Antrim Hurling

[theskull1]

Tochy boys arent u.
U would never get away in any sport prof or amt games in the world , think about it lads . The soccer cull is happening. Kid's now days wanna play at the top & and when u think of how many school kid's in belfast wanna playing hurling at the top level coming through well they r just not going to get if maybe they go to 1 or 2 teams that might break it through to dv1 hurling in the next 2 to 3 years . Lad's i can see a split very soon were u might find a country league format and a more inner city league  format , maybe this is county hidden agenda

Oh and get real if u lot r going to get on like that when someone post's . One thing in life is free & that is manners's , don't cost u nothing but then some of u guys sound quiet tight .

youngsters

Hurling at the right standard will set you free young raz. Stick it to the County Board, the culchies, the PSNI, global warming or who ever else you want to blame for things and hurl your way back into Div 1. I really wish to f*£k the Belfast sides would step up to the plate a bit more on the hurling front. More needs to be done in the big smoke to bring players from U16 through to senior. It's unreal the number of excellent youngsters lost to the game up there.

[Rasmatazz:)]

Thought for a monment u were Father Jack there 
I Know in away of what u r talking about ,but i feel this county board is not strong enough,to take hurling on to the next level .They can't even sort the leauge out .They say they want to improve but what r they doing at the school level ,football is all the way here ,if u look at the t.v coverage of the school football , u never see that in the hurling , very rarely do u see bbc newsline or utv showing any of this and the county has to stand up advertise this right through school level .The kids r there every day when they probley play 1 match a week sometimes 2 weeks a hurling game ,at least if there was a push through the school level mabye keeping them interested the club will pick the rest up from there but the county needs to be  more involved & they aren't. So if u want smoke from the big city they should light up  & burn them paper's they wrote that leauge format on 
Keep cool Skull
The Rass (super red & white hoops )

[theskull1]

"but i feel this county board is not strong enough,to take hurling on to the next level .They can't even sort the leauge out .They say they want to improve but what r they doing at the school level ,football is all the way here"

Raz you clearly have no understanding of how the GAA is organized and are simply assuming through you own ignorance that the CB is the one blame. Just so you know the leagues are voted on by the clubs and neither the clubs or the CB have any control over school competitions.

[1912]

Having read the comments about Antrim v Waterford Maybe the GAA should relegate them to NHL 2 as like most of the belfast teams they're not Div 1 standard. 

[Minder]

It is very rarely that i venture to the official Antrim site but i see the adiministrators tore someone a new "a-hole" for simply stating that the hurling team had not, in his opinion, made as much progress as some believe. I take it this is the norm? Thye made refernce to other sites that post "libellous garbage" and have nothing to offer, i think this is the big bad Gaa Board they are referring to.

[NAG]

MInder

The county do not want to face up the the truth that the progress that was promised under sambo and woody is not going to materialise. I put this out there, the progress that was made under dinny cahill in his first two years in charge was greater than anything the current management will come up with. If truth be told actually they are still living off the back of the improvements that dinny made in some of our senior players. BTW I am no dinny fan either.

Rass, I have never heard so much balls in all my life. The city teams get out of senior hurling exactly what they put into it. The most senior club in belfast in hurling in the recent past have been treating their away matches like a day out carry out included. This attitude has prevailed for too long and it is not the CB's fault or the north antrim teams for progressing and leaving you all behind. If you are frustrated take it up with 'The super red and white hoops' and get some structure and get up and go in your hurling club.

Otherwise pull your head out of your ass and another thing your not tying a message on a mobile phone on here, so try and clean up the posts a bit!

[milltown row]

Ok lets not start going over old ground here regarding the div 1 set up. What's been done is done and I'm sure next year the format will change again such is the way the tings have been set up.

Speaking to some lads at training last night I was trying to push the idea of having hurling only clubs in Belfast. Now this may sound a bit off the wall but is currently used in other counties. I would propose that Belfast set up 5/6 senior hurling only teams, were they compete in championship alone, there are players within smaller clubs who could join the Hurling only clubs and play at the highest level. These hurling only teams could compete with the north Antrim clubs,
lets say for instance, you'd 5 players from St Johns and 5 from Rossa and 5 from St Galls, playing for a Falls Select team, or you had 3 from Gorts and 4 from Lamhs, 2 from St Treseas  and so on and ya catch my drift.

No players in Belfast don't want to lose their identity so to facilitate this they can play for their own clubs in the league and championship but at intermediate level. Is this to far fetch? Have I had too much coffee lately? I don't know, a radical shake up would be needed to fix this. Having 6 competitive Belfast teams against the North Antrim teams would certainly raise the bar.

What ya all think?

[theskull1]

"I put this out there, the progress that was made under dinny cahill in his first two years in charge was greater than anything the current management will come up with."

should be

I put this out there, the progress that was made under dinny cahill in his first two years in charge was greater than anything the current management will come up with, but was in reality unsustainable due to the lack of competitive club matches during his tenure

Dinny along with all the other county managers who hoarded players for years have IMO had the biggest impact on the standards of the game here. This goes back to Jim Nelsons day. Yes I can see the motivations, but the fallout is there for all to see. Half hearted league matches for years on end then a spurt of intensity in the last month of the year.


