Messages

Daly earning a kings ransom as part of the Limerick development set up, courtesy of JP.

9 Points down,, and ciaran johnston sent off,,, looks like christy ring next year

big changes needed

New manager?

who?

Kevin Ryan has demonstrated that he is not capable of managing Antrim. Div 2A & Christy Ring in 3 years. Says it all really.

Full Time Carlow 2-18 Antrim 1-11

Simon McCrory red card.

Carlow down to 13.Ryan McCambridge stretchered off.

9 Points down,, and ciaran johnston sent off,,, looks like christy ring next year

big changes needed

New manager?

Ciaran Johnson red card. Both teams playing with 14. Carlow seem to be hurling out of their skin.

Latest Carlow 1-15 Antrim 1-6

My point is, they are playing to a system to which they are being coached by the county management eg. the short handpassing.

Its not working & the management do not seem to have an alternative.

Plenty of teams move the ball out of pressure with a short handpass. Why shouldn't Antrim be attempting to do it? The fact its not working isn't down to the system being wrong. We are where we are and have zero reason to think we "should" be better than the likes of Kerry or Westmeath. Our structures and our levels of interest are weaker than they should be and it looks as if we are living hand to mouth year on year rather than having a system where both administrative structures and player commitment are a given. Its perfectly easy for me to not be surprised that Westmeath are stronger than us if their structures are better.

Skull agree with you. The short handpass can be and is effective but why on earth can we not seem to perfect this?  We have no God given right to think we are better than Kerry, Westmeath, Laois etc. Heard that Westmeath minors beat Wexford on Saturday & Westmeath are slowly but surely reasserting themselves on the hurling stage again. Dublin were lucky to get out of Cusack Park last year with a one point victory so today's result would seem to be no great surprise.

Antrim's hurling today was laboured. There was no quick ball into the forwards. Why play Dessie McClean at full forward & deprive him of the ball. If the ball was pinged in low towards him he could have used his pace to engineer a score. He was taken off after 10 minutes. Conor Carson came on & I envisaged a repeat of the Laois match where high ball was pumped into the full forward line. This didnt even happen. As Brendan Belfast stated there were far too many mistakes made by Antrim today.

We as a hurling county have certainly regressed under KR. There was no idea what to do from the sideline as Westmeath ran riot.

Im all for the buy in to Antrim hurling but far too long in the tooth to know things are not right with the current set up. Ive been to all the championship games played under KR & there has not been much improvement over 3 years.

This goes back to when the county board decided to appoint Jerry Wallace over Dinny Cahill.

Dinny knew how to get championship performances out of his teams. Tipp, Wexford, Laois, Dublin spring to mind

My point is, they are playing to a system to which they are being coached by the county management eg. the short handpassing.

Its not working & the management do not seem to have an alternative.

Not long in from Mullingar.It pished continuously from 2pm but to be honest this result was no surprise.

Antrim insisted on using the same tactic against Laois of poc outs down the left towards Neal McAuley.

Westmeath copped onto this & Neal wasnt as effective as he was last week.

Antrim did not seem to have a Plan B. Aaron Graffin's injury was an unsettling factor (its a dislocated knee. It looked an awful lot worse & hopefully he is on the mend).

Westmeath pulled Antrim all over the park with Eoin Price given licence to roam at will without being picked up. They were slick in their hurling, something which had Michael Ryan's influence written all over it.

14 points down at half time and if I had any sense I would have left then. The heads dropped soon after the restart with Westmeath picking up where they left off.

This has to be the worst Antrim performance in years. Its not the players - they play the way they have been coached.

Whilst I have great respect for Kevin Ryan I dont think he is the man to bring Antrim forward. In his 3rd year we have dropped to Div 2A and are on the verge of being relegated to the Christy Ring. It would be no surprise if Carlow did a number on Antrim in Dr Cullen Park in 2 weeks.

This defeat plus the Kerry result will have a serious knock on effect in that interest in the county team will dwindle as if it isnt bad enough already.

Ive been on the road many times following Antrim home & away but today takes the biscuit & I dont think I'll be back for a while. At least I wont have to worry about a long trip to Carlow.

Unfortunately I think we got the wrong Ryan.

In no particular order

a) 2 1/2 months in Central America, Mexico to Costa Rica, full as a gypsies tit every night with multiple other substances over indulged in.2005
b) 6 months in SE Asia & NZ, as above 2006
c) 2006 Ireland v Germany, Stuttgart, savage 4 day effort
d) 2004 Ireland v France in Paris, the night Kilbane ran the show, 5 day rip, chemical help taken
e) any Monaghan blues festival since 1995 that I've been at, 3 day 3 night job, usually class b substances involved.
f) Krakow 06,07,08 , see item d for description

Arranmore, lad.

[St Mac Nissi's]

NA Féile B 2 May 2015 Con Magees v St Mac Nissi's Final
NA Féile A 2 May 2015 Loughgiel v Ballycastle Final

Have PJ and Jackson left the Antrim panel? 

PJ, Jackson McGreevey & Barry McFall have left according to an article on the RTE website.