Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

A good start for us alright ITG. The feeling around here is that we would be graded somewhere 6-8 in Antrim football on last years form and we feel that we have enough quality in the ranks, and a year older for many of our younger players to push into a top four slot. Time will tell but I would see that as achievable for us, and room to kick on further in 2017 & 2018.

Niall Mc Keevers availability is a massive plus for us too. He is captain this year and looking like he wants to lead from the front. Plenty to like but still work in progress for the Casements.

[bannside]

Elsewhere some interesting results. Kevin Madden got a good start to his tenure at Creggan. Ahoghill gave St Galls their fill of it. St Teresas caught the Johnnies napping and Ballymena taking Rossa to the wire. Early indications that this league will be a bit more open than in previous years.

In division two St Endas gave Rasharkin a bit of a thumping. Not the start that Dermot Mc Nicholl was hoping for! Are St Endas ready to step up to the plate? That was an impressive return from them!

[Dreen]

St Endas were very impressive, young fast and well drilled. Anything that could go wrong for Rasharkin did go wrong but Endas are most definitely on the upward curve.

[imtommygunn]

Didn't know Madden was over Creggan. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

[bannside]

Kevin has been rightly around the block with spells at Glenullin, Loup and Dungiven as well as coaching Derry alongside Damian Cassidy. Has a lot of experience at this stage and looks like he has got a good reaction out of the Creggan players. Will be interesting to see if he can turn them into genuine championship contenders.

Likewise all eyes are on St Endas in division two. They have a batch of players who have won a lot of medals at juvenile level, have had great under age coaching and a lot of them have county experience at minor or under 21 level, so they really need to be making their move soon. Personally Id like to see that happen as they are an example of a club who have invested heavily on their juvenile set up and will be an example to others if they can transfer this to the senior stage in the next year or so.

[country bumpkin]

Creggan will be tested on Wed ..........they did get one over Cargiin on Sunday but then they recorded a similar win over them last year as early on.........remain  to be convinced 

[bannside]

Div 1 results all over the show tonight. I predict now that this league will be by far the most competitive for many years. Lamh Dhearg were awful against us on Sunday and trounce Cargin a few nights later. Impressive Creggan get toasted at St Galls who made really hard work of putting Ahoghill away at the weekend, who in turn lose to St Teresas tonight. Taking time to settle this division one!

St Endas continue their impressive start in Div 2. Mean business by the look of it.

[CitySlicker11]

Do Cargin have the same management team as last year in place?

[Milltown Row2]

Do Cargin have the same management team as last year in place?

Cargin concentrating on the championship again.... Its a good formula

[Peileadoir]

Good to see a more competitive Division 1 this year and while I think Cargin and St. Gall's will still be the main teams to beat this year when it comes to championship, I think we will see a new name on the Championship roll of honour inside the next 3-4 years, whether this be Creggan, Rossa, Lamh Dhearg, Johnnies, Rossa or Portglenone is difficult to call. All in all the age profile of St. Gall's and to a lesser extent Cargin will lead to a much more competitive senior championship, with 5 or 6  teams in contention each year as opposed to the last 15 years when it has only been two. This can only be good for the county and hopefully push standards on although I don't think we'll ever see a side of the quality of St. Gall's again.
As for Division two St. Enda's are definitely the team to beat although from what I hear they are such a young team to beat that they often struggle over the summer months when they lose most of their team who are students to foreign travel. This has been the case in their last two championship campaigns when they were tanked by Ballymena. Other contenders will be St. Paul's and maybe Glenavy who when they get their full team out are a big, physical side with some good footballers.

[Christmas Lights]

Portglenone will win the championship.  You heard it here first.

[country bumpkin]

Cargin are most certainy out of contention.....sure they have lost two league games and despite the best efforts of those divers (hired at a huge cost) the barrow load of league medals JB dumped in the Bann cannot be recovered.

[Milltown Row2]

Cargin are most certainy out of contention.....sure they have lost two league games and despite the best efforts of those divers (hired at a huge cost) the barrow load of league medals JB dumped in the Bann cannot be recovered.

You couldn't give them away  .... Would like to see Cargin get over their final hoodoo against us....

[country bumpkin]

Will look forward to such MR2.........but hey epitaphs being written.....they say new kids are already on the block.

[BrendanAntrim]

Div 4 final this weekend. It will be good to see the team playing in Croke Park. The key objective of the campaign has already been secured but it would be positive to finish the league on a high, lift a cup, give our young fans throughout the county a team to look up to, and fastback the preparations for Fermanagh game. We can be sure Louth will be fully geared up for Saturday so this should be a real challenge. Hope there is a good turnout of Antrim fans, the lads deserve that.