Messages

Now Max!

Not saying at all that Lockhart is better than Downey. But are you saying Lockhart wouldnt make your team.

In fact, forget my team completely, what would yours be.

Any one can criticise, but unless you have a go yourself, it still comes across as a cheap shot!

Definitely Close should be starting. You know what your getting from him. CJ hit or miss, too many off days recently.

Kevin O Boyle in the c`ship last year, Yyan Scott v Derry u 21, when CJ was shite, Gort Naona corner back in last weeks Antrim u -21 final, and pure crap v Donegal in last years Ulster c`ship minor final.

Sorry, but thats 4 out of the last 5 times I seen him play, and that dosent spell consistency to me.

Close a far safer bet. (Love to be proved badly wrong, but wont be!)

On the captain, I`d say Brady or Beller ,or Mick, or big Joe. Does it really matter?

Max, your most recent post re Downey v Lockhart is a cheap shot. they are two different types, one stays and man marks, the other went forward like a greyhound out of the traps, that needed Barton sweeping up for him if the move broke down.

I have gone for a team with the best players, and one or two may not be in their all time favourite position, but still worthy of a position they could still play. Are you saying Downey couldnt play an attacking half back role?

Downey outdoubted class, no argument. But you cant come on and say others havent a clue, UNLESS YOU STICK YOUR OWN NECK OUT, and pick YOUR team comprising of the past and present.

Now, we`ll start with Quinn, and then theres Cassidy!!

Come on now, lets have it please. Impress us all with your team selection.

Seems like one or two key members have retired. Men like Vincent Ward wont be easily replaced, but no one can go on forever.

the spirit of St Galls should be strong enough to bounce back again. Good luck to them.

Its ironic though that so much intense, and financial effort was put into winning the all - ireland club title, that the "energy" has been sapped out of the club. Antrim football needs a strong St Galls.  In sure they wouldnt fancy this article going onto a bigger medium though, and would prefer to sort out their own problems internally. Show them enough respect to let them do that.

Max, youre a bit hard on Lynchbhoy there.

Come on now, the Derry team of 93 was a real credit, and all that, but they werent all superstars. Without getting personal, I can think of four or five average enough players on the 93 team, and I`m sure you can as well. (At least they have all-ireland medals).

I can think of quite a few of them who would really really struggle in todays game.

No full back, would JMG be RHB on todays team, given that it was his fitness got him in, and they are all fit nowadays. FMC at 7, not so sure. How would Big Mc Gilligan fare in todays game, or big Heaney, etc etc.

A key point i think is the quality of your subs bench this year - much better than 93.

Keepers I`m not sure about, but the other 20 would be as follows.

93  Scullion, Mc Keever, Downey, Tohill, Mc Gilligan, Barton, Gormley, Brolly, Cassidy, S Downey.
07  Mc Guckian, Mc Cloy, Lockhart, Liam Hinphy, Doherty, Lynch, PB, Muldoon, Devlin, and dark horse C Mc Keever.

Thats ten from each team, say 11 each if you include both keepers. A skinner doing everything right also in there.

Just for the sake of it, heres my actual team.

GK(?)
McKeever, Mc Cloy, Scullion,
Downey, Lockhart, Hinphy/McKeever
   Tohill   Mc Gilligan

Doherty, Barton Lynch
Gormley, Muldoon, P Bradley.

Sorry Max, but thats 7 out of 14 places for current squad. Lynchbhoy`s not that far away!

Just an opinion of course!

Only an opinion, but with/if the two Bradleys back in and settled into the set up, I really believe youse are serious dark horses for Ulster and beyond. Without them Derry still look like quality all over the pitch, and just look at the quality of your possible subs bench.

Joe O Kane, Ciaran Mc Keever, Liam Hinphy, Paul Murphy, Keenan/Mcgoldrick/Mc Eldowney. add in the two Bradleys, and just think of the unbelievable competition for places there.

Cant think there would be too much slacking at training, or any room whatsover for complacency. A managers dream.

First time since 93 Derry has had such a strong panel, with the subs bench the best for years. A reflection on the quality at the minute in the Oak Leaf county. Having said that, I`ll be with Antrim all the way on Sunday, win lose or draw.

Lynchbhoy, seen Skinner two or three times recently, and he is on FIRE. Twice the player, leaner, meaner, sharper than his NFL performances. Sorry, but a full grade, or two, better than Barry Mc Goldrick or Gavan Donaghy, or a Diver at 12.

Would offer much more as a scoring threat too. Hypothetical though for Sunday, but going forward,  a defining choice in store for PC in terms of his managerial tenure!

A manager always wants access to his best players!

Going by the Derry thread, Paddy Bradley looks to have won his appeal, and is technically available to play against us.

Question is will P. Crozier pick him, and after all he has been through, will PB return to the Derry set up this year?

Any word out there on our team yet?

Agree with you there Daisy.

Baker leaves the set up, obviously a bit pissed off with something going on, Peter Doherty brought in over his head or something. Skinner asked to leave the panel shortly after, and Paddy gets the book thrown at him (rightly or wrongly) by a county board representing a county he has served so well for years.

I`d say dont even mention the county set up round Bradley way right now. No doubt their focus this year is JML, and I`d say they (glenullin) are as good as whats about Derry at the minute. Talk about a one fingered salute that would be.

Class acts, both, no doubt about it. Big winnersto be the Mitchells. If I was Madden I`d be delighted the way these side shows are going, from a club perspective. Talk about motivation!

