Antrim Football Thread

[BigGreenField]

A lot of good comments here nailing the issue of culture and coaching quality.

I do see more ex players as coaches in country compared to city , are kids had younger in the country encouraging lads to sidelines earlier?

How you build this is coaching the coaches rather than the kids, make it easy for parents (who will remain the backbone) to get better) spend money on coaches going into secondary schools alongside whoever is taking the school team. 

I'd also add facilities , for city teams getting access at reasonable times is a real issue, getting kids to a pitch for half five on a weeknight is a bit of a nightmare and undermines culture, hard to buy into a sport for kids that needs you leaving work early twice a week.

[Cnoc Bán]

A lot of good comments here nailing the issue of culture and coaching quality.

I do see more ex players as coaches in country compared to city , are kids had younger in the country encouraging lads to sidelines earlier?

How you build this is coaching the coaches rather than the kids, make it easy for parents (who will remain the backbone) to get better) spend money on coaches going into secondary schools alongside whoever is taking the school team. 

I'd also add facilities , for city teams getting access at reasonable times is a real issue, getting kids to a pitch for half five on a weeknight is a bit of a nightmare and undermines culture, hard to buy into a sport for kids that needs you leaving work early twice a week.

I agree, the aim should be on coaching the coaches/teachers.

That should be Gaelfast's nr 1 priority, especially if they are hindered by lack of funding and personnel.

Never mind sending their people out to schools to take a training session for the kids once in a while, put the effort into improving the coaches/teachers themselves so they can provide a better platform every time they take a team.

And if a post primary school wants to make a step up, then work alongside the teachers to help them, both as improving them as coaches but also helping lead that team.

One look at the names associated with Maghera, Magherafelt and Omagh these last few years and the impact that had for them.

[Milltown Row2]

I'm nearly sure the coaches were in St Mary's running coaching sessions at the training college, now the difference is not all teachers will have an opportunity to do this when they get a job and some might not be bothered.. but I'm nearly sure I seen that was being done

[Hectic]

Gaelfast definitely do coaching workshops for coaches.  Just not sure what the demand looks like.

And not sure if you mean using the school as a venue or working with the school but there have been a few positive signs lately coming out of CBS.

[marty34]

First point is Nursery:

Make it a point at the meeting at the start of year that 1 parent must stay with their child at each training session. No excuses.  All station based stuff. Hold a hula hoop or throw a ball. All simple stuff.

If a parent doesn't stay, take their child home with them. Zero tolerence. It's only for an hour. You're not a baby-sitting service. Lay it on the line.

You could get 8 future coaches out of this each year. 

[Slemishgael]

I find the topic of culture within Antrim GAA interesting. You look at counties in the north such as say Derry Armagh and Tyrone for example and a vibrant GAA culture has been created within those counties over the years. There's a parochial element of this is our club, our parish and we have immense pride in our area and community and we want to do our best. Maybe more in regard to football with some hurling pockets to be fair. I'm only picking these 3 counties of the top of my head but they've generally good clubs, good schools and their county footballers tend to do a hell of a lot better than Antrim in all age groups. There's buy in from many people. These counties have a lot smaller population than Antrim yet possibly a bigger playing population. I think above all GAA culture starts in the household.. encourage the kids to get involved playing hurling football or comogie in the garden. Talk about the games. Exposing them to games be it on tv or down at a club or county game. It's planting the seed in their mind and getting parents and families in that GAA parish environment. It's back to that parochial thing of pride in your parish your community your school your club and county. I'm not so sure Antrim by and large have that? - some areas within the county do i think. Many passionate antrim gaels no doubt (many on this forum) but I don't think to the extent/volume as in other counties. In my line of work I work with a good few folk, women and men from the above 3 counties. They're all involved in some capacity in GAA and their kids are all involved from a young age because it's encouraged and its embraced. GAA is often a topic of conversation. It's not easy but they make the sacrifice and get involved in coaching and driving here there and everywhere to games etc and they support their counties all over ireland. For me I've always been involved in GAA, played both codes,loved my club and that parochial nature of things. Pride of Parish etc. But that's probably all based on my upbringing and being encouraged from a young age. I now try to do the same for my kids.. encourage the game in the household have the games on take them to the club etc and i see other neighbours doing likewise in my current parish. I think in Antrim we'll get there eventually but as mentioned before alot probably has to change at household and parish level. For me instilling a culture in the GAA all starts at home. Then yes schools clubs etc.. pride of place and where you're from is so important in GAA. Out of interest is there a lack of pride would you say amongst Antrim gaels in their county? Almost an 'I'm embarrassed I'm from Antrim' attitude? Sometimes I get that vibe from folk that we're beat before a ball is thrown in. Win our loose we should be proud Antrim gaels. Alot of hard work going on within the county but more needed as we all know. Let's encourage the basics first and foremost at home.

