Antrim Football Thread

[OverThePostsAWide]

How are they in the top half of Division One then hoof hearted?

I thought he was talking about how are Moneyglass in the top half of Division 1? (after the abuse they took for being the worst team to play in the senior championship by pebble dasher).
Why are moneyglass in the senior championship anyway? Did Ballymena not win it last year (or have I missed a year).

Yes, Moneyglass choked in the Intermediate final last year (...again - didn't St Brigid's come from behind as well in the final 2 or 3 years ago to beat them?). I guess, they have senior amibtions and (rightly) reckoned that they should be in the senior championship being in Div 1. Right sentiment, it is just a shame they met a rampant Cargin in the first round and this result won't do them any good at all. Relatively speaking, Glenavy didn't do much better by getting tanked by bottom-of-the-2nd-division Tir na Nog in the Intermediate!

Moneyglass are level on points with Portglenone and must be going rightly in the league beating St Brigids, Rasharkin, Glenavy comfortably enough.

And they beat St Paul's. The state of Antrim football is at an all time low surely? Ironic given the success of the County side. Rasharkin, St Paul's, and St John's are a shadow of their former selves and are decaying. Moneyglass and Glenavy - the great white hopes from Div 2 - offer very little more. Glenavy will be relegated and the other four will fight it out for the other spot. Probably Rasharkin or maybe St Paul's if they don't get their act together soon. Creggan are (still  ) rebuilding and Portglenone have still enough experience and some class to hold their own ...for now. St Brigid's could be a force for the future but only time will tell.

Cargin will be very very hard to stop this year...I think a bit of naivity against St Galls last year tied with a bit of experience from St Galls got them through.

My money is on Cargin.

Portglenone v Cargin final methinks

Portglenone might well have the experience to overcome St Brigid's talent so you might be right. I'm going for St Brigid's v Cargin though. Not that it matters. St Gall's v Cargin is the final in all but name.

[imtommygunn]

The club standard has got very poor alright.

Look at those quarter finals - 4 stone wall winners if ever there were.

Portglenone were awful the last final they were in. Relistically there's a massive gap from 2nd best team on down. There's only really about 5 "senior" sides at the minute in antrim. (st brigids, portgleone, creggan, cargin and st galls). The rest seem to have got rubbish.

Like someone said strange the county team did better this year given club football has been in much better states...

[pebble-dasher]

The standard of division 1 football is very poor.  Would say there is a top two, then 3 quite even team, creggan ports and st bridgets and then the other 5 or so would be division 2 standard.  A division 1A league simply wouldnt work however a 15 team division 2 would be very very competitive.  Would love to see ahoghill getting promotion but they have a long way to go yet.

When are the quarter finals of SFC fixtured for?

[Bud Wiser]

Help Bud.  My brothers lad went up there to Antrim to live and he plays for a club called Galls or Comgalls, Chomgalls.  Is it all the same club or are there two different clubs.

[Mhic Easmuint]

St Galls are a club in Belfast.
St Comgalls is the club in Antrim town. - http://www.stcomgallsgaa.com

[Bud Wiser]

That resolves the issue so. Thanks.

Great website too, thanks.

[Archie Mitchell]

Any suspensions arise from the Paddy Cunningham incident? I see it hasn't made the same impact as the incident in Derry anyway.

[SambaSaffron]

Lad got 6 months for the Cunningham incident.

In regard to the other conversation, how can the state of Antrim football be at a low? Don't talk rubbish. Yes, there are definitely favourites for the Championship games, but how you figure that reflects the state of our football is beyond me. Also, how would Moneyglass be Division 2 when they are 5th in Division one, having beaten some of the teams mentioned?

[imtommygunn]

Samba our two top clubs are excellent but the rest are far and away behind them.

No one said antrim football was in a poor state - antrim club football however.

Remember that from the antrim team which started the three ulster games 9 were from cargin or st galls. That's a big haul of players. Next in line to get on was Niblock who was also st galls too.

Below those top 5 a lot of club teams would find it hard in, for example, the ulster intermediate.

[BanagusOir]

Intommygunn

You will find that there are 10 from each team - Colin Brady, Andy McClean, Kevin O'Boyle, Tony Scullion, Justin Crozier, Aodhan Gallagher, Michael McCann, Terry O'Neill, Tomas McCann and Sean Burke.

Kieran Close and Kevin Niblock then also started against Kerry.

[imtommygunn]

Well Creggan are improing so that will help.

Portglenone are living off the back of the stinsons sides of the late 90s who will be reaching the end soon. Only Gerard McAleese, Carey and McKeever who's going anyway appear to be coming through.

I dunno what has happened st johns. They had a few good u21 teams but seem to have disappeared. St Pauls seem to have gone to dogs also.

Rasharkin always produce great talent at underage but can never seem to bring it through.

[SERVASPORT]

not too long ago in a hurling match he was responsible for breaking a player from our clubs 6 teeth in a stinking challenge.

Paddy Davison? Wasn't a stinking challenge at all. He pulled on the ball and caught Paddy in the mouth.

Absolute rubbish mate, it was a dirty strike. How anyone can justify that incident is beyond me, I sat with Paddy Davison all night in the hospital and I was approached by a senior member of Lamh Dhearg at the time (he could have even been their chairman) and he too was disgusted with Paddy Cunningham's actions and he offered Paddy Davison his apologies.

[OverThePostsAWide]

The Paddy Cunningham incident v Sarsfields was dealt with wrongly by the media and by posters.  Although wrong and should never have happened, it wasn't what people were making out - it wasn't a punch from 50 yards, he wasnt a martial artist or any other of that shit. 

Paddys dead on but he's also no angel himself, not too long ago in a hurling match he was responsible for breaking a player from our clubs 6 teeth in a stinking challenge.  He also loves to do a bit of talking on the pitch.  For Antrim he was brilliant but we cannot go hard on a particular player because a particular player was hurt.  Rules are there for everyone.

Uh?   You normally make a lot of sense Hatchetfield but you've lost me here! How about going hard on a particular player because another particular player got his cheekbone smashed as the result of a deliberate strike? (regardless of who the particular victim is or regardless of what he did or didn't do in a particular (minor?) hurling match a few years ago). Or are you seriously suggesting that there was a bit of "just desserts" in PC's serious injury? Or that PC was culpable in some way? Maybe he ran recklessly (backwards) into the guy's fist???  

As I said before on the James Conway thread - if it happened to me I would take the thug to court. There should be zero tolerence to any sort of thuggery in the GAA. The perpetrator should have got (at least) 48 weeks like Conway did.

[milltown row]

we've thugs in every team. cheered on by numbskulls in the stands or side of pitch. there's not a city club which does not have a 'hatchet' type player who yarns with glee after a match about how he struck his man, dirty Joe style. (except my club )

in Belfast the only time you'll see a game of football without the handbags will be tonight when st brides take on St Galls. clean hard football throughout.

[Glensman]

Anyone got any wind of when next weekend's football championship games are?

Bit of a joke that ten days before clubs aren't aware of day, time and venue.