Looked at your proposal milltown and I'm not so sure. Think youre throwing in the towel a bit if you ask me and in terms of strengthing the game, I think it would be counter productive. It might be worth canvassing the intermediatte clubs, to gauge their opinions on amalgamating for the senior championship, but if you're div 1 standard (and I think if st gall focus a bit more on the hurling they would be), you should be going as a club for the championship

[NAG]

Skull

I agree with you and thats why I wasnt a great dinny fan but I was merely replying to minders post and giving he a reason as to why the Antrim Website and CB are touchy when it comes to sambo and woody.

Milltown

I like your thinking of improving the hurling in Belfast, but i see a few problems with your proposal.
Do the hurling clubs in St Gall et al fold to allow these select teams to play, because if st gall still have a hurling club their dual players would inelligible to play for the select as their won club has a hurling team.

I think it just needs a serious committment form the clubs to training and development of talent. Skull will be able to tell you how hard Dunloy trained this year and they have championships coming out their ears, so why do the clubs in belfast not follow suit.

[theskull1]

Skull

I agree with you and thats why I wasnt a great dinny fan but I was merely replying to minders post and giving he a reason as to why the Antrim Website and CB are touchy when it comes to sambo and woody.

Just need to be careful NAG that people accept you're statement without taking other aspects into considerations. Personally I thought last year was the best year for hurling (I would say that) in Antrim for 20 years and Sambo and Woody deserve great credit for recognizing that for the long term benefit of the game club matches needed to played with full panels available. This instant sniping about things not having improved at County level only puts pressure on them to maybe revert back to the bad old ways of those before them and then the club game will be plunged in the mire again. Thats why I feel we need to be guarded with our comments about the county teams progression. Slow and steady over a 5 year period will do me.

[imtommygunn]

With regard to the way the leagues are now structured I personally believe that it will make some clubs(from Belfast) take a look at themselves (particularly Rossa) and that will be a good thing for those clubs. I don't believe, like Skull, that anything radical needs to be done as per Milltown's suggestion for Belfast clubs but mainly they need to start putting in a lot more effort.

I believe that Rossa can be strong when they make a real push for it and they will now have the motivation to do just that. I'd expect them to get out of division 2. I believe St Galls can improve too - with the work being put in - but they do have problems with the dual thing.

I also hope that the good young teams St Johns have coming through improve their standard but time will tell.

I guess part of the problem is that Dunloy, Loughgiel and Cushendall people are effectively born with a hurl in their hand and their community revolves around hurling. In Belfast that is entirely different. However look at what St Johns have done in the feile etc - they put the work in and proved it can be done. Just remember the beginning of Dunloy's "revolution" revolved around a successful feile team so you never know what's round the corner there.

With regard to S&W NAG I'm not entirely sure what you were expecting. We are definitely making progress but can you really expect us in the space of a year to suddenly be competing with teams including big Dan, Ken McGrath etc etc. We have a long way to go. What do you expect them to do - say we'll take some hammerings while we learn? (although I'm not sure they would have learnt much from last Sunday)

[milltown row]

in Cork for instance and in Kerry this happens, you can play for your local team you can play for the local hurling team as well. then you can play championship for one of the local senior teams then you can play for the divisional board teams. all very confusing but hey they manage to do all right

just takes some hurling minded people to set aside club differences and this can work. having only ever seen Rossa win from belfast, to young to remember St Johns. i cant see another belfast club ever winning. but i could see belfast teams win if they were joined by players from other clubs

[theskull1]

in Cork for instance and in Kerry this happens, you can play for your local team you can play for the local hurling team as well. then you can play championship for one of the local senior teams then you can play for the divisional board teams. all very confusing but hey they manage to do all right

just takes some hurling minded people to set aside club differences and this can work. having only ever seen Rossa win from belfast, to young to remember St Johns. i cant see another belfast club ever winning. but i could see belfast teams win if they were joined by players from other clubs

Would need to understand the rules as they are in these counties (e.g how many players per club???)

Looks like you have thrown the towel in milltown when you are recommending that even the senior clubs in belfast should be looking to do this. Without thinking too much about it I could see the benefit for instance of south antrim and north antrim intermediate selects (maybe even south west as well) joining in the senior championship. It would be a great boost for committed players playing for intermediatte clubs and would I feel improve the 2nd tier no end, but what you are suggesting is robbing peter to pay paul

[milltown raver]

Dont think it was the coffee milltown rower, think you've either forgot your medication or have been smoking something, with them suggestions.  
Some of us, UNLIKE YOURSELF, have played for the same club all our lives, and would rather lose with our own clubs  than win with others.

The issue in hurling is quite simple, you get out of it what you put in!! I have no doubt that talent wise, Rossa, St.Galls and St.Johns are up there with the country teams, but do they put in as much effort and show as much committment, my a**e they do. I stil think the league changes were wrong and will not help these teams, but they have to help themselves 1st and foremost by putting the effort in.
I'll tell you about St.Galls, the dual thing is a problem, but it was when they were under 21 and competed in 4/5 U21H finals in a row, while still winning 6 football in a row, this was due to co operation in the club and everyone buying into it, I think St.Galls are now happy with having a go every year rather than setting serious targets of winning something, Cruise control.

[milltown row]

thanks for your imput raver, unlike yourself i've manged to stay in ireland and played for the one club and you also talk about committment, are you having a laugh. if you can mange to stay out of the bars we'd do alright