With those two available, Derry would have one of the most potent forward lines in the country. Without them, well whats another year. Imagine a forward line without two guys who would always get you 8-10 points from play on most given days.

No matter what O Prey ever does with the county, he will always be associated with the Crozier and Pollock episodes. Oh yes, and the total game plan(no plan B) in last years Ulster minor final, around a player who had a serious chest infection, couldnt run, got sick, won a few balls and kicked them wide,  didnt play ball to man in much better position three times, got sick again, gets taken off, his side make a comeback, CJ (planA) gets thrown back in again last fifteen, and team end up with nothing except a ten point defeat, and a harsh lesson that you dont build your dreams around one player, especially one who should be lying at home in his bed.

Grim stuff indeed.

Now the man might be a good organiser, and a businessman etc, but what can ANYONE tell me is/was his football CV.
Who did he play for, coach, what level coaching(level 2). Does he know a good footballer if he sees one. Has he any tactical awareness, etc. Maybe I have a slanted view, but that has been shaped by last years Croke park fiasco,(yes it was a good achievement to get there) and the Crozier and Pollock episodes.

Some interesting views. Ok, I know its totally unrealistic to throw clubs out of c`ships, and better to add incentives to sell v punishments for not. quite like the idea of with-holding all ireland finals tickets for clubs who dont hit their quotas, per rata, etc.

I was told Claudy Gac, a small club in North Derry, sold 80 tables for their corporate raceday, AND 2000 tickets for their own club draw at £100 each.

Kind of puts it into perspective, dosent it!

Gallsman, Im all for name and shame. Personally I think the clubs who have treated this major fundraising initiative with total disrespect should be hung out to dry.

Examine the background.

A new county chairman goes about the business of bringing Co Antrim Gaa into 21st century. He instigates a full review of what Antrim is doing wrong. Every aspect of County activity is included, finance, dev squads, schools, proper coaching, cultural, clubs, etc,etc. It is all inclusive. Its everyones big opportunity to agree a roadmap/business plan for the future.

The end result (the Antrim Strategic Plan) is the best piece of collective administrative work probably ever carried out. It is a roadmap designed to put Antrim GAA on the map. At its launch, Michael Greenan and Nuicky Brennan describe it as the best of its kind.

The plan calls out for greater finance to put together the first phase of the strategy - the short term priorities. We are on our way!!!

All it requires is a committment from ALL clubs, to do a BIT each( sell 20 tickets minimum). Some clube exceed this, embrace it fully, get stuck into making Antrim better.  Other clubs give it the one fingered salute!!!

The way I see it is this is the best chance we are ever going to get, to put our house in order. If Mc Sparran loses his motivation, his drive, as so many have before him, due to APATHY FROM CLUBS, then we will never see an All - Ireland title in our lifetime. Thats my honest assessment, and I firmly believe it.

If this initiative fails, who is going to take on the mantle of delivering the next one? We must not fall at the first fence.

Wouldnt it be a real pity if the poor clubs were exposed. My arse!

Time for some clubs to get their finger out, thats what I say. We`ve been hearing the excuses for too long.

Went into our official county website just there, for the first time in a while, for a browse.

The main action seems to feature around the corporate raceday, and the Saffron Sweep Draw.

I cant believe that seven or eight clubs have made no contribution at all to the Saffron Sweep. Most clubs will finish up in the region of 20 - 40 tickets sold, and this represents some kind of reasonable/decent effort.

The Cushendun contribution of 173 sales is a tremendous achievement for such a small parish, and shows what can be done.

The clubs with no sales at all sicken the life out of me. There are no excuses at all for this, so if one of these is your club, dont even try to pass it off as anything less than a disgrace.

There is an onus on us all to improve our national standing and put some pride back into our county. This is the first venture of its kind, for many years, so get out and get your tickets sold. Stop the rot.

I know it wont happen, but clubs with less than a certain quota sold, say 10 minimum, should not be allowed to compete in next years c`ships, or some penalty that reflects their total disrespect for officialdom.

Any other opinions on this?

Going by a small snippet in todays Irish News, our under 16`s did well at a recent inter county tournament, losing to Armagh by one point, and beating Tyrone, Derry, and Fermanagh.

Well done to all concerned.I`ve seen a few under age games recently, and I can say for certain there is a much, much better type of young player coming through the system. the skill levels are much higher too.

If Antrim can beat Derry, it would give the county a massive lift. In fact, if our minors beat Derry, I might even be persuaded to think that O Prey has something about him, but at the minute the jury is still out!

Sam 2, nearly, but not true. CJ played for La Salle in the All-Ireland B colleges semi-final, and scored 4-6. He chose to play for the school, and that was his call. There was a big push at La Salle for a national title, but they ended up well beaten in the final!

The Crozier thing well debated here, although the whole truth has never surfaced.

There were many participants to the sorry saga, and unfortunately it involved a sad tale of events that has never surfaced. I could write a book about it, but its over a year ago, and is old news now. Except to say that in-explicable bungling at the highest level, pure nepotism, egotism, and worst of all, sheer non rating of a player as good as Crozier, resulted in the throwing away of a great chance to win an all-Ireland football title.

Imagine a forward line with Crozier at 12, and either CJ or Pollock at 15. Instead we got Gribbon(St Galls) and Meade(St Johns).
Gribbon and Meade both taken off early in the game!

Less than 6 months later, CJ and Crozier make senior county debuts. Meade and Gribbon struggle to make their club teams!

Point made.

No big deal, sure that happens all the time in Antrim. NOT.

(Dont get me started)