Antrim Football Thread

[Maximus Marillius]

John Joe...for once I am in total agreement with ye...if the grass roots cannot support what is clearly a new drive to improve Antrims where withall...they need bad manners. Put up or put out.

[gallsman]

Fair enough, you're entitled to your opinion. However, from my own point of view, considering the amount of petty pickering that goes on between almost every club in the Antrim scene, naming and shaming is not the way forward. It simply reveals the number of sales, not the effort on the clubs' behalf to encourage those sales.

[saffron sam2]

Rather than penalise the clubs who sell none, surely some sort of incentive would work much better.  For example it clubs knew that anything from £20 - £50 for each ticket sold was going back into their coffers, then sales would certainly increase. Or if there was a reward for the clubs selling the laregst number of tickets per club member this might help.

I also heard of one club who employed a person to sell enough tickets to cover all the prizes and his commission with club members also selling tickets. If he didn't hit the target, he didn't get the money - the club were guaranteed not to lose any money.

The end result (the Antrim Strategic Plan) is the best piece of collective administrative work probably ever carried out. It is a roadmap designed to put Antrim GAA on the map. At its launch, Michael Greenan and Nuicky Brennan describe it as the best of its kind.

And Greenan afer all, though not always right, is seldom wrong.

[gallsman]

Was just readind the totals there, and there's a c**k up in the spreadsheet. Excel even says the formula is inconsistent. Who would be responsible for drawing up these things?

[aontroim]

I agree that more should be done, however it is not the business of the county board to be telling people exactly who has sold what. That will simply lead to bickering, name calling and downright idiotic ideas likr the one mentioned above.

I think it is EXACTLY the county board's business to provide information on ticket sales gallsman - I for one really doubt that the info is currently accurate and am sure the larger clubs will indeed have decent figures of sales at the end, but it is a catalyst for the ordinary club member to see what is or isn't happening in their club and do something about it.  I am aware of members who weren't even told by their club tickets were available from clubs and were only informed by seeing for themselves the stark reality of the figures on the website - showeing exactly the effort some clubs are going to in promoting this.

One example i know of a severe conflict of interest is St. Comgall's Antrim - they are currently selling £20 tickets for their own development draw around the county and further afield, but they can still manage to sell sweep tickets at the same time - so really there should be no excuse for other clubs.

Have also heard now that All-Ireland ticket allocation may be based on Sweep ticket sales! Ballsy if they go through with it.

[johnjoe]

Some interesting views. Ok, I know its totally unrealistic to throw clubs out of c`ships, and better to add incentives to sell v punishments for not. quite like the idea of with-holding all ireland finals tickets for clubs who dont hit their quotas, per rata, etc.

I was told Claudy Gac, a small club in North Derry, sold 80 tables for their corporate raceday, AND 2000 tickets for their own club draw at £100 each.

Kind of puts it into perspective, dosent it!

[imtommygunn]

I think Sam's idea of giving a small percentage of the ticket sale to the clubs is an excellent one.

A lot of it I think is down to success as well. I think if, for example, we had a draw in 1989 we would have sold significantly more tickets than we do now. If you did a draw like this in Armagh / Tyrone at the minute you would rake in the money. However if you had done it in Armagh 10 years ago it would not have been remotely as successful. Those people think like if I give this money it'll help us win Sam again. With Antrim at the minute obviously the mindset is different and it's win a game...

The name and shame I think is an excellent idea though. It's important everyone puts the effort in. I would go one step further and show the number of members per club and have a "ratio"/percentage or something of that effect. Numbers are all well and good but you would expect larger clubs to sell larger amounts etc.

This draw is a great idea and an excellent starting point. I think seeing benefit is something that is maybe a problem for a lot of people. I have no doubt that this money will be put to good use. However like I say a lot of people's mentality is what will this get me? Will we win the all ireland? It's a good starting point and such things will get better in time bu we also need time for people to buy into it. A wee bit of money to clubs would perhaps give people "visible" benefit which might help. It's hard to know. It's one which has provoked a lot of debate and most people are quite negative which is unfortunate.

I would also question Max about whether he thinks such a draw would be a huge success in Derry? I don't know if it would...

[Syd]

How did Under 21 final go tonight?

[PrivatePile]

Is the CJ hype machine starting to die down? i watched him the other night hurling against Glenariffe and he was atrocious, his mouth was pretty active though, that aspect has got him in trouble before...Reference- Gavin Bell !!

[johnjoe]

No matter what O Prey ever does with the county, he will always be associated with the Crozier and Pollock episodes. Oh yes, and the total game plan(no plan B) in last years Ulster minor final, around a player who had a serious chest infection, couldnt run, got sick, won a few balls and kicked them wide,  didnt play ball to man in much better position three times, got sick again, gets taken off, his side make a comeback, CJ (planA) gets thrown back in again last fifteen, and team end up with nothing except a ten point defeat, and a harsh lesson that you dont build your dreams around one player, especially one who should be lying at home in his bed.

Grim stuff indeed.

Now the man might be a good organiser, and a businessman etc, but what can ANYONE tell me is/was his football CV.
Who did he play for, coach, what level coaching(level 2). Does he know a good footballer if he sees one. Has he any tactical awareness, etc. Maybe I have a slanted view, but that has been shaped by last years Croke park fiasco,(yes it was a good achievement to get there) and the Crozier and Pollock episodes.

[PlayWithTheWind]

less than 2weeks to go.....

any predictions on team line-out? any news?

[aontroim]

less than 2weeks to go.....

any predictions on team line-out? any news?

pwtw i thought you were fairly close to the setup - should the news not be coming from yourself?

[PlayWithTheWind]

im just trying to find out what people think!

[imtommygunn]

I think(and hope) that this match will be a lot tighter than a lot of people reckon. Hopefully Mr. Brolly will be giving some good advice.

Paddy "Hands" Cunningham should be back for Antrim by all accounts which would be a big boost especially with the unavailabilty of Kevin McGuckin. I would also anticipate a few younger boys to start - Loughrey, Crozier and even possibly young O'Boyle at corner back. I wonder who'll be full back. Would McVeigh fit the bill?

Hopefully Joe Quinn will be in there and give some physical presence. Close and Cunningham in the forward line are a bit small so I'm hopefully they'll have a big man in there to help them out and like other people have alluded to before I'd not have Kevin Niblock near the team... McGourty as an impact sub. too.

Derry , without Bradley, should lack real potency in attack. If Muldoon can be denied goal chances in there I don't think they have forwards capable of hitting 3/4 points in a game and if they can stifle Gilligan they should cut off any good supply. Have yet to see Lynch do anything of real merit at intercounty level - hopefully I won't eat those words!

Optimistically - Antrim by two...

[PlayWithTheWind]

any thoughts on the starting line-up?