Messages

Agreed totally maxpower, its all habit forming,untill our players get into the habit of playing intense hurling and not expecting frees to accompany every tackle we will struggle at a higher level, another plus side to this is that eventually the dirty pulling etc will be erradicated as we'll learn the difference between intense, hard hitting hurling and dirty, niggly hurling

Good luck to all four teams this sunday, hoping for 2 good games

How is the dalls prep going? surely they are re-focused and have the hunger again after losing out last year? The two games with us will have done Loughgiel the world of good coming into the final, the flip side to that of course is that itll have given cushendall more than enough of an idea of what to expect in the final. Cant see them being as shell shocked by loughgiels intense approach as we were, I think Cushendall will win if they are hungry this year, they have the defence to stop loughgiel and are also solid in the middle. Can see it being quite a low scoring game.

To highlight a conversation between 2 of our "fans" is rather petty, and what were you doing eaves dropping?? the fact of the matter is Dunloy is no different with regards to supporters as any other club, these people arent supporters, they attend 1/2 games a year to shout their mouths off. It been like that since the beginning of time..believe me i was there.

As for Watson, he has a broken jaw but as someone mentioned earlier if you live by the sword...Michael McClements no doubt in my mind would still be in hospital but for th fact he wears a helmet. The biggest problem regards watson now is that fact that he wont be able to eat? Even i wouldnt be too worried about marking a player who hasnt ate in two weeks, if he is missing i cant see how loughgiel can pull it off, but as has been stated before they play much more as a team now, although he is still their only real scorer. Would like to see Graffin or Delargy mark him to see how it would go

What can i say other than that im absolutely shellshocked, we simply got out-everything'ed(yes i just made that word up), out fought, out thought, out hussled, Loughgiels intensity was far superior and all in all they just wanted it more. We are simply to used to winning games by 20-30 point margins and playing nice stylish hurling and didnt know what to do when loughgiel made it clear they wouldnt allow us to dictate the game, thought they were great(imagine), the biggest compliment i can pay them is that they played the game lastnight like a good football team. Watson was superb but have to say my man of the match would have been Jonny Campbell, thought he was the main force behind them and turned an unbelievable amount of ball. The discipline at times(from both teams) was disgraceful and that sort of thing needs to be eradicated. Driving the stick into someones mid section is a dangerous action, whats more it is a cowardly action and both sets of players were guilty. Anyway good luck in the final to Loughgiel

Yes i agree, a balance is hard to reach and also agree that i hate referees who display arrogance, i just feel sometimes county players during club games are treated different in antrim to those 'regular' club players, saw a serious case of this in our first round of the football championship were Geard Dougan done pretty much everything for Paul Doherty and Benny Hasson bar give them a hug and kiss , preferably a referee would be almost robot like, he has a job to do and like the players themselves, any friendships etc shouldnt be carried on to the field of play.

as for tonight, Happy enough with the ref, just hope we turn up now

[Dunloy to win by 5]

A reasonably fair analysis on the match from you all(for the best part anyway), personally i thought we were terrible but for maybe two 10 minute spells(one in first, one in the second half), i cant remember who it was but someone mentioned earlier we have fallen into a bad habit of letting teams back into games and not finishing teams off and i have to agree with that totally, realistically we should never have won ulster last year because of this problem. I'm going to stick my neck on the line here and say we will win tomorrow night. I just feel that after our past 2-3 games(which we won extremely comfortably) a bit of complacency set in and we were expecting things to come as easily to us again. We never matched Loughgiel for work rate or intensity and they probably should have stolen it at the death, i can see why they will be full of confidence for the replay but we will not be short in the respect either, looking at it from a Dunloy point of view we played for about 20 minutes, only scored 1-13 yet Loughgiel still couldn't beat us, and on top of that we were never behind bar the first 10 minutes. There is also the fact that 3 of our forwards were on holidays prior to the game and that is always going to have a negative effect on the individuals concerned, it'll give them a chance to get back up to speed, with that in mind and the fact everyone else should have given themselves a shake i cant see Loughgiel out doing us in terms of intensity and hunger this time. Dunloy to win by 5 As for the ref again agree 100%, i thought he was a shambles and his preferential treatment of "county stars" is just the most horrible sight, he was constantly laughing and joking with winker and was also being overly pally with Malachy Molloy, i cannot stand that kind of refereeing as the minute he makes it a personal thing it gets in the way of the job in hand.

