Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

71 players currently on the county minor trial squad from clubs all over the county. It's on the county website. If you know of any potential stars that arnt on it sure just get in touch with the management team or pm me with details and it will be sorted.

[The Gs Man]

Bad conditions in Toome today. However, aghagallon much superior team. Prob would have won by more in better conditions. Should be a good final v st endas the tournament favourites.

Where you at the game Mickey?  Didn't see ye there.  Although you might have been hiding in the fog.

Great first half performance saw us through.  Another final to look forward to!

Anybody any idea when it could be played?

[Pocs pints and the gaa]

I know in the past Aghagallon players have been generally overlooked by Antrim for one reason or another but would some of their young players not be worth a look at by the county management team now?

I think a mixture of being overlooked and players not having the motivation to play for Antrim.

Too busy playing for Armagh or down

[Hectic]

71 players currently on the county minor trial squad from clubs all over the county. It's on the county website. If you know of any potential stars that arnt on it sure just get in touch with the management team or pm me with details and it will be sorted.

Will be sorted if you can convince them to put the effort in 

[JimStynes]

Aghagallon have sent a right few to the minors this year. I think about 6 are there at the minute.

[Hectic]

Bad conditions in Toome today. However, aghagallon much superior team. Prob would have won by more in better conditions. Should be a good final v st endas the tournament favourites.

Where you at the game Mickey?  Didn't see ye there.  Although you might have been hiding in the fog.

Great first half performance saw us through.  Another final to look forward to!

Anybody any idea when it could be played?

Given the potential opposition probably looking at Glenavy or Corrigan - did not think Portglenone offered an awful lot yesterday and the final should certainly be a sterner test but my money still on Aghagallon.  Must remember not to wear flat bottomed shoes next day - was like a skating rink down along the far side yesterday!

[bannside]

The downside of St Galls being so far ahead of the field for years, matched only by Cargin at times for any meaningful competition has left Antrim Football fairly dull for quite a while. Cargin would win the league every year and St Galls the championship and everyone else was nowhere.

Looking a few years down the road from here and it should at least open up into a very competitive league and c'ship where I really struggle to see any real outstanding dominant force.

Id say a lot of clubs atm would fancy themselves to be in the hunt for silverware in 3 years time. A bit like Tyrone where there are a lot of decent clubs but possibly no outstanding ones.

[Galer]

Lads aghallon arent bad but creggan won a few u21s, the johnies won several portglenone won imediate and u21 and none of these teams have hardly broken though.

[country bumpkin]

Ever the optimist BS......hope does indeed spring.

[paddyjohn]

Although sometimes I find Bannsides optimism hard to fathom I also find it refreshing to hear somebody speak with such passion and genuine honesty about the county. We need more like him within the clubs and county set up.

[bannside]

That's another pint I owe you Paddyjohn!

If you go back a few years there was literally no one as negative on here as myself. Everything seemed a mile away. I don't want to get personal but I felt the top jobs on the county were well out of some officials depth. The way CC meetings were conducted were a shambles. It smacked of jobs for the boys and let's just say thank God a few individuals decided to put their hands up and say we need to fix this mess out.

In Saturdays Irish News there was a great article from Collie Donnelly about what had been achieved and what was still to be done. It wasnt glossing anything up, just the facts. It made good reading.

A lot of the good work has been done behind the scenes. The biggest thing is the credibility the executive have restored at Ulster level or at Croke Park where their expertise as businessmen is recognised. Progress may seem slow, but it was always going to be. It will pick up the pace a bit, and I fully expect delivery on many aspects such as a football review group to match the current hurling one, and things like juvenile development, improved funding from HQ, a proactive fundraising group that will hit targets, a revitalised Club Aontroma, as well as continue to oversee the transition of Dunsilly and Casement etc.

This board arrived in the absolute nick of time and even though there will still be some minor frustrations I am certain that they will leave Antrim Gaa in a much much better place than they found it. That dosent mean we start winning provincial titles but the foundations will be in place for that to happen.

Wouldn't that be great?

[Gold]

Look at the buzz and crowd we had in 2009. If we could compete we could have 3/4 of that regularly. It would change us from sniping and being negative about our team to being supporters and positive like BS.

There is no reason why we cannot compete, we have 2 arms, 2 legs and 2 lungs like men from Donegal and  Tyrone do

Hopefully Casement can help our sense of esteem too. Would be great if it was like Croker or Ravenhill for the night league games...more like a show/event than just a game (as well as being a top class venue for ordinary championship games). McVeigh was right in the paper the other day...does take away from us not having a home atm

[paddyjohn]

That's another pint I owe you Paddyjohn!

If you go back a few years there was literally no one as negative on here as myself. Everything seemed a mile away. I don't want to get personal but I felt the top jobs on the county were well out of some officials depth. The way CC meetings were conducted were a shambles. It smacked of jobs for the boys and let's just say thank God a few individuals decided to put their hands up and say we need to fix this mess out.

In Saturdays Irish News there was a great article from Collie Donnelly about what had been achieved and what was still to be done. It wasnt glossing anything up, just the facts. It made good reading.

A lot of the good work has been done behind the scenes. The biggest thing is the credibility the executive have restored at Ulster level or at Croke Park where their expertise as businessmen is recognised. Progress may seem slow, but it was always going to be. It will pick up the pace a bit, and I fully expect delivery on many aspects such as a football review group to match the current hurling one, and things like juvenile development, improved funding from HQ, a proactive fundraising group that will hit targets, a revitalised Club Aontroma, as well as continue to oversee the transition of Dunsilly and Casement etc.

This board arrived in the absolute nick of time and even though there will still be some minor frustrations I am certain that they will leave Antrim Gaa in a much much better place than they found it. That dosent mean we start winning provincial titles but the foundations will be in place for that to happen.

Wouldn't that be great?

I'm serious though, it is good to see and for one it makes me think about my role within my own club. We have far to many people who like to spout on social media and on here purely to get noticed for the wrong reasons, or for self promotion.

I've doubted the board and I'll openly admit it's because what seemed to be a lack of investigation to the betting scandal at the start of the year. Hopefully whatever teething problems there was are ironed out now and we can move on so i can make the memories with my children the way my father did with me by going to Casement for county finals and having 2 county teams to be proud of.

[country bumpkin]

Somebody please explain how both Antrim and Aldergrove who were fixed to meet in the under-21 grading round a couple of weeks past were then placed in the B competition

[stiffler]

How come the st endas Rossa U21 semi has been postponed tonight ?

Surely there is a facility which could have been used tonight (the dub, UUJ?)