Messages

country bumpkin, as hardstation has mentioned both senior football and hurling were seeded for financial reasons and they balls it up by fixing two seeded teams St Galls & Cargin agaisnst each other.

With the first CC meeting due this month what's the thoughts on the proposal to change the grading format from that put forward last year and that the top 4 of Div 1 football & hurling for 2015 are graded not the four semi finalists. . If the proposal goes through it would mean that two of the semi finalists in lasts championship that aren't in the top four aren't graded. Similar in the hurling that one team that didn't make the semi finals will be graded. Seems that the proposal will benefit one club in both championships..

Would it be Ballycastle v Dunloy on Saturday in Loughgiel £8 and double header on the Sunday with intermediate final on before Cushendall v Loughgiel possibly in Dunloy or Ballycastle. £10.

According to the County Chairman at the last County Committee meeting Dunsilly is due to recommence on 16th June but you might see pigs flying in and out of Aldergrove.

Great to hear these recent posts... Anyone from Loughiel/Ballycastle confirm if NA feile is this Saturday. I've heard conflicting dates

Both NA Feile A & B Finals will be in Dunloy this Saturday (no times yet)

NA Féile B   2 May 2015   Con Magees      v      Shane O Neills      Final   
NA Féile A   2 May 2015   Loughgiel      v      Ballycastle      Final

Cheers Skull ......

Matches are at 4pm and 5pm

The feile match between Loughgiel and Ballycastle scheduled for tomorrow night is not being played as both teams play each other in the final on Saturday in Dunloy.

Any thoughts on the County hurling league restructure for next year, looks like it's been agreed and all without being put to the clubs.


03 April 2015
The structure of the All County Hurling Leagues in 2016 will be changed as a result of a motion passed at County convention 2014.
The make up of the leagues starting in 2016 will be:

Division 1A – 8 Teams
Division 1B – 8 Teams
Division 2 - 8 Teams
Division 3 - Remaining teams

To enable this to happen the games played in this years league (2015) will form the basis of who plays in each Division in 2016.

At the conclusion of the 2015 leagues ,the top finishing 8 teams in Division 1 will make up the Division 1A in 2016.

Division 1B (2016) will be made up of teams that finish in 9th and 10th position in Division 1 (2015) plus the top 6 teams finishing in Division 2 (2015).

Division 2 (2016) will be made up of teams that finish 7th,8th,9th and 10th in Division 2 (2015) plus the teams that finish in position 1,2,3 and 4 in Division 3 (2015).

Division 3 (2016) will be made up of the remaining teams who play in Division 3 (2015) plus Division 4 (2015)

The winners of leagues 1,2,3 and 4 will be awarded the League Trophy and medals in 2015

So who actually won the other McAuley Cup semi-final? And when they playing the final, not many weekends left until All County Leagues start.

It was to be a double header, hurling in Armoy but not sure where the football will be played.

Look no one is denyimg the pitch was soft as you've stated on a few posts the match was stopped on 7 occasions and probably isn't acceptable but my first point is if Antrim aren't prepared to invest in the infrastructure they just have to make do. Maybe they'll find a spare £100k this season and get changing rooms at Dunsilly.

With reference to management decisions there are two things, 1. In the first half of the match why did Antrim play a sweeper when Chrissy was able to puck the ball into the forward line. 2. We seem to be playing players who are backs for their clubs in the forward line and leaving forwards on the bench

Everyone has different opinions and the above is mine, it would be boring if everyone just nodded their head and agreed with everyone else.

The reality is quiet simple. Antrim have three new pitches at Dunsilly and cannot use them because they have no welfare facilities yet. Last season Antrin increased their team expenditure by £100k due to managers wanting larger panels, I'm no architect but surely £100k could build four changing rooms and a meeting room rather than the ludicrous £1.2m Antrim say they need even if it's to get Dunsilly up and running.. Until such times as Antrim and Ulster council extract the digit and get the Casement disaster sorted Antrim have to go to club grounds to play their matches. Antrim do not contribute towards the clubs hosting the county games or days they train on them which in my opinion is a disgrace. I'm sure the groundmen in Ballycastle did not like to see their pitches cut up ( warm up done on the second pitch) but at the end of the day both teams had to play on it.

If Kevin Ryan is trying to blame a pitch he needs a reality check, the reason Antrim are competing and then falling away in the last quarter of matches is down to poor decision making from the sideline.

It's one vote per club (& executive members), motion was for both codes so only one vote needed.

Maybe some season Antrim will try and leave the formats of championship and league along. Time to get on with it until this years convention when no doubt there be some changes proposed yet again.

I was there on Monday and the county chairman stated the seeding proposal for championship were  100% financial driven and was prised by the county not the clubs.

The vote was 20 against and 26 for. With only 44 clubs in Antrim someone behind me asked what was the voting strength and if all clubs were present and how could we have more votes than clubs. The response was that county executive could vote even though not all members were present and some say they didn't even know it was being proposed.

With regard money, clubs that host any championship games are entitled to 10% of the gate on the day but are never told until later date what is collected.

Role on the championship draws this Monday night.

Anyone any word what's happening this Saturday. Is the Intermediate Final on and if so what time?

Word is Intermediate & Junior Hurling Championships will be fixed for this Saturday in Loughgiel and Senior Final in Ballycastle on 28th. Will be interesting to see how the county price these finals as it will be hard to charge £10 for one match as was last year at the senior final.