Messages

How many Liverpool, Man U, Man C, Chelsea, etc players had intensive Euro / Copa campaigns.

That's going to play are part in the league aswell

What I don't understand is why were the players ,that we just brought on, not given a ball to do some pressure warm up drills for the 10 mins it took to organize the penalties. I looked for it and didn't see it.

Also England looked disorganized when trying to get the players on the pitch. The Italians took a quick throw to prevent them coming on the first time, but the second attempt (at Italy's corner) Rashford ran back to the seats to get instructions etc, I was waiting for the Italians to take a short corner to prevent them getting on. Looked really amateurish

Expenses as part of income is just another example of the public sector mindset, similar to sick leave being an extension of annual leave and must be used ensure the maximum number of days off.

As part of their job, they have to travel to meet general pubic at meetings or other informal meetings e.g. housing application issues at local sites) Travel payments are provided to enable them to do it while out of pocket.

If that funding was removed, would they be in the right to not travel or meet people to help them out.

I know this is an easy topic to take a pop shot at politicians, but this is a genuine question. Otherwise, would they be in their rights for a tax deduction on payments for petrol to enable them to carry out their pubic duties

A player gets sent off after the final whistle but before extra time begins. He can be replaced by a sub for extra time, correct???

Yes and no I believe if the ref doesn't get the team sheet signed before extra time is played he can be replaced, if team sheet is signed then no..

Don't hold me to that 

Is extra time still officially a new game? If so team can start with 15 players in extra time. My team did this back in 2000 and all was grand, except for the result

The problem I have with refs, is not the individual per say, but the inconsistent application of the rules. Take the prominent Raskarkin ref who does allow more physical contact, then the up coming ref from Tir na nog who blows everything like a non contact sport. Totally frustrating. There has to be something fundamentally wrong when there is such a variance. Apparently both came through the ranks based on these assessors, like seriously. In saying that I would take the Raskarkin refs approach all day long.

This is one thing (can debate how significant) that is holding Antrim back at the intercounty level. Our games need to be a lot more physical, but not thuggish if we are going to develop players who can handle the white hot heat of intercounty championship

Growing up we would have watched a lot of Derry and Tryone football and it was hell for leather.
When you watch an Antrim game, the intensity levels were well down.

Too picky a ref doesn't help players, too lenient and you open the door for thuggish play.

Who would want to be a ref

So Ulster have fooked up Casement, and before its sorted they are kickstarting a Clones project!

How much would this project cost, and will it be competing for funds with Casement?

Yes sorry your right Niall McKenna is an exceptional footballer. And apologies DR i thought you were talking about the county hurlers. Didnt realise you were talking about dunloy. I saw them v Moneyglass last year and although they do have some tasty footballers its hard to say if any of them are capable of getting to that senior county level, as to be honest, they dont seem to take football that seriously or care enough about it. they can hold their own at intermediate level and thats just on sheer talent. I remember dunloy would of been up there with rossa and johnnies as the best dual clubs in antrim but football has had to take a back seat by looks of it

Curious as to what would constitute a good dual club?
IMO winning senior championships in one code and consistently challenging in the other code at which ever level, would be a decent level. Rossa nor the Johnnies have this in either code, just wondering what they themselves would think.

Just a thought

So we would have been a good dual club, as would have the Johnnies back in the day along with Rossa have who won both titles with the same players back in the day. sustaining that is impossible

A good dual club is one that puts genuine effort in the promotion of both codes and tries to balance the commitment for both. A dual club will have both codes competing for  honors, at the respective levels that they can compete at.

I would put Creggan, Ahoghill, Tir naNog, Rasharkin, Glenravel, Ballycastle, Ballymena, Dunloy as good dual clubs from the country

This a complete can of worms as clubs who claimed continued to run club lottos / collected memberships / ran fundraising draws.

Surely the single biggest expense for a senior club is the management - some clubs receiving in excess of £100k is scandalous - given insurances were credited / competition fees reduced.

The fund is audited & will come under intense scrutiny now to demonstrate what has been claimed to be spent on is actually spent on - otherwise the money will have to be returned.

If the clubs were honest with applications it won't be a can of worms, and management wont be near the top of the list. Any club with nay major development completed will have loan commitments, insurance commitments, maintenance commitments that still need to be paid.

