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1. pre match, Fermanagh players  put through drills, Antrim players kicking the ball around leisurely - bad omen before a ball kicked in anger
2. kickout strategies told a tale, Fermanagh guy looking for movement and space to aim at, Antrim keeper straight down the middle most of time, no outfield movement. Fermanagh got it moving fast, Antrim slow and methodical. Fermanagh won serious number of Antrim kickouts but it improved a bit in second half
3. Not only did Antrim have few forwards up, but they were peppered with high ball in, especially in first half. No chance against Fermanagh defence
4. Antrim half back line never got near going forward to support
5. Serious poor shooting in first half, got better in second half

no doubt Antrim players train, put the hours in and work as hard as any other county and its such a shame they get very little reward

better team for first half only, total disintegration in second half, if Louth had kicked half of their second half wides, they would have been out of sight. Serious issue with kickout plan, if any exists, reckon Antrim lost most of Kerr's kicks. Banging it down the middle all the time is a disaster
On that showing ,qualifiers after Fermanagh

number of kids recruited by a Club is not the issue, it's their sporting talent develoipment that makes the difference and that's where Saint Galls will be found short over the next number of years

 after Antrim won without him and his references to the manager during his interview, will McGourty be selected against Fermanagh ?  If so, hopefully not at the expense of Ryan Murray who delivered big time last weekend.

Excuse my ignorance, but can somebody advise if the reason for the players being dropped  is the manager's stipulation or is it some sort of county rule ?

Bannside,  If I was the named player, I would not be happy with  McGourty publicly referencing reported  issues. I do of course accept that the player may have given authority to be referred to though I have to say I suspect that was not the case. If McGourty is going to speak on behalf of Antrim GPA, I suggest he undertakes a bit of media training in how to handle these things. Rather than focusing on the specifics, I think he would have made more impact by itemising all the issues he is aware of. Such a continuum would have been more effective as demonstrative of Board incompetency.

Antrim GAA reminds me of what is said about alcoholics, namely that treatment of the condition begins with recognition that the condition exists! I suggest that there are many counties which suffer from under resourcing, no history of success etc but which have fronted up to what is strategically required and have taken action to improve things. - Tipperary football woulod be an example.

Any serious  Antrim strategic  project will take years to deliver.There is no point in repeating the requirements for development. As you say, everybody knows what they are

Listening to his radio interview, I got a sense that he was looking for an opportunity to diversify into the widest possible agenda of criticism against the County Board which I felt was both opportunistic and vexatious. It was inappropriate to mention another player with purported issues on expenses payments. I wonder what that player thinks of a third party raising that publicly. He could easily have made his point without going into specifics. Indeed, he went further and raised another issue beteeen the same player and the Board. To me, that raises issues of confidentiality and judgement.
We have heard all this before from this individual. It gets a bit boring when someone consistently criticises but offers little or nothing by way of setting out an agenda for change. It is not enough merely to say that Antrim cannot go on like this. Let him set out his model or template for development. Failing that, was it just an opportunity to pontificate to attract more media attention ?

fact remains that if a Club is not developing, then the people in charge are the wrong ones. Recognise the argument about others who could bring serious skills to things but don't get involved. Need to offset that against fact that some good people are kept blocked out so nothing changes

then they are obviously the wrong men. Do an internet search for GAA Clubs with development plans and you will see that it can be done but it needs the right people to deliver. I have heard all the usual stuff,  we are volunteers, we don't have the skills, this is the way it has always been, a business type model doesn't work in a Club, sorry but that sort of stuff doesn't impress me

Money is not always an ingredient for development and anybody who argues that is kidding themselves. Application and imagination are vital and all the money in the world is useless if those kinds of attributes are missing. If a  Club has not had much success at juvenile level for a good few years, officers need to be investigating that, identifying what is wrong and taking steps to change things for the better. Of course kids move on but my question is what steps or action does a Club need to take to try to combat that. If you meekly accept the status quo, then nothing changes. On the money side, you need to be looking at membership revenue levels, grant and funding opportunities, sustainable money generating activities, widening out the financial base etc, especially at a time of rising costs. Getting quality coaches who know what they are doing rather than settling for well intentioned but ineffective people is hardly rocket science. Setting achievement targets that a Club can work to is the kind of roadmap that is needed - that takes an ability to critically review where things are at and set out a plan to deliver. It' all fairly basic stuff but if it's not done, then a Club does not progress and what usually happens then is that all the old excuses of money, not enough people, amateur status etc are trotted out.

just pointing out what happens when the necessary work is not done. Progression and development is about attitude and application and does not always depend on finance though I accept that some things do need money. Anybody who argues that an absence of money explains lack of development is in denial. H

Galls juvenile problems are of their own making and it will start to haunt them in the near future. Management over the years paid little or no attention to incremental development of kids. Mentality developed that as long as the senior footballers were on top, all was well. Any fool knows that the best time to plan for the future is when you are ahead. Club threw that away.
They may never again produce a group of players as multi talented as the current senior footballers but they failed in their responsibility to maximise the development  of the youth talent at their disposal.
Some of the management failings include the absence of a coach development programme, failure to have parents as key stakeholders in developing the talents of kids, no proper networking with feeder primary schools, no strategic  development of an out of date juvenile section of the Club, no systematic mechanism to appoint juvenile coaches, no coach accountability procedures. I could go on but these are examples of things that should have been addressed at least five years ago

I was there and that's an accurate statement on what happened.B.B. having good game in both play and from frees.

both teams missed chances - cross with the goal and Dolan on the frees
second goal obviously the key score, even though  very flukey but St. Brigids held their nerve

no doubt Bishop will get expect to get  better resource support from St. Brigid's than was the case at Saint Galls. Isin't that the reason the All Ireland winning management team stood down last year