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i'm not going to come and defend the attitude of the line (of which i'm part of) but the county board did a disservice here and put in place a referee who has not officiated at this level before.

you country men have i'm sure not had this referee before. he normally does the South antrim football games (beer belly leagues) and while some of the decisions were clear cut some where not. magee pulled a ball from behind the cross bar, now skull correct me if i'm wrong. he never went beyond he 45's. his first free set the tone when after some intense tackling he blew when no foul was committed.

thats two games in championship that we have ended up with a first timer, when a more experienced referee is doing the line. i understand that there is a shortage of referees in the county, and these referees need to start somewhere but, it's a sad states of affairs in antrim that we cant encourage ex players to take up refereeing, yes they may also miss things in the game but they generally get it right.

i do believe our club players do give off far too much, this is not something the management ask the players to do. if we were to concentrate on hurling,  and deal with the referees decision then we would do all right.

...and milltown you then went on to try and defend the attitude of the line..




don;lt get me wrong, there was no serious abuse or threatening of the ref but it really was like watching a bunch of adolescents gurning over nothing....


and you said  'its a sad state of affairs that we can;t encourage more ex players to take up refereriing'...  anyone watching last nights match got a perfect demonstration of why we can't.  from the first whsitle to the last, it was constant.

now from what you have said, you guys had a preconceived image of this particular ref and perhaps you thought he might react to the pressure but still no excuse...

As a neutral at the match between st galls and dunloy i must agree with the comment about st galls palyers and sideline constantly bickering at the ref.  it wasn;t the worst refereeing performance ever and he certainly wasn;t being helped by st galls attitude (players and management). they questionned almost every decision even though most were clear cut.  What was that all about milltown? 

anyhow, dunoy were disappointing to say the least- maybe they were holding some back or maybe st galls deserve some credit for this.  in particular the full back and centre half (kieran mc gourty?) looked good.  didn;t have enough up front and a bad goal from a short free in the first half was crucial.

it was a new look dunloy team with no mc mullans (??) and patch out at centre back where he was good.  keeper had a good game.  liam richmond looked much sharper than last year but conor cunning looked a but rusty and in poor shape for him.  plenty of fire power on dunloys line with d mc mullan, c mc guckian, p richmond, p shiels?

big improvement required from dunloy if they are to challenge for the title but they may be pacing themselves.  Was impressed by st galls hurling but not their attitude I am afraid.

Not sure that Cushendall and ballycastle are leading lights in the fundraising stakes!!!?  In my mind ballycastle are one of the worst supported clubs in the county, relative to the size of the town.  problems in past are hard to shake.  they now have excellenet facilities (and a great committee) but this was in no small part due to the fact that they were able to sell their exisiting pitch for housing. 

C'dall were in the fortunate position that they were able to buy their facilities from the council about 15 years ago for a song!

Cunning is a good ref so he must have been taking some lip to red card a man after the whistle...



saw the b'castle u21 game v rossa.  there would need to be some serious imporvement if they are to win it..  in fariness, i thought s mc garry had a good game at full forward and at 11 when he moved out.  he was out in front to most balls.

was not a bit strange that ryan donnelly didn;t start but maybe he was injured?

Still think the IHC will be a tight affair and yesterdays results havn;t changed my mind much.  Glenarm will be disappointed as will Tir na Og.  Carey will be hard to stop if they back into gear again.  both sections still tough to call.

Who was the ref in the Glenarm match Girt?  he must have been getting a bit of the famous feystown hospitality..  who got the red anyway?

girt, who were the offenders for the red cards?  straight reds or double yellows?  sounds like there was a strong breeze for such a turnaround but then again it was on feystown...  clooney gaels are a well drilled outfit.

Any reports on the IHC matches yesterday.  I see clonney gaels had another good result with an away draw at Glenarm- not an easy place to go.  Did i hear there was a few cards being dished out here?  Carey easy winners over Glenravel.

Any other results? Did St Pauls or St teresas play?

As I have said below, the IHC is one of the most competitive and very hard to call.  Any one of Sars, St Pauls, Carey, R'town, Glenarm, Clooney gaels will fancy their chances in this. 

Carey seem to have gone off the boil after a good start to the season.  They have lost their way.  St Pauls are unknown as they havn;t fielded anywhere near their best team this year- but it can;t be turned on like a switch.  Sars experience in Div 1 might help but I don;t fancy them.  Clooney Gaels must be the most improved team in Antrim with some great results.

Maybe I am going against the grain, but I fancy randalstown.  Seem to be coming good at the right time.

Here here Guillem2- no need to be naming refs here if you are not prepared to do the job yourself.  if we want to improve the standard of refs, potential candidates need to know that they can give it a go in the knowledge that they won;t get personal abuse on sites such as this.

