Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

Great points being made.

There is a running order to all this, if one goes ahead of the other,  all could be lost.

Buy in from coiste bainiste. Either they see a problem that needs  fixed - and has the will to do something PROPER about it, or they don't.  That's the first question/hurdle. Things CAN start happening from that point onwards, there's a business community who will support the right plan, delivered by the right people. Imo.

[InnocentByStander]

I believe Gaelfast should work hand in hand with a Belfast school to bring someone in to go around the clubs and poach players to come to the school.

[bannside]

So let the clubs in the border counties send their kids to Maghera Mfelt or Lurgan schools, that's not going yo change. But it's the other schools we need to "encourage " to do more.

Would it be a ludicrous idea for the county to supply 2/3 full time coaches and make available to Antrims leading schools, in a meet you halfway kind of agreement for schools to start taking their GAA aspirations to the next kevel!

Could these salaries not be shared between school, SBF, and  business supporters of a new plan for Antrim football. Build this INTO the plan.

Even start with one and build....

[InnocentByStander]

So let the clubs in the border counties send their kids to Maghera Mfelt or Lurgan schools, that's not going yo change. But it's the other schools we need to "encourage " to do more.

Would it be a ludicrous idea for the county to supply 2/3 full time coaches and make available to Antrims leading schools, in a meet you halfway kind of agreement for schools to start taking their GAA aspirations to the next kevel!

Could these salaries not be shared between school, SBF, and  business supporters of a new plan for Antrim football. Build this INTO the plan.

Even start with one and build....

Exactly what needs to be done

[EOC1923]

So let the clubs in the border counties send their kids to Maghera Mfelt or Lurgan schools, that's not going yo change. But it's the other schools we need to "encourage " to do more.

Would it be a ludicrous idea for the county to supply 2/3 full time coaches and make available to Antrims leading schools, in a meet you halfway kind of agreement for schools to start taking their GAA aspirations to the next kevel!

Could these salaries not be shared between school, SBF, and  business supporters of a new plan for Antrim football. Build this INTO the plan.

Even start with one and build....

Don't like looking enviously toward our neighbours in Derry but they have installed coaches (Killian Conlan, End Muldoon and Gavin McGeehan) in St Pius, St Pats Maghera and St Marys Magherafelt, mostly funded by Derry GAA. And thats 3 schools that already had good systems.

[EOC1923]

Before we think about winning minor championships and McRorys, which are miles off, why don't we focus on producing 25 of the best players we've ever had, from a group of males currently aged 10 to 16.

I think this is achievable by the way, and see some real talent in that age bracket, many who have much more leg miles on the clock already than their peers of a decade ago. These kids are getting blitz comps every week, better (if not worldbeating) emphasis at schools and county facilities are now in place.

Dunsilly has grounds, lights, now a state of the art gymnasium planned costing a lot of money. Things we just couldn't say a few years back.

What's missing is some joined up thinking aligned to a plan as rightly alluded to here earlier.  For the ultra pessimists within us, you need to open your eyes and see that the glass is well and truly half full...let's fill it further in the coming years.

10-16? That would be handy for Portglenone with the apparent dream team of u14s you boys have
On a serious note, for me its great having these development squads, but for the most part our system is a tick box exercise. I have even heard recent cases where people who literally have no experience of playing or coaching in GAA are part of management structures, and coming from clubs who don't even field underage teams and are putting in zero effort to do so. Get real hand pick your coaches at each age and drive it on from there, that would be a starting point.

Totally agree with this part! Expert coaches would be a start! Not someone who has a son on the panel. Belfast needs to be flooded with coaches and promoted massively too. Antrim needs a strong city base of players and a number of the country clubs need to get their act together as well. IMO the most thing is school football but the other bits need to be there first.

Its all ok to sit on your arm chair and write this crap here. Get involed if you think you know better. Your always going to have coaches follow their kids with teams.

Pretty sure most of the people on here are far from sitting in armchairs, seems alot of referees, coaches and others who care.

[JimStynes]

Before we think about winning minor championships and McRorys, which are miles off, why don't we focus on producing 25 of the best players we've ever had, from a group of males currently aged 10 to 16.

I think this is achievable by the way, and see some real talent in that age bracket, many who have much more leg miles on the clock already than their peers of a decade ago. These kids are getting blitz comps every week, better (if not worldbeating) emphasis at schools and county facilities are now in place.

Dunsilly has grounds, lights, now a state of the art gymnasium planned costing a lot of money. Things we just couldn't say a few years back.

What's missing is some joined up thinking aligned to a plan as rightly alluded to here earlier.  For the ultra pessimists within us, you need to open your eyes and see that the glass is well and truly half full...let's fill it further in the coming years.

10-16? That would be handy for Portglenone with the apparent dream team of u14s you boys have
On a serious note, for me its great having these development squads, but for the most part our system is a tick box exercise. I have even heard recent cases where people who literally have no experience of playing or coaching in GAA are part of management structures, and coming from clubs who don't even field underage teams and are putting in zero effort to do so. Get real hand pick your coaches at each age and drive it on from there, that would be a starting point.