For example, some clubs run gala dinners to help fund, or major draws, which usually required club volunteers travelling the length of the country to sell tickets, both funding opportunities gone.

Some clubs ran tournaments, those events were lost.

Also looking at GAA funding v IFA and Rugby, GAA on average got £40k per club and Rugby and soccer £80k per club (Soccer money is def skued due to the larger clubs getting 6 digit payments

Well a few counties are training so they'll not be too worried when the government give permission !!

What counties are training?
The only county I have heard of training is Antrim footballers, training on a council pitch in Belfast. I hope they wise up and stop cos it threatens everyone. Very selfish act.

Was there not a thread on about team's training? Down being one? Haven't heard the Antrim one.

Yes Down trained around Christmas and Paddy Tally was suspended. I believe Cork also got a suspension. Antrim footballers trained last Saturday at Cherryvale.

Surely this is a mistake. If Antrim were to break rules, there are far better secluded locations in Antrim that could be chosen. Toome, Glenravel, Rasharkin, Ballymena, Tir Na Nog, Creggan, all have pitches that are away from the main road. Why chose a council pitch in full view of a major road. Just doesn't make sense.

Even Falls park, Woodland Park would be a better secluded locations for council pitches

Just doesn't make sense

There's something about this whole Casement redevelopment which I don't understand.

When the original 38k capacity was first proposed by the GAA, Stormont's Safety Technical Group estimated that:

"... only only around 18,000 people could safely evacuate a redeveloped Casement in west Belfast if the Andersonstown Road was closed.
Police, fire and ambulance officials also warn that in a 'worst-case' scenario just over 11,200 fans could safely exit if cars are parked on residential streets."
https://www.irishnews.com/news/2016/03/15/news/casement-park-emergency-services-report-highly-significant-say-residents-450296/



[Also this, which I can't read behind their paywall? https://www.irishnews.com/paywall/tsb/irishnews/irishnews/irishnews//news/2016/03/14/news/38-000-casement-park-could-not-be-safely-evacuated-emergency-services-say-448623/content.html ]

So if it was deemed nowhere near safe for 38k, what has changed since to make it safe for 34k?

And on what basis could Nichola Mallon now recommend that 34k go ahead?

I think I read somewhere that the GAA was going to buy some land leading out towards Stockman's Lane, so maybe that might alleviate the problem? (I don't know for certain whether they have, nor am I familiar with the area)

Anyhow, if the local residents were successful in challenging the original plan on safety grounds, could they not do so again for the new plan?

I believe there was something in the redesign of the stadium where additional exit points from the stadium were designed that directed people away from Anderstown Road. I think (completely open to challenge) that the design contained two or three exit points in the residential streets that solved this particular problem, and that that redesign resulted in the capacity going from 38k to 34k

From a plan point of view, it's clear that Ulster GAA were looking at the stadium to be a revenue generator in regards to conferences etc. Also when Ireland finally get to host a world cup rugby finals, Ireland need 8 stadiums, and Casement would help fit the bill in the north. I thing the GAA is thinking bigger picture rather than just an Antrim home, and to be honest, with the success of Croke Park they (GAA) usually make good decisions on these matters

I am torn about it. I've played championship games in Casement where the stand was full but the embankment was empty and the atmosphere was good but not great. I've played championship games in Cargin and Moneyglass where the crowds were less and the atmosphere was great.

So from an Antrim point of view, do we need a 34k stadium???

The really smart solution would have been for Antrim to upgrade Corrigan, Cargin and possibly Ballycastle to 10-15k stadiums and let Ulster manage Casement, then they could have the best of both worlds. Play NFL and NHL matches in the regional grounds. Play championship games in the regional grounds and Ulster Championship and County finals in the new casement.

I'd love Antrim to be able to run off a finals type day that they did in NY, where there could be anything up to 5 finals on the one day. Great atmosphere and some craic

thought asbestos in the main stand was the issue that the ground went off limits

[Belfast is on the very far right of the province]

I think its time for some reality now.
Build what you can with the funds available.
Wouldn't a tidy Stadium with 1 main Stand of say 5k capacity plus terracing with 10 -15k capacity be more than sufficient?
Co Board offices, dressing rooms etc under the Stand.
Unlikely many big Ulster games will be played in the 6 Counties anyway with VAT plus there may be new Football Championship structures.

