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Narrow win for St Louis. Very little between the teams in tough conditions. Had the feel of a game that was always coming down to one score with the lead changing hands a few times.

Oisins will be kicking themselves that they lost this one...

Any word on whether it's a double header at croke park ?

I hope we go back to U18.  99% of the minors I've seen play in the last year are nowhere near ready for senior panel.  Why they ever changed it in the first place is beyond me. There's something completely wrong with how the GAA makes it's decisions.

Our Association was founded on the basis of members calling the shots
All change emanates from the club's and reaching the central body via the provincial route.
Our Association was founded on the basis all change would flow from the bottom to the top but such has long been lost.
And now all comes from in the opposite route, top to bottom with highly paid individuals deciding on direction and all rule change....
All County secretaries are employed by the central body and are required to tow the Croke Park line....

If you are actually a member of a club then you have the right to do that, if you are not a member of a club, any club then you have no say in such matters

If the will is there by the clubs then the delegates from the County will go with a motion to put in for a change

From any conversations I've had with mentors of that level its been an overwhelming majority to go back to what we had before, its not perfect, nothing is or there will always be someone unhappy, they generally are ones only concerned with how it effects their own interests and not the majority.

Not sure, if voted on, how quick it will resume, anyone got timelines on this?

What you had before is not on offer.

It used to be that minor was u18 and the lads at 18 (above u17) could play in adult competitions which worked well for us. A lad would get to play at his core level with his peers and a run out for the reserves mostly and if good enough the odd run at senior. The more timid/less physically developed lads stayed and just played minor.
If there was an overlap in fixtures they played U18 which happened the odd time.

Now if you move to minor at 18 those 18yo's can only play minor.

Timeline wise I can tell you Down clubs need to put in their "preferred" option by tonight as that is when they have to reach a county wide consensus which I'm led to believe is fed back to Croke Park for a national wide decision.

But whether its available now or not, the clubs need to put a motion to change that option of not allowing 18 year olds to play senior, its daft and will be a bigger problem for rural clubs like yours, the other thing is developing players onto a senior team nowadays isn't easy, kids are odd ffs, breaking into the senior changing room can take time and the way clubs are losing a lot of kids after minor is causing bigger issues down the road...

Giving younger lads a taste of senior and letting them dip their toes into it will give them confidence going forward, as an amendment to that they should only allow the 18 year old up to 6 or 7 games during the league and play championship if needed...

Nowhere in any of the material circulated has there been any reference to dwindling numbers and the struggle of smaller clubs to continue to exist.  Pushing the age at which people can play adult to  over 18 exacerbates that problem. 

I am all for the restoration of minor to under 18 (or 18.5) and whilst I understand the theory behind 'decoupling' i think it's not going to help the smaller clubs.  Leave it the clubs to decide if a lad more than 17 is capable of playing senior whilst at the same time making it clear that fixtures wise, minor takes preference ie minor matches should not be moved around to accommodate one or two lads playing senior.

Did they/ anyone consider the merits of aligning of the underage with school years?  Is leaving cert in the south 18.5 year olds the same as it is in the north ?

Better playing surface than Loughgiel and Ballycastle. Parking facilities are insufficient.  Dunsilly needed/needs a stand, toilet facilities and a proper shop. 

Agree with this - dunsilly has a lot going for it in terms of location, playing surface etc.  It just lacks an atmosphere and some of the ancillary facilities.  I am sure these will come with time.  If only some the 10s of millions being ploughed into casement could be redirected to here.  I am all for the redevelopment of casement but the money that has already been wasted on it is immoral in my view.  A much more modest stadium would suffice and might have made the planning process a bit easier.

Can't believe there are no concessions at matches and then the way they space out matches to avoid double headers. Poor show.

Which goal(s) in the senior out of interest Podge?

Christy's goal. Maybe it was just bad goalkeeping but in defence of the keepers, the bounce off the sod and the bounce off the artificial squares are totally different .

Dunsilly is devoid of atmosphere.  Having said that, ballycastle pitch is poor and I think the artificial squares there were a factor in goals in both the minor and senior matches today.  Loughgiel would be a potential venue.  But sense will not prevail, you can be sure of that.

