Messages

If Croke Park decide to "redirect" the funding into grass roots activities the hurling areas won't see a pound of it. County Boards will hoover it up and use it for football.

What about these counties that spend a fortune on their football teams each year with no hope of ever doing anything ?

You'll not be shocked to hear all five of those county boards are onboard with this decision according to GAA.ie.

It's interesting that there's someone looking at this considering we don't have a hurling Czar in place and haven't had for a few years and they've come up with this plan, but wonder if they could have done all this development work on the ground AND kept the county teams in place??

Radical, I know.

Strange that I can't find the link to the article on GAA.ie now where they state that all 5 counties were onboard with this proposal, someone never told Fermanagh County board and they've strayed off message.

I hope that the other four follow suit and if the rest of the counties vote this through then that's a shame on the whole association and Croke Park especially.

I don't see Cushendall beating Slaughtneil tbh. I do hope I am wrong. Cushendall have a physicality which is much better than a lot of teams in antrim but that won't be the same against Slaughtneil. It depends on how McManus is handled by Slaughneil I guess and then what Cushendall do with Rodgers. I think Cushendall have better defenders than anyone in ulster to handle Rodgers but there's a few other boys in there too and I am not convinced they have enough of a spread in the forwards. Again hope I am wrong.

I'd let Eoghan Campbell do a job on Rodgers, serious defender is Campbell, take Rodgers out and you seriously blunt Slaughtneil but they do have others.
If Rodgers starts to have a big impact in the game he'll not only bother the scoreboard but is good at bringing his teammates into the game as well.

McManus is going to be in for some serious treatment at the other end though, it won't be the kid gloves stuff Tom Murray was at yesterday either.

Well will Cushendall keep it pucked out to Slaughtneil or did they get the dirty diesel out of their system yesterday?

If Slaughtneil have maintained the same standards as last year then they'd go in as slight favourites IMO.

[Not one bit of mitigation for this]

Don't forget they were paying the wages of icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Signed him for €40 million.
Couldn't play the player, couldn't cancel his contract, couldn't sell him.
Not one bit of mitigation for this
Nor construction inflation costs on the stadium

And yes, Usmanov was sponsoring the training ground through his companies, would probably have supplied all the steel for the stadium and in all likelihood have bought naming rights for the new stadium

I don't see why this would matter?

It was an impact on their ability to generate income. The more income you can generate, the more you can spend, that's how FFP works.

Motion 7
Naomh Éanna CLG proposes that prior to the commencement of league
competitions (Antrim GAA), all and any participants (i.e., counties including and
not limited to; Ard Mhacha, An Dún, Doire & Tír Eoghain), to provide a graded
list of county players that shall not be eligible for phase one games.

Ah OK I get this. Different counties have different rules regarding county hurlers. St endas hurling with 2 of Their stronger hurlers while the down lads are maybe allowed to hurl the sunday after representing down on the Saturday

If they played on the Saturday they are not allowed to play on the Sunday in Down, trust me I know.
If they were an unused sub and county management agree to allow them to play for their club the next day then that's the only avenue for the above scenario.
We also had to contend with 5 or 6 U20's not being allowed to play for the club if they'd a game the following Saturday with the county board line being that the county management get first preference until they are out of all competitions, split season and all that.

Currently we'd have three or four county senior players at best, so we'd not really be impacted that much, but the likes of Portaferry and Ballycran would be out seven or eight players due to the Down panel being picked from much less clubs than Antrim.

Fair play to St Enda's, they've truly cemented themselves as a Div1 team within the old system(s) which they deem to be so unfair on them and yes, the trick is staying there and you'll only do that by blooding young lads at this level.
We've a bigger bone of contention with the U20 thing than with the senior exclusion list if the truth be told for this very reason. We need to blood the young fellas and get them up to speed in phase 1 and build from there.

Why was there only 5 portaferry men on the line with the keeper, is that rule for all fouls? I thought it was just for technical fouls

They possibly thought it was a 21 yard / 20 metre free where 5 defenders are allowed on the goal line.

However I dont think the foul was committed on the 21, a metre or so off it.

Portaferry would have been permitted to pack their goal line with more than 5 players if that was the case.

A bit like Na Piarsaigh when they played Loughgiel a few years ago and Liam Watson drilled it past a packed goal line.

There was a score for Portaferry where the umpire waved it as a wide. Ref went in to check as he may have had the same opinion it was a score, but the umpire was adamant. I was sure it was a score as did the commentary team.

Id say Portaferry were reminded about last years semi final v Slaughtneil where they hurled for the first 10 minutes and dunged the togs as Slaughtneil moved through the gears.

They came out yesterday and took the game to Cushendall from the start. They were the better team in normal time and Neil McManus did get Cushendall out of jail - but what a performance from him.

Extra time and Cushendall switched into championship mode  to over run the Ports who had really emptied the tank.

Ports had emptied the tank in ordinary time, quite a few down with cramp in injury time giving young McLaughlin that bit more time and space he needed to fire over the scores in junk time as the yanks would call it.

