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Very sad news. James had a short illness towards the end of last year and its been hard on his family to see him go from full of life to now.

I cant rem the last time i spoke to him but he was a great character and someone i got on very well with. When he was a ref he used to get me to come along with him to do umpire at some games. I loved the craic with the older lads as i was much younger than them all so you never had to dip to buy a dinner or anything when you were with him. Rescued me a few times from some angry senior hurlers who didnt agree with my call in some games  but that was him, he trusted us to make the calls and even in my late teens he had me at some big games as part of his team

Got to umpire at National league games in various counties, senior hurling championship matches, the ulster shield final at clones etc. He used to always say to me before you went to your post at the start of the game 'go out and enjoy the game and please dont make any f**k ups! lol

He was in the pitch every day during lock down and i used to keep him going that he was that bored he was up to watch the grass grow!

Gave a lot of time to the GAA and to our club and will be badly missed.

id agree about the dual clubs there MR2 as as much as it was great that we made another intermediate final this year the players also had one eye on the county hurling the final week.

I do think the footballers have a great appointment in Enda McGinley as manager and ive heard lots of good sounds so far with lads really wanting to buy into it already.

The camogiers also reaching an all ireland final has raised the profile of the game again for the young girls in the county to have something to aspire to.

Highlight of the year for anyone?

Its been a really good year for hurling in the county and in the club scene this year, one of the best ive seen in a long time with lots of positives.

Stealing a draw up in Rossa in the group stages was probably one of the best moments for me personally. We were absolutely dead and buried to the wind and somehow we dug dead and scored a goal and a point to snatch a draw - a draw that meant we still had a chance to decide our own future. it was absolutely hard on Rossa who deserved to win the game but its why were ended up champions this year.

St Johns v Loughgiel was a joy to watch as a neutral as it went into extra time and big Donal with one arm hurling out of his skin. Even Ballycastle this year were good to watch and will no doubt take a lot from this year to build on for next year again.

County wise, well what more can you say. Top management, top team, great set up outside of that in the Saffron business forum and Gaelfast well on its feet now and working away. Division 1 hurling and playing in the Liam McCarthy Cup - fantastic to be able to type that!

Please keep this going!

really happy for all the panel and the management as they have worked really hard this season and have got the rewards for that effort.

Massive step up in quality next year but its what we wanted. We can never improve if we stay at the same level. THere will be some bad defeats but that how we will continue to keep improving and it will also bring the standard of hurling on in the county.

Its been a good period for Antrim hurling this year no matter what happens on Sunday. We would all love to be there to support our team but it is what it is now and we will have to make do with shouting at the tv on sunday!

Antrim is in a great place going forth into 2021 and hopefully on Sunday we have the Joe McDonagh Cup alongside the D2 trophy to take with us.

Fantastic problem we have atm with who to select as there is so many good players on the panel.

Fantastic stuff again today so far. Really showing some good hurling. keep it going!

I've been involved with our senior hurlers, footballers and camogiers. By god it takes over your life and everything you do has to revolve around the team, trainings, matches, friendlies, player injuries, admin etc. Its something that takes over and your family, work and personal life all have to fit into it as well.

Id say a county set up is even more than that and fair play to any man or woman that takes it on. The expectations in our county are probably unrealistic due to how strong ulster football is and that along with the long running failures in our history whoever comes in to take the job on is expected to change it around instantly.

Its not a job for someone unless theres a long term plan in place and commitment to back that plan as well.

I think instead of being criticised he should be thanked for the time and service that he give towards Antrim football. Things didnt pan out how he wanted but he give it all he could. I wish him all the best.

best of luck to the team today!

Interestingly, Mr Mc Cavanagh quoted in todays Irish News as saying with regard to football, " We're getting our structures and our house in order". Good stuff...we will take that as a positive sign and await further developments.

seen that as well myself. Neal touched on it in the podcast interview he just did there during the week so its good to see that those structures are being implemented.

