Antrim Football Thread

[themac_23]

Fair comment HS. I totally get the product isn't good enough, but even when we fluctuated between divisions 3 and 4 for years, there was always a decent crowd at our home games....maybe 800 to 1200 home supporters.....a guess I admit. The product wasn't much better then. People you saw at matches all the time have literally just stopped going. We hadn't 200 at Pairc Esler and even less in Tullamore for the qualifier against Offaly.

So why such an obvious drop off in support inside a couple of years? Has the product got THAT much worse?

Personally, im just sick of the county game in general, even on TV i find watching county football difficult and thats the top teams, this has filtered down to me going to Antrim games, i used to go to every championship game, most league games and the odd mckenna cup game. Its been at least a few years since i went to a county game, just got out of the habit and i have zero interest in going back just apathy i suppose. Flip side of that, ive driven to Toome, Portglenone, ahoghill and other places to watch club games as a neutral just as i find them more enjoyable. dunno what we can do about the county, suppose my point is i dont think the rapid decline in numbers is exclusive to Antrim, i think all bar maybe 5-6 counties are experiencing it.

[bannside]

Gold, you mention an outside manager being a priority. But the big question is how could that be funded. You mentioned Aidan O Rourke again as if he might provide the answer. Well he hasn't done it anywhere yet, at club county or university level, so what's your motive for thinking he would be the solution. And wasn't he given an opportunity to interview the last time round? At least the other two candidates Lenny and JMK had taken club teams to win All Ireland titles. Plus they both made excellent presentations. Of the three, AOR looked the least attractive and the costliest.

There's no easy answer to finding the manager that will please everyone.  15 (or more) South Antrim managers in my lifetime supporting Antrim have had a go...to little success ( bar big Whitey in 2000 but again this fizzled out soon after) obviously no one in the South West ticks the boxes because in 100 years we haven't had one, and if we go for the big name (say a Malachy O Rourke for example) the question is who is going to fund that?

It won't come out of county coffers that's for sure. Two thirds of the senior county expenditure in the last 5 years had been blown on the hurling side of things!

[bannside]

TheMac you're right in that there's no doubt the modern game is hard to watch. It dosent hold a candle to full on 15 a side as we knew it. Who in God's earth would want to be a corner forward in today's game. And yes it's true crowd numbers are well down in other counties too...especially in Derry who have had some fall from grace by their own lofty standards.

[whatwillbwillb]

Over the past few years we have had good minor teams that have more than held their own at Ulster and have been extremely competitive, we have nothing to loose in Div. 4 and the present county panel bar 2 or 3 good young lads just physically can't do it. These kids worked well and atm are lost in the system of age groups but playing club football . AV should in conjunction with sensible people on the executive (not easy) just accept Div. 4 for the next few years and focus on these kids to pull through what would be a strong and unified group of lads.. If not they'll be lost heading away to Uni, states and further a field . Forget about everything except building for the next 3-5 years with these kids that have proved they can compete and get on no club rivalry.. We had a least 11 lads from Antrim on a Mc Crory & Hogan Cup winning panel/ team ffs or have the powers at be forgot this!!!!!!!!!

[galwayman]

Fair comment HS. I totally get the product isn't good enough, but even when we fluctuated between divisions 3 and 4 for years, there was always a decent crowd at our home games....maybe 800 to 1200 home supporters.....a guess I admit. The product wasn't much better then. People you saw at matches all the time have literally just stopped going. We hadn't 200 at Pairc Esler and even less in Tullamore for the qualifier against Offaly.

So why such an obvious drop off in support inside a couple of years? Has the product got THAT much worse?

Personally, im just sick of the county game in general, even on TV i find watching county football difficult and thats the top teams, this has filtered down to me going to Antrim games, i used to go to every championship game, most league games and the odd mckenna cup game. Its been at least a few years since i went to a county game, just got out of the habit and i have zero interest in going back just apathy i suppose. Flip side of that, ive driven to Toome, Portglenone, ahoghill and other places to watch club games as a neutral just as i find them more enjoyable. dunno what we can do about the county, suppose my point is i dont think the rapid decline in numbers is exclusive to Antrim, i think all bar maybe 5-6 counties are experiencing it.

I obviously can’t talk about Antrim football specifically but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head in a general sense there.
I know a lot of people (Galway & Mayo mainly) who would have been big into going to every game who now would go only occasionally as they find county football a hard watch.
It can still produce fantastic games from time to time but a lot of it is drab enough.
I go to all the Galway football games league & chanpionship but would also watch a fair amount of club football in both Galway and Mayo - one thing I find in these counties anyway still is that the very defensive football you see at county level hasn’t overly filtered down to the club scene.
Not in Galway and Mayo anyway from what I’ve seen.
There are exceptions of course - but few enough teams go that way from what I’ve seen.
Bad club games are more about just old fashioned bad football rather than defensive football borefests.
Was up in Casement for the Galway Antrim game in 2012.Awful day for Galway football but an enjoyable day out

[bannside]

Lenny will have learned a lot in year one and will have a better understanding of the type of player he needs for next year and subsequent years. I spoke to him recently at a match between Portglenone and Cargin and he is very proactive about scouting for the type of player he wants, and has designated men watching lots of games all summer. He can't be faulted for giving the job his full commitment and hopefully he will pick up  dozen exciting new panellists for next year. He deserves all the support we can offer if we are going to have a proper crack at getting back out of division four in 2019.