Those who are posting this stuff may think by a smart remark that these guys will give up or the powers that be will not appoint them to big games but they are actually being counterproductive in the long run- have a look at the bigger picture- personal attacks will do nothing to enourage guys to take up the job.

Havnt; seen the papers- how did gorts and rossa do?  fancied gorts to scare them a little..?

i notice the post elsewhere re Micko's behaviour in the football the other night- is he ever going to learn?  as soemone said, he needs to take a leaf out of his brother Ciaran's book.

St Johns won't count for me.  Its down to the dall, dunloy and a very outside chance for l'giel (if they get a roll and there is no evidence that they will).  Think the dall must be strong favorites.

Easy win for the dall tonight over ballycastle.  Thought ballycastle might have put it up to them a bit more and they must be disappointed.  Never looked like winning.

I see in Div 2 Clooney Gaels have had a another good result with a win over Carey.  Fair play to the Gaels- the All Ireland run last year has clearly done them good and they are riding high in Div 2.  Good to see themselves and Tir Na Nog fielding strong hurling teams in the the south west area where traditionally football takes precedence.

They will both fancy their chances in the IHC which must be one of the most competitive chmpionships this year with at least 6 or 7 teams in with a shout.  Teams competing are Sars, St Pauls, Carey, Glenravel and St Teresa in one group and Clooney Gaels, Tir na Nog, Cushendun and Glenarm in the other.  Top two in each group into semis. 

Too close to call.

I really don;t get this S&W bashing.  in the short time he was on on sat, pinky was skinned and the management did the right thing in changing it, a change that brought us back in the match.  he just didn;t have the pace (personally, i think that pinky needs to be up front at this stage).  credit the guys for a brave decision.  if they hadn;t made the change we would have experts coming on to this sight telling us they should have done it.  they had to be ruthless.  as for tosh, he was completely absent against clare so why did he think he had a god given right to start the next day??- should past glories guarantee the guys a place irrespective of form??  ditto for mc fall.  he did enough in 10 mins against clare to show why the management see him as a squad player only.  ditto for DD Quinn- ryan has shown in the games to date why S&W were prepared to give him a chance.  his shot stopping has been good, he distribution against laois was top notch and he seems to have another 5/10 yards on his puck outs.  DD dropped so he walks out- who do these guys think they are?

With the exception of Watson, who it appears from the outside did not behave himself, the other senior players appear to have been badly treated.

What is the evidence that the senior players were 'badly treated', cause I havn't seen any??  is it just that they got dropped when they weren't playing well?


yes, i agree, duffin didn;t work out but i would guess that point was not lost on the management, although with so many walkouts, options are limited.

we have definitely made progress this year.  yes, I would like to see a bit more experience in the team but none of the older guys have a god given right to a starting slot.  if their from isn;t up to it, then someone else must be given a chance.

against galway, based on last two weeks, my team would be

ryan, m kettle, m mc cambridge, s delargy, a graffin, karl mc keegan, c herron, p magill, j campbell (in absence of anyone else),mc crory (if not on hols still), pinky (if available), mc manus, shane, m herron, p shiels

perhaps DD just left the panel as he was a bit disappointed with his form.  Why does everyone that is not on the panel have to be as consequence of S&W?

and who knows whether or not they are putting pressure on mc manus to delay the op.

deal with facts and not speculation.

Hardy, can't disagree with what you say.  ' The yobs are now behind the mike and in front of the camera.'...

at the end of the day, these guys live and die by the ratings so its society thats keeping them there. 

and yes, it doesn't mean that we all have to like it.

i see no0one reatec to the bandwagon comment and Tom Humphries!

Feck there is some bit of jumping on bandwagons goes on this board....  

can no-one see that nolan is just making a career out of being controversial and speaking his mind.  a bit like dunphy did before.  despite your criticisms you all tune in to watch/listen to him!!  he wouldn;t be on 5 live if he wasn;t getting the listeners. he has made a niche for himself so credit where it due.

I know he can be fairly arrogant and talks over everyone but are we sure there is a little piece of religious bigotry here?  If it was joe brolly would people be as hard on him?

fair play to him for giving the GAA a bit of spotlight.



its a bit like the thread yesterday about Tom Humphries article.  that man could put his name to any shite and 90% of this board would be hailing it as the greastest fuckin piece of literature ever.  if martin breheny's  name was at the bottom of the exact same article the same people would be hailing as apeice of dung.

OK, tom's articles are generally good but do we really need people coming on to dribble over it!?

get a bit of perspective into your lifes and stop jumping on every bandwagin that roles by...