Totally agree with this part! Expert coaches would be a start! Not someone who has a son on the panel. Belfast needs to be flooded with coaches and promoted massively too. Antrim needs a strong city base of players and a number of the country clubs need to get their act together as well. IMO the most thing is school football but the other bits need to be there first.

Its all ok to sit on your arm chair and write this crap here. Get involed if you think you know better. Your always going to have coaches follow their kids with teams.

I get coaches following their kids in club setups (even though this can be detrimental at times) but not at county level ffs. It's much to higher level for wee Jonny's da to step in to the county underage team. Talk sense ffs.

And I do coach btw

[Walter Cronc]

The Chrissy McKaigue model in slaughneil is something that would be massive for clubs. If only money were no object

Dungiven introduced it a few years ago and are reaping the rewards. Remains to be seen how successful Chrissy is. He's being paid by a few v wealthy benefactors. Not all clubs can do that!

[Saffrongael]

The Chrissy McKaigue model in slaughneil is something that would be massive for clubs. If only money were no object

Dungiven introduced it a few years ago and are reaping the rewards. Remains to be seen how successful Chrissy is. He's being paid by a few v wealthy benefactors. Not all clubs can do that!

What exactly is the model ?

[Dreen]

The successful schools no doubt have a high standard set up but the clubs around them are providing the players.

We can debate on here to the cows come home but our clubs as a whole aren't as strong as in Tyrone or Derry for example.

It's up to us to make sure our clubs are as good as they can be and the rest will follow.

[EOC1923]

Before we think about winning minor championships and McRorys, which are miles off, why don't we focus on producing 25 of the best players we've ever had, from a group of males currently aged 10 to 16.

I think this is achievable by the way, and see some real talent in that age bracket, many who have much more leg miles on the clock already than their peers of a decade ago. These kids are getting blitz comps every week, better (if not worldbeating) emphasis at schools and county facilities are now in place.

Dunsilly has grounds, lights, now a state of the art gymnasium planned costing a lot of money. Things we just couldn't say a few years back.

What's missing is some joined up thinking aligned to a plan as rightly alluded to here earlier.  For the ultra pessimists within us, you need to open your eyes and see that the glass is well and truly half full...let's fill it further in the coming years.

10-16? That would be handy for Portglenone with the apparent dream team of u14s you boys have
On a serious note, for me its great having these development squads, but for the most part our system is a tick box exercise. I have even heard recent cases where people who literally have no experience of playing or coaching in GAA are part of management structures, and coming from clubs who don't even field underage teams and are putting in zero effort to do so. Get real hand pick your coaches at each age and drive it on from there, that would be a starting point.

Totally agree with this part! Expert coaches would be a start! Not someone who has a son on the panel. Belfast needs to be flooded with coaches and promoted massively too. Antrim needs a strong city base of players and a number of the country clubs need to get their act together as well. IMO the most thing is school football but the other bits need to be there first.

Its all ok to sit on your arm chair and write this crap here. Get involed if you think you know better. Your always going to have coaches follow their kids with teams.

I get coaches following their kids in club setups (even though this can be detrimental at times) but not at county level ffs. It's much to higher level for wee Jonny's da to step in to the county underage team. Talk sense ffs.

And I do coach btw

Some extreme examples of the county set up parent thing, U17 footballers two years ago was shocking

[bannside]

No doubt about that Dreen. Its clubs responsibility first and foremost.But we should aspire to having better quality coaching programmes in our co development squads and in our schools as well.

Need all 3 contributing to guarantee same quality mileage going into our juveniles as the more successful counties.

[Walter Cronc]

The Chrissy McKaigue model in slaughneil is something that would be massive for clubs. If only money were no object

Dungiven introduced it a few years ago and are reaping the rewards. Remains to be seen how successful Chrissy is. He's being paid by a few v wealthy benefactors. Not all clubs can do that!

What exactly is the model ?

Dungiven appointed Emmet Stewart I think who was a Derry GAA coach. I believe his remit is to oversee all coaching/put structures in place to develop players in all codes. Certainly not an easy task but Dungiven are now in the top 3/4 teams in each age group this past few years. They also won an Ulster minor title last year so things are on the up. Huge for Derry too as they haven't provided county players (bar one or two fringe players) really in the past 15 or more years.

[Dreen]

Agree on that Bannside for sure.

I would say that clubs need to be providing the best coaches to work at county level.

It takes clubs with a strong GAA culture for that to be able to happen and again would show a big difference between ourselves and some other counties.

We have too many young players playing say on a Thursday night at u15 level who just play Gaelic, they have no ambition to be senior footballers for their club never mind their county and truth be told we have had too many coaches over the years who will disappear from a club when their child stops playing.

Clubs are for life not just for Christmas

[EOC1923]

No doubt about that Dreen. Its clubs responsibility first and foremost.But we should aspire to having better quality coaching programmes in our co development squads and in our schools as well.

Need all 3 contributing to guarantee same quality mileage going into our juveniles as the more successful counties.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/gaa/offaly-rising-after-years-regression-24749726

An brief insight into what Offaly did to create recent success at underage