bit longer!

Better than Mick McCann? I'd disagree with you on that score, having played with both.

[The Truth]

Johnjoe....What is this i have missed about Bell & Mc Gourty,i have seen a few posts alluding to something,did he give him a slap or what?

[johnjoe]

"allegedly" and "apparently" it was more than one slap. St Marys Uni versus Antrim a few weeks ago in a pre season. Just about as good an education as the peerless CJ will ever get. Apparently the verbals is part of his reportoire, with mothers and girlfriends tending to feature often. Either very brave or very stupid, I mean FFS would you want to talk to Beller like that. Either way, Bell did him a good turn in the long run!

Slim, big Eddie`s performance against St Galls was the highlight of last summer. I know he cant/wont play for Antrim, but he would be my full forward as a target man. Ok, Mick Mc Cann`s the man from the banks of the Bann now, but my post referred to the last ten years! Maybe some of the other Mc Canns coming through might be the business for the next ten. I`m a big fan of Mick`s, but he needs some more consistency in his game. Was AWOL Sat night!

[SlimShady]

johnjoe, your words were- big eddie quinn is still the best midfielder in the county.

You never mentioned full forward either.

[Syd The Sailor]

The Mc Gourty boys certainly like to talk, i would leave Ciaran exempt from this, hes a good lad. I have had to give motor mouth Kevin a few slaps down through the years for his mouthing on the hurling field. I was saying to the fella i was marking against St Galls that the Kevin boy was a terrible p***k and he said half his own team cant stick him......

[saffron sam2]

You clubs in the Belfast are all a shower of pricks - just heard the Ulster Colleges asked nearly all clubs in Belfast to use their ground for a MacRory semi final between St. Colman's Newry and St. Pat's Maghera yet every one of them said no.  Why might this be?  I mean you aren't even using the fields yourselves.  You don't even have football on most of them so why not let someone play on your fields? 
Maybe, and I hate saying this, your demonstrations are more important than football.  You've let us all down.

You are what is commonly known as a w**ker.  If you could answer me a few questions of my own:
1.  Where was the St. Patrick's Armagh vs. St. Louis Kilkeel quarter final played the previous weekend?
2.  Why did Rossa play their Ulster Senior league match against Carrickmore at St. Mary's and not their home pitch?
3.  Is it likely that St. Gall's have changed their policy of making their pitch avaialble whenever possible for Ulster Colleges' matches since Christmas?
4.  Why do you feel the game had to be played in Belfast?  Surely there are any number of neutral pitches in the general Armagh / Dungannon / Cookstown / lough shore area that could equally well have been used.  Did those clubs let us all down.

[johnjoe]

Point taken Slim. In fairness you are better placed to make that call. Both top players fair to say. Pity Big Eddie did`nt justify his potential at inter county level though. In his prime he would have been the first name on the team sheet!

[SlimShady]

Gerard O'Boyle is now on the Senior County Panel.

[johnjoe]

Thats big news Slim. Do you think he will really give it one big effort. Hope he does for the countys sake. By the way whats the crack with big Magill this weather. Do you know if he is still on the panel?

[nrico2006]

I remember writing something about mcgourty a few months ago on this site, about kevin mcgourty being so over-rated.  He has never done anything in ana ntrim jersey and maybe has played a few good games for st galls in antrim but has never shone in ulster club.  He is somehow at about 25 still playing with queens, and maybe scored a point at most in their 3 mckenna cup games.

Out of interest, what 5 all irelands has he played in two years?