Antrim Football Thread

[geezer]

Listened to a podcast with anthony daly few years ago. Said when he took the kilmacud hurlers he was being shown around the club by the chairman and a fella walked past and had a chat with him. Daly said to the chairman who is that lad? Chairman said i havent a clue of his name but hes a great fella and does alot of work about the club. Thats how big some dublin clubs are. Mind blowing membership numbers.

[BigBallWeeBall]

Sure that happems to MR2 all the time in St Galls

[Milltown Row2]

Sure that happems to MR2 all the time in St Galls

That I don't know players members or mentors?

[paddyjohn]

I seem to recall St Endas leaving South Antrim to join SW & NA leagues & championships due to lack of games at underage. It worked a treat for them.

[Milltown Row2]

I seem to recall St Endas leaving South Antrim to join SW & NA leagues & championships due to lack of games at underage. It worked a treat for them.

I know what you are saying but they still based in South Antrim on the map! None of their lads go to school in Derry either

[Belfast GAA man]

The Dublin model might just not work as handy as people think in Belfast. First of all the Dublin clubs have very large memberships, some well into their thousands. Each member could pay at least £100 a year for the privilege. Just going by my sister who is a member of a club in Fingal. Do you know that St Sylvesters Malahide field 8 or 10 under twelve teams! And they are not the only ones catering literally for hundreds in each age group.

Each club in Dublin pays circa €20k to Dublin Co Board for the provision of a fully qualified coach to work in each club, liaising between the local club and the local school(s). Would that work in Belfast. Yes maybe in a few clubs but that kind of outlay might tip a few over the edge!

The interest in Dublin GAA has been fed by a county winning titles. Every young lad or lass wants to grow up and pull on the Dublin jersey. 

That's the chicken and egg scenario. Our youth want to see an Antrim team in Div 1. Nothing else will cut it.

Thats where the sheer importance of a highly efficient Director of Football comes in....aided by a vibrant sub committee, supported in full by all County Offices, and essentially, every club in Antrim putting in right structures at juvenile level.

Nothing else is going to get this done.

did anyone every find out what the Director of Football job is supposed to do?

[Spike]

i don't think comparisons with a huge metropolitan base like Dublin are realistic at this stage. We may have Ireland's 2nd city but half the population of the city don't/won't engage therefore a Cork, Limerick or Galway, cities with a large rural area would be more akin. 

[geezer]

Agreed. Was just adding to BS comment about the dublin clubs. Think Ballydoden have around 100 teams in their club. Assume that is all codes but nonetheless that is an amazing number.

i don't think comparisons with a huge metropolitan base like Dublin are realistic at this stage. We may have Ireland's 2nd city but half the population of the city don't/won't engage therefore a Cork, Limerick or Galway, cities with a large rural area would be more akin.

[Kickham csc]

I seem to recall St Endas leaving South Antrim to join SW & NA leagues & championships due to lack of games at underage. It worked a treat for them.

I know what you are saying but they still based in South Antrim on the map! None of their lads go to school in Derry either

But they benefit from playing against kids who do go to Derry schools. forgetting maps, St Enda's are a SW club. They came to the SW and asked for help and the SW let them join, with restrictions for the first year. I#t has been a major success for the club. So if St Enda's win a senior championship, it will be under the SW banner

[Milltown Row2]

I seem to recall St Endas leaving South Antrim to join SW & NA leagues & championships due to lack of games at underage. It worked a treat for them.

I know what you are saying but they still based in South Antrim on the map! None of their lads go to school in Derry either

But they benefit from playing against kids who do go to Derry schools. forgetting maps, St Enda's are a SW club. They came to the SW and asked for help and the SW let them join, with restrictions for the first year. I#t has been a major success for the club. So if St Enda's win a senior championship, it will be under the SW banner

Ok explain why we appeared in two all Ireland clubs and during the 80's appeared in 2 Ulster finals and winning one of them?

[JimStynes]

MR2 do you think that clubs just go along as normal as there's no panic and these things come around in cycles?

[BigBallWeeBall]

Are there not enough games organised or do clubs pull out of matches at short notice. Surely there are enough players to fulfil fixtures across most age groups

[Milltown Row2]

MR2 do you think that clubs just go along as normal as there's no panic and these things come around in cycles?

Yes, clubs go through lean spells, we were even relegated, it happens. We'd only started getting underage success in the 70's it took a while, if Creggan manage to win ten titles in 20 years I'd say their plan is working, winning one in 50 isn't showing signs of dominance, coming second  or last is the same. We'd big success in the 80's parts of the 90's and plenty dominance in 00's

Could be another 8/9 years before we get a go at it again, that's how i've viewed in my 40 years at this club, Johnnies even more successful on the domestic front than us, but they'll hardly fold and once they have the club set up sorted they'll come back.

If our current set of winning champions can't get past the first round of Ulster, has the standards dropped? And if they have them that's an all Antrim issue rather than a Belfast one

[EOC1923]

MR2 do you think that clubs just go along as normal as there's no panic and these things come around in cycles?

Yes, clubs go through lean spells, we were even relegated, it happens. We'd only started getting underage success in the 70's it took a while, if Creggan manage to win ten titles in 20 years I'd say their plan is working, winning one in 50 isn't showing signs of dominance, coming second  or last is the same. We'd big success in the 80's parts of the 90's and plenty dominance in 00's

Could be another 8/9 years before we get a go at it again, that's how i've viewed in my 40 years at this club, Johnnies even more successful on the domestic front than us, but they'll hardly fold and once they have the club set up sorted they'll come back.

If our current set of winning champions can't get past the first round of Ulster, has the standards dropped? And if they have them that's an all Antrim issue rather than a Belfast one

I think the standard pretty good, a lot of hard luck stories from ourselves and now Creggan but they weren't far off yesterday to be fair.
I hear your U20 managers didn't take the defeat too well calling the ref all sorts of names after the final whistle, a relative of the ref was telling me today. Tut tut

[Milltown Row2]

The lack of games in South Antrim really needs to be addressed. There should be a game every week from March to September. That's how you'll compete with soccer. Kids like playing matches, not endlessly training for their 6 games in the year.

A thousand percent! Soccer is better run up and down the country, teams have 11 players and possibly 3 subs, it's a format that's been well run. There's generally though less membership within a club, easier to manage.

Growing up we'd plenty games, the half decent players played for two teams, under 12 under 14 hurling football and followed that through to senior. Now the age cap and kids picking one code has reduced the amount of Gaelic games a child is exposed too.