Antrim Football Thread

[Milltown Row2]

Looking at U15 this year there are 27 club teams playing football out in of that 10 are dual clubs.

At u17 25 teams playing football with 10 of them being dual.

I've left amalgamations out of it that but there are 2 at u15 hurling and 3 at u17 hurling with 1 at u17 football.

Which counties do you see it working MR2, and how can we make it more like them.

Our underages league are not near the level they were under south west divisional board from my own point of view
Under all county it's becomes a mess trying to please everybody and it's impossible to do so.

Ok so lets just drop football in the county as we are shite at it and throw our lot into Hurling!

You are the one bringing it up so I've asked you your solution, other counties obviously make it work because there are plenty of successful dual counties out there in club and county

[Dreen]

You said it worked in other counties and I asked you where and could we work on that.

I know it's not easy but what we are doing at the minute isn't the way forward and I've expressed that opinion away from this board.

[EOC1923]

My gripe with this issue is that this is the second year in a row this has happened. Last year Belfast clubs just refused to travel down for games and then one club that wouldn't concide the points also wouldn't agree to a refixed date hence costing Cargin the 2 points and handing Creggan the league.

This year our U15 played every single game ,the game away to Aldergrove they where missing 5 strong players but still played the fixture....

The last game against Rasharkin was set with referee named, so it was to everyone involved a league game for points and there was no worries that the same problem from last year was going to happen again.

It doesn't seem fair to the kids or the parents who make the sacrifices to get to these games week in week out to make it all for nothing .It doesn't matter if its only a division 3 title or not.

Last year I agree you were very hard done by.

But I think this year, as it was so close and 1 game makes a huge difference, then if your last game counted Aldergrove should be entitled to play theirs.

We always aim to fulfil our fixtures, it is better going and taking a beating than having the kids missing out on a game.

At one stage we were challenging for the league but then lost players for a few weeks and lost 3 in a row.

We could easily have asked for those games to be postponed and wait until we had a full panel but didn't.

It is disappointing when you see some clubs regularly miss fixtures at that age group because they just want to manipulate the games to suit themselves and not that of their players.

This happened a hell of a lot last year with the all county setup.


PS I and many other coaches (inc Cargin's coach) in that league don't see it as Div 3, as it isn't at all.

It should be Div 2B, as Div 2 was split geographically and not on ability.

Really, they should have had a play off at the end of the year between the top of Div 2a and 2b for the Div 2 champion.

agree totally with your Ps bit there. dont know why they didnt name it 2A and B. And an all county final wouldve been the way to go

Last year the u15 league was skewed by teams postponing games then refusing to refix games, surely this has to be stamped out moving forward. Not so sure what has gone on this year but lumping the SW teams all in and calling it Div3, while the Belfast teams go in Div 2, how ridiculous.

[Milltown Row2]

You said it worked in other counties and I asked you where and could we work on that.

I know it's not easy but what we are doing at the minute isn't the way forward and I've expressed that opinion away from this board.

Dublin, Cork, Galway, Clare to name just a few of the counties that at senior level would be mixing it in both codes, not sure of the set ups and so on but what you are saying is that clubs should be single code?

[Dreen]

Most definitely not, my own club is a dual.

We need to look at the calendar and hopefully get the geographical split in the leagues even for a first round of fixtures.

What we can't have is single code clubs waiting 2 weeks for a game, even if this means divisional competitions filling the void.

[barnish oggie]

Just because you are paranoid doesent mean they aren't out to get you

Past the 'sell by' date to play for under-15s.....perhaps you will explain why under-15 competition proceeded past 10th and still going..perhaps you have friends in high places.

The date of 10th August was for culmination of the league fixtures, prior to recommencing the Breslin Cup/Shield and then the subsequent Championship games.

There was only 1 league game played after 10th August not "quite a few games".

Sure as we all have been told, leagues are for playing and Championships are for winning, so maybe the early finish of the league can allow focus on the big prize and the disappointment will soon be forgotten about.....

[country bumpkin]

Five under-15 league games played since August 10th....6 if counting Cargin v St Mary's....

[barnish oggie]

Five under-15 league games played since August 10th....6 if counting Cargin v St Mary's....

Five were played on 10th August, one was played after.

[SaffronSports]

So at u-15 is it one match per fortnight?

How long does the season last?

I've only a daughter that plays now and there's just different days for her to be playing across football and Camogie.

U-12 Camogie is a Sunday, football is a Friday night.

U-14 Camogie is a Saturday, u-16 football is a Thursday.

U-16 Camogie is a monday, u-16 football is a Tuesday.

She's at two different clubs due to where we live and sometimes training clashes but we just manage how we operate it.

Surely something like that could be organised where there's a set day and you aim to get a match per week. If it's too much for them, they'll probably pick one code eventually but the more matches the better imo as long as training is managed well.

[Dreen]

That's how I'd see it going for football and hurling for the leagues, 2 games a week for dual then spread out for championship

[country bumpkin]

Five under-15 league games played since August 10th....6 if counting Cargin v St Mary's....

Five were played on 10th August, one was played after.

Dead rubber u15 game played tonight....at Hannahstown v Aghagallon....

[country bumpkin]

Every game played after the deadline is a dead rubber.

Points were awarded.......

[BelSaft]

Cargin by 2
Rossa by 1
LD by 6
PG1 by 8
Aghagallon by 8
Creggan by 5

Cargin by 7
Rossa by 2
St Endas by 5
Pg1/Ahoghill draw
MG/ Aghagallon  draw
Dunloy by 2

[GAAhead2013]

So at u-15 is it one match per fortnight?

How long does the season last?

I've only a daughter that plays now and there's just different days for her to be playing across football and Camogie.

U-12 Camogie is a Sunday, football is a Friday night.

U-14 Camogie is a Saturday, u-16 football is a Thursday.

U-16 Camogie is a monday, u-16 football is a Tuesday.

She's at two different clubs due to where we live and sometimes training clashes but we just manage how we operate it.

Surely something like that could be organised where there's a set day and you aim to get a match per week. If it's too much for them, they'll probably pick one code eventually but the more matches the better imo as long as training is managed well.

The problem here is that if the kids are good enough to play the age grade above, then she plays games 4 nights of the week. This might also mean they're capable of playing county level where a specific training programme might be in place for them. Add to that school teams of their own age and age above and add to that any additional sports the child plays.
At what stage do they get the chance to actually train? Whilst games are great for kids, we need them training also to refine their skills. There is an argument for games based coaching, but that's in a controlled environment where the coach can dictate appropriate development through coaching progressions. If they're playing so many games per week, at what stage do they actually get the chance to develop their bodies for sport away from the field? From 15+ do we not want to be educating our youngsters on injury prevention and a healthy lifestyle in the gym too?

Re the dual question, almost sure Dublin do a hurling week and a football week. Instead of playing the same teams over and over why not use the week off (as a non dual club) to go get a challenge game
Every 2nd 4th week in nearby counties etc? A chance to freshen up the schedule and expose your team to other styles of players & football/hurling?
Def think the games programme could be adapted differently too. Have the 15 a side comps at certain times of the year and 7-9 a side comps at other times of the year. We have breaks for exams and breaks for holidays and even teams failing to field at these times of the year. Why not try a weekly small sided competition where teams can enter 1 team or 4 teams depending on numbers? Have the competition at certain times of the year (eg exams, hols) so the kids can have a consistent games programme instead of other teams failing to field as they were never going to get 13-15 kids together anyway.

[Dreen]

A lot of good points there but the challenge game doesn't work if the neighbouring counties are playing games every week and we are the only county in Ulster who run dual to the level we do.