Structure and development committees are a good thing for the development of the game.

Financially Antrim is in a much better shape and thats down to those behind the Saffron Business form and Saffron vison. we should be able to build on that as well to provide more support to the senior teams in the coming years.

The JMcD cup has been a fantastic competitive group for Antrim and the teams around them. As you say IMG the likes of Laois and Carlow have stepped up and been able to hold their own (whilst maybe not winning all the time) and its shown them where they need to be.

Antrim have gotten really good games v Westmeath, Carlow, Offaly, Laois, Kerry over the last few years where some of the teams have progressed into the Liam McCarthy Cup.

If we ever want to stay there we need to maintain standards and keep working.

Im all for a two tiered system in football MR. I'd have a top 8 competition (as its there already and is working well) and then a comperition with the other 24/26 involved.

The second tier competition needs properly marketed and resourced so thats its a really big honour to win it. It cant feel like a second class competition.

Some kind of promotion and relegation as well so that even counties in the top tier would keep gping until the end to stave off the prospect of relegation.

In league terms we are tier 4, so we cant think playing in a two tier system is in any way beneath us.

Thats the problem BS, it wont be marketed or covered well. We have seen the hurling and what way they have done wiht it but the reality is that no one cares about watching Louth v Leitrim in the hurling, much the same as they dont care about antrim v leitrim in the football. its of no interest whereas the top games like Dublin v Kerry and Tipp v Kilkenny are.

But getting on tv is the least of our concerns at the moment and a two/three tier system in football is needed to give us more competitive games at a level we can improve at and try to step up to each time.

The restructuring of the hurling championship did play a massive part in how the Counties were forced to do the same. Antrim had to adapt to try and get to a higher level.

As MR says, Antrim did to an extend compete with Wexford, Tipp etc but fell short and in the forth coming years fall away off. We went to a level
(or results and performances dictated it) that we were able to compete at. Simply put we just weren't good enough to compete at a higher level. Antrim were at the level they deserved to be.

We were a division 2 side - not 1a or 1b - and we struggled at times at that level for a lot of years. The Christy Ring cup was the level again we were at and we struggled for a few years through that. But progress has been made.

Darren Gleeson has come in, Liam Sheedy has come in to help as well from time to time -  both All Ireland winners with Tipperary - quality assets. Antrim got a good management team of great former hurlers like Jim Close, Gary O'Kane, Johnny Campbell, Karl McKeegan etc. All those lads have won championships, all Ireland club titles, played in All Ireland semi finals and finals, and represented Antrim for years between them.

They have brought in the best hurlers from every club, no matter what level they are playing at, and gelled a good team together.

Yes there has been plenty of downs in that time but they have bounced back from them all. They seem to have learned and adapted.

I don't see any sort of improvement in our football fortunes this past years. We seem to be doing the same bloody thing year after year. We think we should be out of Div 4 - we don't get out of it. We enter the Ulster championship and get one game and then move to the qualifiers and if we are lucky get two more games. After its all over we then bemoan our fortunes and how things need to change.

Rinse and repeat for the following year.

Its depressing and its why there's very little appetite for football in the County. It has to change from top to bottom.

It may be on a lower level but within our club we have a hurling, football and camogie development committee with like minded folk in all of them. Their sole aims is to improve and promote the codes within the club and look to see how they can make it better all the time, address problems and find solutions to it. If we can do that on a club level surely it can be done at county level.

Just noticed last night a podcast with the director of hurling on Saffcast. As you say complete disgrace there isn't a similar structure in football.

Listened to it myself and i was wondering if there was a similar set up within the football set up? From listening to Neal the S&C will be involved with the football or did i pick that up wrong?

I don't like to criticise the team when we are doing well but the full back line was really stretched at times there in the second half. They werent alone as the half back line was the same as well.

Again its more experience under the belt and they will continue to work on these things.

Kerry will come to us wanting to get a big result so we need to be very careful with this game.