It's the poorest standard at intermediate level that I have seen for a while. As things stand, an average Clooney Gaels team, look the pick of the bunch. The Senior championship appears more competitive for the first time in a few years. Dunloy, Cushendall, Rossa/St John's all in with a shout ......Dunloy, obviously favourites.

How many games have you been to ? What are you expecting from the IHC?

Fair question - how many games have you been to as the intermediate has always been the most competitive. Some serious teams left in. Sarsfields look like they are hotting up and have two main men with serious support crew.

Senior does indeed look competitive, which is great.

Sarsfields certainly put Creggan to the sword but all might be too little too late- if glenariffe beat creggan (who seem to have checked out with other things on their mind) then i am pretty sure Sarsfields are out. 

In my view it is perverse that 3 teams go through in the SHC (which is less competitive) compared to only 2 in the IHC.   The IHC is certainly competitive but Clooney must be favourites at this point.

There are still tickets for Saturdays match on Ticketmaster if anyone thought they missed out

After seeing the picture of the AI series launch without Antrim or Kerry representation I truly hope Antrim and or Kerry get one over on these playoffs.

Disgusting that.

So disrespectful

Really shocking by the powers that be.

I brought my kids to the Joe McDonagh final last week for their first outing at Croke park and promised to bring them to the shop at the premium level to get them some kit. When I went in, they only had Galway and Kilkenny gear on display. The poor lad behind the counter incurred my wrath..

The cushendun goalie scored a point from a puck out yesterday. From a puck out! Never heard of that before.

The wind down there is crazy, I remember the catch nets would be blowing past the posts onto the pitch!! Scoring a point was difficult 

Down there? The game was played in Rossa park !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FG7JtoqA0

Sambo

Makes a lot of valid points.  But if geography was the main issue why, as he points out, have the Laois, Kerry, westmeaths etc of this world not
Improved ?

Is it not slightly bad etiquette for Schiefler to walk on the the next tee before his playing partner has holed out. He has been doing it all evening.

There is no doubting McManus talent but Antrim are a better cohesive unit when he is not playing . They were in 2020 when he was injured and are now . He is now starting to be a distraction . If we want to progress we have to move away from ' The Celeb ' media darling and concentrate on building a strong panel that works and plays for each other.

Wtf are you on?

As I said  talented but not a team player and Antrim have to play as a unit to progress.
That is the opinion round the squad too , There are quite a few happier when he is not on the team
He is not the future of our county and if we want to continue to compete we need a structure and style of play all the way through the squads ..
we need to be able to interchange and that can't happen when we shift and rearrange team to suit one player .
Talented but a square peg in this team ....

You are a tosser. Totally unfair assessment

I don't watch too much scottish football. But the energy and intensity of these celtic lads is fantastic to watch. Hatate And O'Riley are some finds.

The speed of O'Riley's pass on a tight situation is excellent. He set Celtic away several times.  Good tackler as well. The scouting system deserves some credit. They have built a decent team from nothing in a very short space of time with bargain buys.

One thing you have to understand about the man is that he doesn't do procrastination. In my experience he always consults and trys to achieve concensus but he will not wait for the perfect solution as he will always look to box an issue off and move on. Whats wrong with that?

Nothing wrong with that as long as your consultations take in a wide spread of opinions.

i have it from one source that one of his lieutenants believed there is value in allowing outside teams into the Antrim leagues to raise the standards but was shot down as no Antrim club team won an Ulster title this year, so why should Antrim develop these other teams??

SN don't have a team in the senior leagues but if they did it would certainly make it a lot more interesting.

Not sure about Banagher.

Seems a bit narrow minded if that's the attitude. It's not that many years ago we were cap in hand at HQ begging to get into Leinster SHC and underage leagues etc to improve our own competitiveness at intercounty level. Is this not the same thing at a different level ? There may be some other factor at play here, I am not sure. In fairness , history suggests Antrim have been quite accommodating over the years on these types of things.

Ridiculous shot selection

Possibly, but had he landed that he'd have 2 shots to win, tells you how important that game is? Or how confident he was?

In reality there was only one shot that had any real risk of putting him out of the tournament - and that's the one that he took on. Madness. Even if he had carried the water, from that distance back it was unlikely to hold the green meaning an up and down for a 4 from off the green wasn't highly probable anyway. He was just as likely to get a 4 from laying up I think.

Anyway, we are all captain hindsight's as Boris would say..