Antrim Football Thread

[Gold]

A Minor league game--awful decision

[Rasharkin Gael]

David McAlernon? Where did he go?

[Hoof Hearted]

Rasharkin Gael - agree with you that this is a good crop of under 21s and the 89 team was well above average too. Think Timmy Connolly was also on that team.

Regards the best in recent years - surely that mantle belonged to the team of 2005. Beat Armagh in a pre season by 12 points in Lurgan, beat Fermanagh by 12 in the first round of Ulster, and lost by two 0-13 to 0-11 in Omagh when we were without Crozier and CJ who had both played in the first round.

I maintain we would have beaten Tyrone comfortably with a full team. Tyrone won Ulster and lost to winners Mayo by a point in extra time. This won was lost by the administration of the day, but I have aired that several times before, and sure, so what. It was just an all -ireland! No one listened back then - the admin had no idea of the quality coming through at that time.

Back to Armagh though. We lost to them in Crossmaglen by 3 points in 2004, without Paul Doherty, Michael Magill and Stephen O Connell. After that Armagh went the whole way.

I will contend that those two year groups, Mick, Paddy C, Niblock, Locky, Andy, Tomas, not to mention Aidso, CJ, Crozier, were actually our best group since the 69 team that won.

Was that Locky McCurdy, i assumed he would have been overage !!

[bannside]

Thats James Loughrey Hoof!

Davy Mc Alernon a class act - as good the whole way from u-15 to u-21 as the other leading lights of his 1985 year - Mick, Andy, Paddy Hands, Niblock etc. Other notable players in that year were Gribbeys, Paddy Carey, and a good keeper in Stephen Harbinson.

As far as I know Davy went to the merchant navy or something, or worked in a cruise ship somewhere. He was a huge miss too I thought.

This team in their Buncrana Cup year beat Down, Monaghan, Armagh to win our group, and beat Raymond Munroes Tyrone by 11 points in Lurgan in the semi final. We lost Gribbeys and a class corner back from Davitts, Holy trinity boxer Martin Tully for the final against Derry.

He would have been lining Derry corner forward Declan Bateson, who scored two goals for Derry in the first five minutes. After that we held our own. Most of that Derry team won the All Ireland minor the following year.

The year group above ITG (1984) included Aidso, Paul Doc, Micko, Stephen Mc Veigh and Mark Dougan.

The year behind coughed up James Loughrey and Declan O Hagan.

Apologise if I left anyone out - there were lots of others who got run outs for the county at different stages too, and other very promising playersho didnt follow up - but the ones listed would be the answer to ITG`s question.

[The Worker]

David McAlernon? Where did he go?

Working in construction overseas

[AQMP]

Antrim team to play Queen's tonight.  I notice Michael Magill's name has been absent from the last two panels.

1  WILLIE MC SORLEY

2  PATRICK GALLAGHER
3  MARTY JOHNSTON
4  RYAN DALY

5  PATRICK MC BRIDE
6  ANTO HEALY
7  MARK MC ALEESE

8  CONAL KELLY
9  SIMON MC DONAGH

10 CONOR MURRAY
11 KEVIN MARRON
12 JAMES LOUGHERY

13 BRIAN NEESON
14 TOMAS MC CANN
15 PADDY CUNNINGHAM

16 CHRIS KERR
17 MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
18 SEAN FINCH
19 JUSTIN CROZIER
20 AODHAN GALLAGHER
21 MARK DOUGAN
22 COLM DUFFIN
23 RICKY JOHNSTON
24 DEAGHLAN O HAGAN
25 TONY SCULLION

[imtommygunn]

Cheers BS. Paul Doc seems to have gone off the radar for some reason.

I saw McAlernon play about 3 years ago in the league. He didn't look half fit but shaped well.

Really hope Magill is still in the panel as I think we need him for the FF line Good to see some experimentation though.

On another note I see we got something like 3 college all stars which is positive,

[bannside]

100% right about Magill ITG. Noticable that his name is not on the panel.

Was one of our better performers against Fermanagh, and was then taken off, noticably unimpressed! Hope this can get sorted as he provides some class and strength in a traditionally lightweight forward line not renowned for winning dirty ball. Especially with Niblock missing.He has been a "bit" player during Bakers tenure, and I`m not sure where the fault lies - but he might need to be taken another way, as a coach I mean. He would definitely be on my hypothetical team!

Personally I was really looking forward to seeing him and Mark Dougan on the same forward line, at the same time. Good mates off the pitch - I think there would be a dividend there.

[imtommygunn]

Yeah I think Dougan should be a starter too. Not sure why he didn't make the team against donegal last year but him and Magill add a bit of strength in there which is badly lacking. Magill seems to be in and out of panels. Really hope nothing has happened behind the scenes with him.

[Rasharkin Gael]

That must be the lightest full forward line in inter-county football! I thought Baker talked about Antrim being more physical this season, dont understand why he has to line those three out at the same time. By Paul Doc, did u mean PD from my own club?

[bannside]

Yes RG. He was another great prospect too. Definitely good enough for the current squad too. Whats up with him?

The year we went fairly close to Armagh (2004) PD broke a toe or something like that in a friendly for Rasharkin against Claudy or Criagbane the Sunday before if I remember. He was a bad miss for us that day too. Antrim were 3 down with six or seven to go, and panicked, and went for goals. Looking back after the match, if we had gone for the simple points instead, we could have sneaked a draw.

That onlys only worth considering in the light we had four (include Karl Stewart in the list of unavailable that day) big players missing, the match was in Crossmaglen, and they went on to win the thing! Sometimes we were a bit better than the general public realised at the time. None of those teams were ever too far away.

To be honest I was full of optimism for our future, but a lot of those players are in their prime now, and the next couple of years is shit or bust for them. I was expecting more of this generation to tell you the truth.

[Rasharkin Gael]

Antrim 2-12 qub 1-14 , good win to finish McKenna cup. Neeson had good game, scored 1-4 I think.

[Rasharkin Gael]

I thought pd was fantastic for the club last year. Don't know why he's not in current squad, I was surprised he wasn't. Will ask him the craic!

[imtommygunn]

I always wondered why Johnny McAleese never made it for the county RG on the subject of Rasharkin boys.

[bloodybreakball]

davy mc alernon went nd worked in the bahama's for a while after minors but came back within a year or 18 months i think. magills working out of the country, dont think there is anything to it, hope there is not like the rest of youse.