Messages

Congrats to St. Enda's on finally winning the minor football championship last night after just falling short the last 2 years.  Good to see a new name on the trophy and hopefully a sign of the improving standards of gaelic football in the North of the city. Some very good footballers on their name but what a player they have in their full forward Odhran Eastwood! Some excellent players on the Creggan team too especially the two Small's. Yes there is talent within the county providing it can be nurtured properly.

Very little comment on the Saffrons most recent defeat in Div 4. Is this a sign of the apathy that exists now in the county. I for one am totally dejected and do not see any light on the horizon. As far as I can see there are just not the players within the county and Micky Harte, Joe Kernan or Jim Gavin would not be able to turn the fortunes around.
Why do we not have enough good players? It boils down to one main reason. Antrim was the only county in Ulster who did not have a single school playing in this years MacRory Cup. Think about it THE ONLY COUNTY. Therefore if our young players are not accustomed to playing 'A'-colleges level between the ages of 12-18 then they are not used to playing at the intense level that all other players form other counties are. This a as an absolute scandal and while  many of the schools such as St. Mary's, Malachy's, Rathmore, St. Louis' must take a lot of the blame most of the blame has to lie with the county board. This would not be tolerated by the county boards in Tyrone, Derry, Down, etc The current office bearers in the County Executive have totally ignored our schools and they may argue that it is not up to them to develop GAA in these schools but IT IS. They should be working with the principals in these schools in order to put coaches into these schools and if they say they don't have the money to do this they should have the strategic vision to bring in sponsorship from business people which will enable them to do this. This is what the lead people on an organisation are meant to do ie  LEAD.
Our County Board are a joke. What progress have they made in relation to improving Gaelic football standards in our school? It's not as if they were starting from a high baseline.
Anyone else have an opinion?

The U-21 draws the domestic season to a close. Johnnies have a lot of very good young footballers although their problem is that some of the ones that Bannside mentioned will always prioritise hurling and this may be to the detriment of their future prospects at senior level. Hopefully they can give the Ulster Club U-21 championship a good crack. Antrim clubs are usually fairly competitive within Ulster from U-16 right up to senior with Portglenone beating the Derry champs last year in this competition. Prospects look bleak for Rossa in the Ulster Minor club with them due to play Glen (going for 4 in a row). I see they took a walloping in the minor league final yesterday from St. Enda's. Surprised at that! Would have thought that with winning the county minor championship that they were all set to give Ulster a run!

Down to the last 4 now in the U-21 Championship. I think someone predicted from the outset it would be L Dhearg v Portglenone and Johnnies v Enda's in the semis and that's how it turned out. Easy wins for Lamhs and Johnnies in the 1/4's as expected but Portglenone and Enda's had it much tougher in their matches with a late goal getting Portglenone over the line against a St. Brigid's team without their best player and an Enda's team with 12 minors being taken to extra time. Looks like a repeat of the minor final of 3 years ago with L Dhearg v Johnnies in the final.

Yes Country Bumpkin, that is right. The rule states that if two teams finish level, it comes down to  head to head results between those two teams but if more than two teams level on points then it comes down to score difference between these teams. Hence St. Paul's having the worst scoring difference between of the 3 teams and getting relegated.

Think I'll do the Euromillions tomorrow night after my prediction during the week lol. In all seriousness a draw was always on the cards and why wouldn't the two teams play for a draw if that was all they required. The management of both teams aren't stupid and like myself would have looked closely ay the tables and knew that a draw would suit both teams. Looks like my interpretation of the rules was also correct.  What would be the point of stipulating head to head results in the regulations, if score difference in the games between the sides was not also applied. It would be a bit of a contradiction. Anyway fair play to Gorts for coming with a late run to stay up when they looked doomed with a few games to go and also to the Glen Road men for securing promotion. I do feel sorry though for Aghagallon though, if they only found out after they had completed their games that they would be deducted a point for Failing to Field although saying that everyone knows that the main penalty for failing to field is the loss of the point and not the £300 and they should have known that. Exciting finale to the county's most competitive league in any case.

What odds Gort na Mona and St. Teresa's playing for a draw this week? Draw suits both teams if teams that finish level on points are decided by the head to head scenario as stated in the rule book. in the two games between Gorts and Aghagallon this year the results were A 2-15 Gorts 2-9 and Gorts 2-16 A 2-9. Therefore 1 win each but Gorts have a better scoring difference of +1. in the games between Moneyglass and St. Teresa's again its one win each but St. Teresa's won their game 1-19 to 0-13 whereas Moneyglass only won theirs 0-14 to 0-13. Could we see both teams kick the ball back and forth to one another for 60 mins maybe even a 0-0 TO 0-0 draw. I wouldn't like to be a Moneyglass or Aghagallon player waiting on that result.