Antrim Football Thread

Started by theskull1, November 09, 2006, 11:48:40 PM

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imtommygunn

Quote from: Rodger Mona on December 10, 2019, 01:07:47 PM
It wasnt that obvious when yourself BS and others were trying to justify Lenny having a squad of predominantly young and average players.

Lenny could of had P.Cunningham, Tomas, Crozier, some of the galls and LD men when he started but he chose not to.

The fact that you are happy enough with Lennys and the teams performances as last 3 years just shows you the mentality around the county, happy to be there. So again back to what iv said, no WINNING mentality. And wont have that until we see all this good work BS stated clubs are doing throughout the county come to fruition, (if theres many clubs really putting the work in) and hopefully in the 10 years that he talks about there will be 6/7 teams challenging for county titles. Then we could see something different.

But i wont hold my breathe

I didn't know that Lenny chose not to have those guys - are you sure about that?

CountyColours

#17776
RM – it feels like you ranting and raving whilst running around in circles here. The club championship is arguable as competitive as it has been in a long time, therefore your point about clubs not stepping up is off point (there has been a kick of the ball in it between 4 or 5 teams over the last few years).

The unfortunate thing is that the reason it is more competitive of late is because St Galls and Cargin's (to a lesser degree) top players have got a bit older. As a lot of these players have got older, started families, progressed in their jobs etc. it has meant that the commitments of county football has moved down in their priorities – you can't hold that against them or management for that matter. Antrim aren’t the only county who are dealing with this issue. Look at the amount of county footballers from so called weaker counties and even some of the stronger counties stepping aside now.

Also, just because a player hasn't won anything at their club, uni, school level doesn't necessarily mean they haven’t got that "winning mentality". There are many players past and current who have represented Antrim, who haven’t won medals who in my opinion most certainly have a winning mentality. Saying that, based on our recent "winners"  LD are well represented, ideally it would be great to have a few more of the Cargin lads, and I don't think that the St Galls players are a huge loss (bearing in mind their best players are 34+ at the minute). Although I would love Kevin Niblock to give us one more year!

Antrim have a young side, but I think we are a stronger side this year after getting a few of the guys back (young and old). In particular Paddy Hands could be vital for us, and of course Tomas is a class act.  Healy and Jordan are a major plus as well. I fancy our chances of getting promoted this year. Give me optimism any day of the week.

Dunsilly King

I fail to see why Cunningham was invited back, more surprised he accepted. He has little pace, touched the ball twice I think in two finals against Cargin. Pace pace pace. His free taking is outstanding, always was

belfastsaff

well he scored 4 points from play in a challenge match on Saturday so maybe there is life in the man yet
Quote from: Dunsilly King on December 10, 2019, 02:45:57 PM
I fail to see why Cunningham was invited back, more surprised he accepted. He has little pace, touched the ball twice I think in two finals against Cargin. Pace pace pace. His free taking is outstanding, always was

CountyColours

He was chipping in with points from play through-out the championship this year. But more importantly, he's very accurate from free-kicks, which in a low scoring game, on a wet and windy January day - could be vital for us. I think we lost three league games by a point last year. Would be interesting to know how many scoreable frees we missed across those games. McBride and Murray are decent from frees, but Paddy is a level above.   

Caesar

Belfastsaff, did anyone else stand out in the challenge game? Who did they play?

BrendanAntrim

"I fail to see why Cunningham was invited back"

"His free taking is outstanding"

These two sentiments are a mere dozen words apart.

bannside

If Antrim had a club side that won Ulster this year (like Kilkoo) I'd say most of them would be worthy of a place on the county panel. But we dont'.  A decade ago Cargin & St Galls were beating the others by cricket scores. And Antrim team was winning Ulster titles.

It's great to see PC back, and Tomas too. Paddy scored seven points in a recent challenge, only two from frees, and has a clever football brain that can make up for a bit of loss of pace. Neither owe Antrim anything at this stage and are there to give it one last lash. It's great to see them back and a pity a few others didn't take up Lennys invitation.

Regarding Lenny - he will be disappointed the first two years didnt get us out of the basement division. He will throwing the kitchen sink to do that this year, and it would be great if the football people in the county got behind him from the start. Glenavy on Sunday 26th January is a huge game against Paul Galvins Wexford, but its winnable. If you have any ambition for Antrim football you should be there

whatwillbwillb

#17783
Christ Almighty lads its like a History lesson of Antrim football these last few pages. Even when we had all these lads years ago etc etc and great competitive club teams winning AI titles we still won feck all ! Its Div4 we cant go anywhere else so why not try a youthful approach and build something while we can, a lot of these kids are fearless and have raw talent so who knows maybe just maybe we will have something to get us excited like the old days when we where competitive but again won feck all..... Look at Kerry and the young lads now in the panel.

bannside

#17784
I've looked at them. If we have a few Clifford's or O Sheas or Spillane floating around I've missed them. Who do you have in mind? (Apart from big Pat Chivers who is already well on the radar). Seriously, I'm not trying to be clever. Those Kerry guys are like racehorses with a complete range of skills to match. And if they don't belong to Cargin or Lamh Dhearg then there are people here who wouldn't have them on the panel!

I hope to God Lenny doesn't read this or his head will be turned. The county has been better trawled than ever this year for panellists, young players experienced players returning players cajoled players even players on a reserve list. There's still players missing that we all (and Lenny) would like to have but that's not realistic for a variety of reasons. The panel atm is strong enough to get us out of division four, so let's get behind them from the start this year.

belfastsaff

bannside you seem to have in-depth knowledge of the county football team, what is your role ?

Rodger Mona

Im starting to think BS is in-fact..... Lenny Harbison

bannside

Belfast Saff I dont have any current role in the county football set up. I did a spell with development squads through to under 21 and was privileged to have shared that time with players like Niblock, Aidso, Paddy C, Mick, Andy Mc Lean and many others. I was devastated by the lack of county board support at the time for a project I thought could go all the way with county under 21s in 2006, and fell out with the whole lot of them over it. It still hurts tbh. I felt there was an Ulster and All Ireland in them and everybody from the top down scorned at that. We were deprived of two key players for a showdown with Tyrone and lost by 2 points in Omagh. After that we will never know but Tyrone lost in extra time to Mayo, and many of those Mayo players have played in five senior All Ireland finals.

I've never wanted or sought any "role" since then. Around that time I was one of three persons who sought to head up a football board to run football, but I was narrowly defeated by an excellent gael, Michael Herron, who sadly passed away only last week.

I have spoken to Lenny twice since he got the job, enough to know he has canvassed dozens of players who found a reason to decline and also enough to get an insight into the quality of the work going on (I also know some of the panellists quite well so I get their honest feedback too).

Apart from that I'm just like us all here, hoping Antrim football can start fulfilling its potential and get rid of the negativity that has engulfed us for so long.

imtommygunn


Dunsilly King

For me the main topic of discussion with this selection is how the author selected McBride ahead of Scullion at whb I, staggering!!! Just no comparison, and imo it questions the credibility of the authors knowledge.