[Sportacus]

Culture:
Armagh and Antrim to use an example, both had their moments in the 50's.  Armagh came back again in the 70's, reaching the All Ireland in '77, and they more or less stuck around during the 80's and 90's, and took off again in the noughties.  All those teams for Armagh bred the next generation of success. Each team gave their supporters big days out and created an aspiration for young people to play for their county.  Along the way they benefited to an extent from colleges.

By comparison, during the same period Antrim completely lost its way.  The U21 team in the early 70's was the last chance, but we all know what happened sadly, and we lost our way in Antrim more than any other county. The 70's run into the 80's, which run into the 90's, with nothing of note bar the run to the Ulster Final under Baker a while back.  The hurlers had their high point in the late 80's/ early 90's and for plenty in the county not much care could they give about the big ball. The city in particular is very diverse (no bad thing) when it comes to choice of sports or other past times, whereas GAA in South Armagh for instance remained solidly the main if not only show in town, and it was football not hurling. 

The problem now is we've lost the know how, the belief, the willingness.  It would take a monumental collective effort to get Antrim football back in the big time.  We might get lucky with a few generational players and I hoped for a while that might be about to happen - perhaps.  You've seen Duignan come in in Offaly and try to do something like this, although their previous high points weren't as far back.

Our footballing pool has actually become quite small in my opinion.  Most wouldn't know Dermot McAleese if he was standing in front of them (with all due respect).  Casement is just kicking a man when he's down, and is partly self inflicted and reflects the fact that we've had all sorts of administrations running us over the decades and to be honest it's been self-aggrandising or dodgy too often. 

So back to culture, Armagh, Derry and Tyrone have all hung in, had big days, made their own heroes and as they say success breeds success.  Antrim haven't (and Down are in a precarious enough state).  No easy road out of this.  We're scraping around saying maybe it's this, maybe it's that, but I can only think it needs rebuilt from the very bottom up.

[inabsentia]

Full round of fixtures this weekend.



Creggan v Ballymena
Randalstown v Aldergrove
Rossa v Ahoghill
Pg1 v St Pauls
Glenravel v st Galls
Cargin v LD
St Johns v Dunloy
Aghagallon v Brigids

Davitts v Glenavy
Moneyglass v Comgalls
Teresas v Gort
Endas v Lisburn
Sarsfields v Rasharkin

Erie og v Laochra lao
Aggies v Tones
Malachys v Ardoyne
Pearses v O'Ds

[InnocentByStander]

Personally id give the Antrim job to John McKeever.

[Take the Mark]

Personally id give the Antrim job to John McKeever.

Why would you give it to him? What are his credentials for the job?

And on the flip side, why the feck would he take it?

[BigGreenField]

Culture:
Armagh and Antrim to use an example, both had their moments in the 50's.  Armagh came back again in the 70's, reaching the All Ireland in '77, and they more or less stuck around during the 80's and 90's, and took off again in the noughties.  All those teams for Armagh bred the next generation of success. Each team gave their supporters big days out and created an aspiration for young people to play for their county.  Along the way they benefited to an extent from colleges.

By comparison, during the same period Antrim completely lost its way.  The U21 team in the early 70's was the last chance, but we all know what happened sadly, and we lost our way in Antrim more than any other county. The 70's run into the 80's, which run into the 90's, with nothing of note bar the run to the Ulster Final under Baker a while back.  The hurlers had their high point in the late 80's/ early 90's and for plenty in the county not much care could they give about the big ball. The city in particular is very diverse (no bad thing) when it comes to choice of sports or other past times, whereas GAA in South Armagh for instance remained solidly the main if not only show in town, and it was football not hurling. 

The problem now is we've lost the know how, the belief, the willingness.  It would take a monumental collective effort to get Antrim football back in the big time.  We might get lucky with a few generational players and I hoped for a while that might be about to happen - perhaps.  You've seen Duignan come in in Offaly and try to do something like this, although their previous high points weren't as far back.

Our footballing pool has actually become quite small in my opinion.  Most wouldn't know Dermot McAleese if he was standing in front of them (with all due respect).  Casement is just kicking a man when he's down, and is partly self inflicted and reflects the fact that we've had all sorts of administrations running us over the decades and to be honest it's been self-aggrandising or dodgy too often. 