Yes shamrock, most of the people on this board have been around the block a few times too many to be riled by the whole "everyone hates us, its us against the world" mentality you are trying to stoke up for yourselves for the game at the weekend. i for one doubt very much that you have been talking to any dunloy folk who would be coming out with drivel like you quoted, and if that is the case they arent very knowledgable on the subject. Everyone knows it will be a hard game and whatever happens happens, as for begrudging watson and being "proved wrong" im not so sure you are fully up to speed with anything that has been going on on this board but no one has questioned his ability, merely his attitude toward county hurling. as for the comments on "windmill training" as someone mentioned i wish i could help you out but i have no idea what that is? and with regards santa ponsa, there amateur sportsmen/women...there quite entitled to do whatever they wish

To my knowledge it wasnt even Limavady United he was playing for, around these parts during the summer(the soccer off season june-july) there are several summer leagues, cups etc played. they dont actually involve teams which compete during the regular soccer season but more or less a gather up of players who just want a game, thats what he was playing in,anyways enough of my extensive soccer knowledge game on sunday im sure will be a good one, silly the way the semi finals were played so far apart but hey what do you do? All i hope is that its a free flowing game and the derby element is kept to a minimum, as i feel more often than not this lowers the standard of the hurling.

Agreed totally, when i talk of talent hurling wise i am referring to team ethic and committment every bit as much as skill or ability. He is skillful yes of course but to play in a silly summer soccer game(for all the mention of Donegal Celtic in the article it wasnt actually them he was playing for it was a local team from ballymoney direction) over going to a pre championship training session is unforgivable. I could see how he would feel agrieved if the management had agreed to it as he claims and if that is the case then they have questions to answer but i doubt very much that they did.So how was he treated badly? it is such a badly constructed article it wouldnt take alot of effort to blow holes in his argument, he claims double standards? were are they? i could see his point if someone else on the team was missing training because they were playing soccer but wasnt kicked off the panel but that isnt the case. how exactly does anyone expect the management to react? The fact of the matter is that the world is full of talented individuals who fail to fulfill their potential for one reason or another and then point the blame at everyone else but themselves. He is no different.

Anyone got any idea on who the writer is? not exactly great journalism to carry a story of a second rate intercounty hurler(lets face it thats what he is) in the build up to the biggest game of the year. Pretty pointless telling his story now, as for what Brian Cody wouldve done i think we all know that it wouldnt have been much of an issue, hed have been gone without a trace, but thats merely speculation,

Ahh well sure theres always Irish League soccer with Donegal Celtic.....





Oh thats right, Donegal Celtic arent even in the Irish League.

Didnt get to see your game on saturday GLF, but i suppose the old saying alls fair in love and war rings true, cant say Geard Duggan was great in the first round when he gifted use a one point victory over us in injury time? I called it from day one that use would get beat by 1-2 points simply becasue of Paddy Cunninghams free taking. Made it up to the cargin, st galls game and i must say it was terrible, neither team seemed that interested in actually winning which i found strange(especially from carigns point of view), The fire and determination they showed in the championship when they beat st galls in the first round( two years ago?) was no where to be seen, possibly bad blood in the camp from the whole JC Devlin thing? Was really disappointed with their county men who were none existant, thought Tomas McCann hit 3-4 frees wide off the deck that Close could easily have put over from his hands(regardless of which side they were on) and also agree with the comments above about diving, i was embarrassed at times by it. Thouch St Galls were good in the second half, Karl Stewart i thought was always their biggest threat although they didnt give him the right ball, thought Sean Burke played well along with McLean and id have to say my Man of the match would have been Kevin Niblock, was always effective on the ball and showed well, Terry O Neill was terrible as was the number 6(gribbies?) would say St Galls will be L D easy enough, after the customary 15 rough and tumble. But clearly if they want to do anything in ulster theyll nedd to up it big time.

Heard magill is in fantastic shape at the minute, you never know maybe he could

On a more serious note good to see the hurlers doing well, and a win of sunday to lift the walsh cup would be a great great boost for this county, however surely the league comes above a pre season cup competition, im sure if it was the other way about and say antrim were playing in the mckenna cup whilst the hurlers had their first league game the league would take preference?

I assume tho the decision will be left to the player himself,

Your point is valid that the starting 15(bar CJ) would probably still come from that squad,Surely though you cant drop players on the merit that they might not make your starting 15? Brady to me is an obvious inclusion, i just dont understand how some of these boys have gotten there chance whilst others havent?

And i dont exactly agree that he hasnt totally gone for younth with the inclusion of mcgreevy, brady and joe quinn.. im aiming my comments more at the borderline players if you will, to me a 22-27 year old player who is extablished at county football is worth a shot more so than an u-21? is this group of players forgotten about?
All you have to do is look at Ryan McMenamin and Francie Bellew as evidence that there worth a try

Yeah now that you mention P.C i think i know who your talking about, and no sorry definately not of county standard. I think Jodys nuts? Totten is not up to the standard either but what do you do?

Other than hold open trials of course, a bit of the old swallowing the old pride and going after players wouldnt do any harm either

Something strange is going on, i dont really understand that panel at all.

By going with 8 u21s on his senior squad is Jody saying that if you have made it by now you aint making it to anyone over the age of say 22?

Also as asked above who is this boy conlon? Im pretty well versed on footballers in the county and basically if i havent heard of you you couldnt kick back doors at halloween

Strange that Brady and Doyle arent there, didnt really think the other omissions were good enough