Eoghan Sands was a big loss to the Ports, he's their go to forward and a lot of their scores come through him.

The Dall keeper will be sleeping much easier than he'd have expected to be.

McManus showed that bit of cuteness to get himself that bit of time and space to get shots off that most others on the park lacked.
He'll have it all to do in two weeks time and the SN defence will be much, much tighter in all senses of that word.

Gut wrenching for Portaferry. Should have got the win today.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of 'what ifs' on the long road back to the Ards Peninsula from Armagh. There were chances when they could have sealed it, but there's a lot of positives to take away from today nonetheless. They gave it a lash. Couldn't have asked much more of them.

Plenty of young players stood up today when it was needed, and there'll be plenty for them to take away from this game.

If Portaferry perform like that regularly,  the future could be bright for this group.

Ultimately Neil McManus was the difference. Other players played their role, but not many can do what McManus did today. To score half of Cushendall's points, keeping the Antrim men within touching distance of Portaferry, before putting the free in the net with the last puck of the game, to put the match to extra time, was phenomenal on his behalf.

Genuinely think the Ports gave it their best shot, and couldn't have done too much more today. Did themselves proud.

White line fever...

They had it in sight, four points up. 5 minutes of ordinary time to go and spurned the additional few points that would have put the game beyond Cushendall..

Making the right call, not shooting wildly in panic comes with experience and that bit of knowhow in tight situations.

The injury to Eoghan Sands was pivotal all the same, he ran himself into the ground.

Ref tight on Portaferry here....

Sad news this morning with the breaking news of the death of Sean McCashin, the Down Ulster Council delegate and referee.
Thoughts and prayers for his family and friends.
He's been a member of our club the last few years.

RIP Sean.

Everton screwed by the Russians and their invasion

Money tap from Usmanov turned off

Man City and Chelsea must have much better lawyers. Surely this points deduction will be appealed

Did Usmanov put one brass farthing of his own into Everton or did he just use his wealth to leverage more debt against the club?

That's nice!

Ruín 3

Naomh Éanna CLG proposes that all Phase one games (i.e. first round) of league competitions shall be played within County Antrim.
In line with normal procedure, any application to change the fixtures shall be subject to CCC approval and agreement of both clubs.


What's this about?

I may be reading it wrong but it looks like Everton exceeded the 105m limit over the three years by about 20m.

If so, a single (average) player deal could have been the difference.

They bought some overpriced dross and on big wages thanks to Moshiri and his superagent friend...

A few weeks back I'd have said Everton were doomed with that sort of points reduction but they've shown a bit of form and the three promoted teams haven't shown anything. Even with the 10 points deduction they're above Burnley and only another 2 points would get them out of the relegation zone.

They'll appeal on the grounds that the severity of the punishment is based on Everton not co-operating with the investigation and Everton PLC are adamant that they did.
I'd expect to see the 10 points reduced.

Chelsea and City are relegated though, mark my words...

Cushendall should have too much problems at the weekend, Ports will put it up to them for large parts of the first and early second half but expect Cushendall to pull away and win by 5 or 6 points

Creggan will get it tough again, none of their games have been easy this year, which means they are defo battle hardened, also McCann is getting more games and getting sharper with each game

Hopefully both come through and set themselves up for a double for the county

Cushendall have been a fruitful hunting ground for the Ards teams in the Ulster championship, but yes Cushendall are hot favourites alright, but if I was in the Portaferry changing room I'd be telling them to go full bore from the get go and see how Cushendall respond. Ports are weak enough mentally and the conversation I had with one of their selectors recently hasn't changed my mind on that. They seem happy with a Down championship, a common theme in Portaferry over the years rather than kick on for a go at Ulster. I never got that, it's a two/three horse race in Down FFS.
They downed tools quickly last year vrs Slaughtneil, I'd hope they don't do the same this weekend!

[Tony Kelly just hasn't performed on the big occasion]

Ultimately they are individual awards though and take for example KK - Eoin Cody, Lawlor, Butler etc are outstanding individuals. Limerick are much better as a team and tbh as individuals they are too but had a bit of churn this year with injuries or would deserve more. (Incidentally I actually don't think their 2 midfielders deserved one).

Clare have some outstanding individuals but Tony Kelly just hasn't performed on the big occasion too many times to get one - I would agree he didn't deserve one and the others just didn't do enough. Galway weren't really at it this year tbh.

Yet Butler gets one for keeping him quiet??

Don't agree on the TJ Reid one but this happens all the time with great hurlers in their twilight years pick up a few extra baubles, same as Henry at Horgan.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/amazon-fire-tv-55-4-series-4k-uhd-smart-tv/dp/B09N6YL3Y4?pf_rd_r=53876BNJTFYGCJ7QY9A1&pf_rd_t=PageFrameworkApplication&pf_rd_i=92074937031&pf_rd_p=9f2b02ed-0721-4868-98ea-d3724cae9b7a&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&ref=dlx_92074_sh_dcl_img_1_0444c44a_dt_mese4_7a

any good if I get an invite

Heard they are good enough TV's but £150 for a 55" TV it's a no brainer.

Hope I get an invite too