So back to culture, Armagh, Derry and Tyrone have all hung in, had big days, made their own heroes and as they say success breeds success.  Antrim haven't (and Down are in a precarious enough state).  No easy road out of this.  We're scraping around saying maybe it's this, maybe it's that, but I can only think it needs rebuilt from the very bottom up.

Very difficult to magic a county culture out of nothing, has to start at clubs (literally getting cubs to watch their club senior teams) and by extension schools, as player quality goes up the magic moments will start happening at club, school and county. It's a 20 year project.

[BigGreenField]

Full round of fixtures this weekend.



Creggan v Ballymena
Randalstown v Aldergrove
Rossa v Ahoghill
Pg1 v St Pauls
Glenravel v st Galls
Cargin v LD
St Johns v Dunloy
Aghagallon v Brigids

Davitts v Glenavy
Moneyglass v Comgalls
Teresas v Gort
Endas v Lisburn
Sarsfields v Rasharkin

Erie og v Laochra lao
Aggies v Tones
Malachys v Ardoyne
Pearses v O'Ds

Did Glenavy get Owen Gallagher back from Galway?

[Kickham csc]

Culture:
Armagh and Antrim to use an example, both had their moments in the 50's.  Armagh came back again in the 70's, reaching the All Ireland in '77, and they more or less stuck around during the 80's and 90's, and took off again in the noughties.  All those teams for Armagh bred the next generation of success. Each team gave their supporters big days out and created an aspiration for young people to play for their county.  Along the way they benefited to an extent from colleges.

By comparison, during the same period Antrim completely lost its way.  The U21 team in the early 70's was the last chance, but we all know what happened sadly, and we lost our way in Antrim more than any other county. The 70's run into the 80's, which run into the 90's, with nothing of note bar the run to the Ulster Final under Baker a while back.  The hurlers had their high point in the late 80's/ early 90's and for plenty in the county not much care could they give about the big ball. The city in particular is very diverse (no bad thing) when it comes to choice of sports or other past times, whereas GAA in South Armagh for instance remained solidly the main if not only show in town, and it was football not hurling. 

The problem now is we've lost the know how, the belief, the willingness.  It would take a monumental collective effort to get Antrim football back in the big time.  We might get lucky with a few generational players and I hoped for a while that might be about to happen - perhaps.  You've seen Duignan come in in Offaly and try to do something like this, although their previous high points weren't as far back.

Our footballing pool has actually become quite small in my opinion.  Most wouldn't know Dermot McAleese if he was standing in front of them (with all due respect).  Casement is just kicking a man when he's down, and is partly self inflicted and reflects the fact that we've had all sorts of administrations running us over the decades and to be honest it's been self-aggrandising or dodgy too often. 

So back to culture, Armagh, Derry and Tyrone have all hung in, had big days, made their own heroes and as they say success breeds success.  Antrim haven't (and Down are in a precarious enough state).  No easy road out of this.  We're scraping around saying maybe it's this, maybe it's that, but I can only think it needs rebuilt from the very bottom up.

Very difficult to magic a county culture out of nothing, has to start at clubs (literally getting cubs to watch their club senior teams) and by extension schools, as player quality goes up the magic moments will start happening at club, school and county. It's a 20 year project.

Antrim need to start running a program on promoting the idea of a "club" Antrim identity. Went to school in Derry in the 80's early 90's and they looked down on Antrim and would talk of pride of Derrys achievements. You fall into the trap of believing them until you realised that Antrim had twice as many Ulsters etc than they did.

The pride Derry lads have is both at a club level and county, always talking about their sucesses. When I joined Antrim minors, we never talked about tradition, winning tradition, the Derry lads have it literally beat into them.


Antrim need to start with youth, coaching etc, and a clear psychology of winning needs to be bombarded into them, from about needing to win and what it takes to win at the top

[YoungSaff]

Surely there hasnt been any chat of McEntee extending his contract ??

It will be interesting to see who is lined up for the job after this , I think Antrim GAA is in a bad place and slowly still on the decline as the gap widens further between top counties and ourselves.

[Milltown Row2]

Surely there hasnt been any chat of McEntee extending his contract ??

It will be interesting to see who is lined up for the job after this , I think Antrim GAA is in a bad place and slowly still on the decline as the gap widens further between top counties and ourselves.

Lets get through championship? We won't be attracting big names, I'm sure there are candidates willing but its such a high criteria to meet, so many hoops to get through, well one main one, after that it should be a breeze