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Antrim Camogie cancelling the minor championships. Likely a wise call

Made the right call there. As much as we would of loved to have ran it out over the two weekends its not worth it now.

You see what happened in Loughgiel with a small cluster and then the same in Glenravel so it was a good time to shut it all down.

well thats it. when your young you don't care about things like this. Its a problem for older folk to be worrying about. Your unbreakable at that age and its not something you need to care about.

we were all there at that stage of our lives. Its hard to fault the younger ones for that.

At the club meeting the other night there we decided against playing in the football and hurling league this year.

Once the minor camogie is finished the club facilities (pitches, 4G pitch) will be shut down till next year.

From what I can gather, the aftermath of recent championship wins or defeats are part of the problem in the areas mentioned. Clearly school etc has played a part also.

A bit of correlation between championship final wins ,/ loses in East down and North down. Some cases in North Antrim, as mentioned, related to matches a possibility?

RUMOUR is that a lad from Loughiel was positive and didn't know and went to celebrate with the team who won the championship and it was passed on to the players and then he went to work and by the time he tested positive it was all over Ballycastle also. One of the Loughiel girls goes with a lad from Waterfoot and that was a knock on effect. A few Glenravel players went to Ballycastle on Saturday and the whole minor set up has been tested now. St Killians College has been shut for the next 2 days for a deep clean.

I know we can't control players outside the pitch but it kinda shines a bit of unwanted attention to the clubs from some circles.

young lad didn't know he was positive. went out the Sunday after the camogie and it got passed on to some of the other ones. I was at the same bar that night in Loughgiel and had a real sweat on waiting to see if some of the folk id been chatting to were positive from their tests. Thankfully they weren't and its been nearly 2 weeks since that time and ive been staying away from as many people as i could just to make sure.

Its passing around the young folk like wild fire now, which was to be expected, so the fact we got our seasons all over and finished was a bonus.

yeah theres been a few cases in our area as well. Its mostly coming from younger ones passing it onto each other in social circles which was always going to happen now with so much opened up now.

Its a good time to pull the plug on things now.

Its not been decided with ourselves if we will field or not in the football and hurling as well.

Will prob be decided tonight what we will do.

Personally i can see arguments for and against it but if we did field it would be teams of young lads minus all our county hurlers.

is there u21 this yeaR?

no, they gave it a miss this year when the new fixtures came out.

i think this would of been the last year of U21 grade anyway would it not as we are moving to U13, 15, 17 etc?

DR has Dunloy a S&C coach, is he Eoin Mc Nicholl? From Glenullin?

Yeah he is. Hes been there this past few years with the club.

Really good, hes been fantastic for the panel as a whole and hes really in demand for clubs and other sports.

I don't think our game is on this Sunday. BC aren't seeing themselves wanting to field in the game and to be honest i don't think anyone from our end cares either.

Its something that needs to be reviewed more often and not allowed to sit still for years.

For example St Thresa's Dungannon beat our second team in 2016 shield final. They were back in it again in 2017 winning it and then 2018 again winning it. Whats the point in that or how is that progressing the game?

Clonduff are a very talented side and should be playing in the Ulster senior championship. Eglish are playing in the Derry league now and have ran Clonduff really close this past number of years (should of beaten them in one of the finals) and could probably play in the senior championship.

They dont seem to have any sort of promotion to a higher rank for teams at all.

Different organisations have different expectations and rules.Would the camogie association in ulster, be planning for an outcome in all ireland series ?

Yeah they are. Ulster starts shortly for Creggan and Tir Na nOg in the Shield and Junior championship for each side. Loughgiel have to wait to January for an Ulster final.

The AI series is after the provincial series in each grade.

Its something that needs to be reviewed more often and not allowed to sit still for years.

For example St Thresa's Dungannon beat our second team in 2016 shield final. They were back in it again in 2017 winning it and then 2018 again winning it. Whats the point in that or how is that progressing the game?

Clonduff are a very talented side and should be playing in the Ulster senior championship. Eglish are playing in the Derry league now and have ran Clonduff really close this past number of years (should of beaten them in one of the finals) and could probably play in the senior championship.

They dont seem to have any sort of promotion to a higher rank for teams at all.

yeah and ulster final in Jan between the Antrim and Derry champions. No more counties enter it at senior level though to be honest the Down champions should be in it now as Clonduff have shown they would be good enough.

Derry final is this saturday.

Don't know how Clonduff get away with this, they're by far the best team in Down yet win the Ulster intermediate and even an AI intermediate and then somehow are allowed to enter ulster intermediate the following year.

Don't get this at all myself. Clonduff are clearly a strong team but entering the same championship each year offers nothing to them. They should be senior and to be fair Down senior camogs are very good as well. they are better than Antrim and Derry as well and would be good enough to compete in the ulster senior club championship.

The Ulster intermediate final is just Down v Tyrone so again it seems a bit pointless the same two sides playing in it each year (usually Clonduff v Eglish). there's not much in terms of counties pushing up grades.

there's an Ulster Junior championship and the Junior B and then the shield. Too many sub competitions and too many teams at that level where they should be moved up

Loughgiel Camogs stepping it up a gear in the second half. Roisin McCormick running the show.

was at the game on Sunday. really entertaining match between the two sides but Loughgiel were always on top from the very start of the game. Ballycastle did get back into the game but they never looked like going in front.

Christine Laverty was Loughgiels best player. serious work rate and broke up so much ball, won it and then delivered into the forwards. That said they will struggle to beat Sneill. they look seriously good still.

1st half was competitive enough i suppose but the 2nd half was a whitewash. Think Ballycastle scored once - with a few minutes to go. They just don't have enough quality up front and they couldn't contain Catrion Dobbin and Roisin McCormick. Christine Laverty had a good game but Roisin McCormick was head and shoulders above the rest. Even when they doubled up on her she still won 90% of the ball. Think she finished with about 15 points.

Dunloy v Ballycastle is where the battles lie over the next few seasons. Loughgiel too far in front to be caught just yet.

Yeah them pair up front are total quality. they are fantastic players and are the main scoring threat for Loughgiel. Young McKillop had a good game as well, they pushed her up rather than in defence and she broke up alot of ball and won it as well. Good decision to play her where they did.

Ourselves, well we made a balls of the semi final against Ballycastle. We beat them twice in the year but come championship we played nothing and were 1-08 to 0-01 down. BC never scored in the second half and despite us playing so bad we could of won the game.

I wouldnt say Loughgiel are streets ahead at the moment. I would say they used to be but the gaps closing now on them. they used to beat us by 30 points now the max is single figures, but they are still the standard bearers for Camogie in Antrim that we all need to get to their level.

we have a lot of strong young girls into the senior set up that won the last 3 U16 titles in a row and the Minors so with time id be confident we will be there or thereabouts.

yeah and ulster final in Jan between the Antrim and Derry champions. No more counties enter it at senior level though to be honest the Down champions should be in it now as Clonduff have shown they would be good enough.

Derry final is this saturday.

was at the camogie final on sunday past and yet again Portglenone had everything done to a T. well organised all over the pitch

That pitch surface has to be the best in the county