Antrim Football Thread

[Our Nail Loney]

So the Bot 4 are defo not any of the St Gall's 4 ??

Heard there was also 2 or 3 in the Eg that night and one who go knocked back from the Ray Parlour as he had no I.D.

f**k me this is getting serious as Celine Dion would say!!

Least use have a laugh in antrim, wish this was all going on in down!

[fred the red]

did the bot 4 think that they would not be recognised in the Bot, or did they do this to be recognised as such???

[PlayWithTheWind]

the bot four is acutally the bot two, and one of them is a county hurler.

[Our Nail Loney]

Name and shame then.... Surely they don't deserve to be kept anonymous if they're gallavanting around the bot

[PlayWithTheWind]

a surprise starter against Cavan in the championship

[PlayWithTheWind]

correct!

[bannside]

I have no intention of naming the players in public, but they are well known to those that matter. PWTW, I`d like to think it was down to one surprise c`ship starter, plus a hurler which is not relevant in this particular case.

Sorry, but I`m talking an absolute bottom line minimum of six who took part in the action, and I didnt say they were ALL in the Bot.

Someone else might put the meat on the bones, but those in the know have the details. A total absolute disgrace no matter what way you look at it!

[imtommygunn]

What's wrong Bannside - you not get on that day

[pebble-dasher]

bannside sounds like a famous ex-poster! not john-joe but!

[bannside]

Speaking of the boul Jonny Joe, whatever became of him? 

TommyGun, youre a bit too clever right now!

[ONeill]

These drink allegations are getting out of hand and are not the real cause for the Antrim demise. Every county has those players, even in the most successful. You get the impression it's being used to deflect the flak by some people for personal decisions made. Sure when I was reading CJ's article regarding his thoughts on the Bot Boys, I was told that his brother drank away in Casement bar whilst an NFL game was being played outside, simply because he wasn't playing. I've no idea how accurate that is but if you go about accusing such and such of drinking you'd need to have a clean house yourself.

What CJ should be addressing is the county board's continued mistreatment of county players in comparison to others and of initiatives, or the lack of, to prevent the bleeding of GAA talent in the county from the ages of 11 to 18. That's have a wee bit more meat on the bones than a couple of lads drinking.

[saffron sam2]

I don't have the time to go into any great depth with regards to Dr McSparran's contribution but a couple of things stand out.

McSparran believes that the Tommy Murphy Cup is a useful competition for Antrim football for various reasons. "Tipperary won this cup a couple years ago and look at where they are now. Wicklow won it last year and this year they have now won their first championship match in over 100 years.  I believe our footballers are under-achieving, but we have got to learn how to win important matches. If that means stepping down a grade, then so be it. It's not that long ago that Fermanagh were ranked as low as us. They won an All Ireland 'B' as far as I can remember, and their recent results only demonstrate how much this has stood to them. We have got to learn to walk before we can run ....

The following appeared in the Irish News less than a year ago.

However, the Antrim chairman was critical of the Tommy Murphy Cup given that it cost the county in the region of £6,000 for the trip to Kilkenny where 31 spectators watched the game.

"The [Kilkenny] result certainly does nothing for this competition and with the considerable expense that we incurred as a result of having to travel to Kilkenny as well as the attitude many have towards the competition in general, honest debate about its continued existence needs to be held."

Can't have it both ways Doc., which is it?

The second point is this.

McSparran "It's not that long ago that Fermanagh were ranked as low as us. They won an All Ireland 'B' as far as I can remember."

Just for the craic, can you name any other teams who may have won the All Ireland B football crown? Say 1999 for example. I'll give you a clue - try to fill in the missing letter.

A N T * I M

And just for more craic, who did they beat in that final?  Another clue.  F E * M A N A G H.

A third clue, The same letter is missing from both county names.


Unfortunately contributions like the above from Dr McSparran only highlight how out of touch he really is with football in his own county. Shocking that a county chairman can be so ill-informed and it just highlights how far down the list of priorities football is for him.

Still, as long as no-one uses his picture as an avatar, all is well in the world.

[bannside]

Some good points there.

Agree with O Neill, the lack of any worthwhile juvenile development is by far our biggest problem. Saffron Sam may disagree, but I think Mc Sparran has been a very good leader, my only fear is that he will either get disillusioned, or burnt out, whichever comes first.

Dont want to sound parochial here, but I think North Antrim has a decent juvenile set up, and the hurling people there have stood up and made it happen.

The South West are in the process of putting together a decent development squad, for football, and I would have an insight on how they will drive on with this over the summer. They have a squad session on Saturday, and every club that has players good enough will have them present. They have a nice mixture of coaching and games lined up, witha view of doing really well at the next Ulster blitz at the start of August. Their itinerary has a start, a middle and an end, and has the full support of the SW executive.

To me the WEAK link is the city. What has the South Antrim committee there doing to promote the PROPER develoment of young players. Lets call a spade a spade here. The Belfast area is lagging well behind in both football and hurling development. For the sake of a better Antrim, it needs to get its act together.

[Minder]

Did CJ Mc Gourty not go on a drinking weekend with the St Marys hurlers down south when Antrim had a match? Could be wrong.

[NAG]

Yes minder think there is alot of the pot calling here. Its ok to stand up and say your whiter than white if you actually are but to start coming with these kind of statements when you have been in this kind of position in the not so recent past is hypocrisy.

Kets face it they, are using this as a get out clause. They dont want to put the extra couple of weeks into training for the TM which is ok if they would just come out and say rather than hiding behind other issues.

The doctor is trying his best as far as i can see, yes he is weaker on football but that is only natural given his back ground. I think it is time for the football people in this county to stand up and be counted, there is no excuse for antrim being weak at football. Look at our geographical position in Ulster and our catchment of players.

Time for a shake up and a look at the structures in football top to bottom.