Antrim Football Thread

[inabsentia]

Any word on which way they are restructuring the leagues, if they are or not??

That'd make too much sense for teams to be able to plan pre-season.

It'd be 8 weeks out to the start of the leagues if it was the same dates as last year

[Lár na páirce 1]

The working group for football are meeting next Monday night

[Delgany 2nds]

Working group proposals are basically what the Convention motions proposed
DIV 1 - 16 team; Div 2 - 10; Div 3- 9

League Winners Div 2 & 3 promoted
IFC & JFC winners promoted.

Relegation
Option 1  2 teams relegated via championship
Option 2
1 team via championship & 1 via League
Starting 2024

[Hoof Hearted]

How do you get relegated from the championship?
8 teams who don't get out groups play off ?

[Saffron_sam20]

Surely 16 teams div 1/ SFC is too many? what we had wasn't too far off the mark league wise

[antrimman667]

Quality of intermediate will be terrible if that's the case

[AllStar15]

I agree, whilst simultaneously lowering the quality of the Senior Championship.

[AllStar15]

How do you get relegated from the championship?
8 teams who don't get out groups play off ?

The 4 teams finishing bottom of the 4 groups go into a playoff group and play each other once, with the team finishing bottom of that getting relegated.

[SaffronSports]

I've no idea how anyone could sit down and look at Antrim football and think we need to make more clubs play senior, that'll fix it. It feels political to me.

[thegladiator]

16 teams in D1 is far too many. The disparity  between the top teams and the bottom ranked sides (let's face it- practically mid D2 sides) will be enormous and many of the games won't benefit anyone. This is only being done to save some clubs, st endas  and Dunloy, from relegation for political reasons and not for the benefit of football in antrim. Glenravel earned the right to get promoted and deservedly so. You could even stretch
to aldergrove as they finished 2nd in the league. D2 was very competitive, as was the intermediate championship. Why  change to make both d1 and d2 weaker? To save st endas and Dunloy- it just so happens that moneyglass, aldergrove, Ballymena and lisburn will maintain  status or get promoted in a committe room rather than  on the field of play, after all, they wont vote to stay in d2 or get relegated on merit. A few easy votes to get it through the committee will ensure it goes through, hence the top heavy d1.
Convince me otherwise.

[Spike]

There will be a lot of dead rubber Div 1 games next year.  There was a strong suspicion some clubs didn't take it seriously last year, what is this season going to be like?

[imtommygunn]

What is the rationale behind it? Makes no sense to me at all but maybe I am missing something.

[ck]

Bonkers stuff!
A Div.1 of 10 teams max would be ideal. It would be competitive and give the league credibility. A 16 team league would be farce.. in most counties, especially Antrim.

[Milltown Row2]

Bonkers stuff!
A Div.1 of 10 teams max would be ideal. It would be competitive and give the league credibility. A 16 team league would be farce.. in most counties, especially Antrim.

It'll only happen if the clubs vote it, not sure why the clubs would entertain it unless it's to suit themselves, which is usually the case.

Club members should ballot it with their membership and inform their county delegates to vote against it.

If it goes ahead, then it's the clubs, your clubs, that you are members of, or not, have agreed it, via a vote.

[Delgany 2nds]

I believe the plan was to have Div 1A of 8 and 1B of 8. Dunloy playing in SFC & Div 3 football put a spanner in the plan.