We have plenty of good stadiums lying empty for most of the year- so yeah to a point I agree, its a real pity that we didn't have the gumption to match IFA and RFU plans and strategy from the start, but for me at this stage I cant really understand the obsession with Casement, it was never easily accessed anyhow, we could have had the full deal somewhere else by now. Belfast is on the very far right of the province. We cant get some people within our own county to make the trip over the Glenshane without moaning. Bundoran or Cavan Town to West Belfast(with the torturous  traffic) isn't exactly handy.

Belfast is on the far right of the province
Clones is on the far south of the province
and Omagh is on the far left of the province

That's the point. Ulster had this figured out in the 50's and 60's, where the Ulster final rotated between the three venues. Ulster needs a Munster solution where the finals can move about. Clones for northern half of Ulster is a bad location, so the vision for Casement is correct. The management of this has been an absolute disaster

I obviously dropped in the Sean  ref to see who was reading my post

Its an interesting debate here and one that has many rights and wrongs, depending on your own point of view.

How do you feel that its worked out for your own club KCSC? Your footballers have been paying for a manager for a number of years now since Micky Moran was it? correct me if im wrong here.

Do you feel that bringing in paid managers over this period of time has brought the senior team on or do you think otherwise? Its interesting to hear that side of things from clubs who bring managers in rather than source your own club. Since they started paying managers should, in that passing time, the club not of been investing as well in coaches to take that mantel on down the line. Or has that not been done at all?

Im not having a go at your club by the way, I do want to understand the long term plan of a club that pays managers year on end and if theres an end goal other than hope that they bring success (by using the unpaid underage coaches hard work to develop the kids)

We dont pay managers and i would oppose it in any shape if our senior hurlers or footballers or camogier managements were paid. Im in one of these set ups and have been for the past 7 years now.

I dont want paid. I dont go to the pitch for training and to matches twice a week for money. Ive been offered money to take other teams and turned it down as i couldnt care less about another club and how they do. I dont care about the development of their minors or U14's but i do care very much about our own players and wanting to see them do well and its why i spend countless hours doing it.

I think it has worked TBH. My father and uncles have championship medals, and they always said during the wilderness years that the club doesn't need to be winning championships every year, the minimum standard is that they are really competing for championships and winning a few. To that end we are now competing at the highest level and are starting to win Div 1's and O'Cahan Cups. Much better than before.

The biggest impact to the club IMO was Sean McGettigan.

If we look back 20 years ago, Creggan were a mid table div 2 team, picked up a couple of intermediate championships, with a lot of young talent coming through, but could not get out of Div 2. Our internal managers were really committed but we weren't getting the best out of the team.

We brought Sean in and he really changed the standards within the club. Simple things like moving training from Tues - Thur - Sunday afternoon  to Tues - Friday, early Sunday morning training. Really forced the young ones to make the decision - Drink or football. Now we have a really strong culture towards, fitness, training and playing. That change IMO, only happened due to the outside voice.

Sean changed the system of training, a lot more with the ball in the fitness training and our preparation for games etc improved.

Bringing Micky Moran in was not a case of Creggan breaking the bank to get over the line. Micky was recovering from a very nasty public divorce from the Mayo county  and the press were hounding him. We needed someone in and he wanted a lower profile club to get away from the press but still coach.

He is married to Rita (McAteer) and he spends some time in Creggan and the arrangement was perfect. He further improved the standards and we started competing at the business end of the championship in semi finals etc.

I could go on but the outside managers have definitely improved the club, and even though we haven't won the big one, we are seriously challenging to win it.

The knock-on effect that this has had in the clubs is also important. Our players now have expectations in regards to how training should be run and what it takes to be successful. This has influenced the hurling team as well, as the dual players would not be happy working hard in football and pissing about in hurling. It is no coincidence that the hurlers improved during this time. talent was there but standards improved too.

Last point, when every manager comes in, the juvenile coaches would spend time watching the coaching sessions and taking note of approaches etc and then the approach, would start flowing into the underage coaching sessions. So the outside managers helps the development of underage coaches.

Our club have a number of good coaches, but they seem to enjoy working with the youth. Sean McAuley is a good example. Played for Maghera, Queens and Antrim and would have been influenced by some of the best coaches around Ulster. Sean has a passion working with underaged teams and doesn't enjoy working with seniors as much.

The club puts a lot of effort in making sure the underage coaching structures are in place, the same focus as the seniors. So all in all it works well