[belfastsaff]

i hear it was rough between Ld and Kickams yesterday with a man having to be air lifted to hospital ? hope he makes a full recovery, was at st johns and cargin a draw probably a fair result but cargin have a bit more in the tank have to be favourites for the championship.

[themac_23]

Fair comment HS. I totally get the product isn't good enough, but even when we fluctuated between divisions 3 and 4 for years, there was always a decent crowd at our home games....maybe 800 to 1200 home supporters.....a guess I admit. The product wasn't much better then. People you saw at matches all the time have literally just stopped going. We hadn't 200 at Pairc Esler and even less in Tullamore for the qualifier against Offaly.

So why such an obvious drop off in support inside a couple of years? Has the product got THAT much worse?

Personally, im just sick of the county game in general, even on TV i find watching county football difficult and thats the top teams, this has filtered down to me going to Antrim games, i used to go to every championship game, most league games and the odd mckenna cup game. Its been at least a few years since i went to a county game, just got out of the habit and i have zero interest in going back just apathy i suppose. Flip side of that, ive driven to Toome, Portglenone, ahoghill and other places to watch club games as a neutral just as i find them more enjoyable. dunno what we can do about the county, suppose my point is i dont think the rapid decline in numbers is exclusive to Antrim, i think all bar maybe 5-6 counties are experiencing it.

I obviously can’t talk about Antrim football specifically but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head in a general sense there.
I know a lot of people (Galway & Mayo mainly) who would have been big into going to every game who now would go only occasionally as they find county football a hard watch.
It can still produce fantastic games from time to time but a lot of it is drab enough.
I go to all the Galway football games league & chanpionship but would also watch a fair amount of club football in both Galway and Mayo - one thing I find in these counties anyway still is that the very defensive football you see at county level hasn’t overly filtered down to the club scene.
Not in Galway and Mayo anyway from what I’ve seen.
There are exceptions of course - but few enough teams go that way from what I’ve seen.
Bad club games are more about just old fashioned bad football rather than defensive football borefests.
Was up in Casement for the Galway Antrim game in 2012.Awful day for Galway football but an enjoyable day out

Always good to get an outside view and see that we aren't unique in Antrim. Unfortunately i think now, a lot of clubs are introducing a defensive style, was chatting to a div 1 player few weeks ago who was said he really wasn't enjoying his football anymore because of 'the system' this is a team full of quality players with lots of flair but who are being held on a leash by a system, let the players go and express themselves i dare say it would surprise managers what can happen.

On that game at casement, i remember it well, we had a good side at that time. I remember Galway were on a slow decline at the time and remember being quietly confident we could get a win. Would that have been seen as a catalyst for change in Galway? i seem to remember a lot of the older guard playing that day, was that the game that finally finished a lot of them off? When i look at Galway now i wonder was that day we beat them the rock bottom and they've built from it? Which then begs the question, we are at rock bottom now, how do we get that bounce to start going again

[whatwillbwillb]

i hear it was rough between Ld and Kickams yesterday with a man having to be air lifted to hospital ? hope he makes a full recovery, was at st johns and cargin a draw probably a fair result but cargin have a bit more in the tank have to be favourites for the championship.

Cowardly act if the allegations are true, enough people there to view it and lets hope Sam makes a full recovery and the county deal with it accordingly, and of course lets hope MR seen it too.....

[imtommygunn]

Fair comment HS. I totally get the product isn't good enough, but even when we fluctuated between divisions 3 and 4 for years, there was always a decent crowd at our home games....maybe 800 to 1200 home supporters.....a guess I admit. The product wasn't much better then. People you saw at matches all the time have literally just stopped going. We hadn't 200 at Pairc Esler and even less in Tullamore for the qualifier against Offaly.

So why such an obvious drop off in support inside a couple of years? Has the product got THAT much worse?

Personally, im just sick of the county game in general, even on TV i find watching county football difficult and thats the top teams, this has filtered down to me going to Antrim games, i used to go to every championship game, most league games and the odd mckenna cup game. Its been at least a few years since i went to a county game, just got out of the habit and i have zero interest in going back just apathy i suppose. Flip side of that, ive driven to Toome, Portglenone, ahoghill and other places to watch club games as a neutral just as i find them more enjoyable. dunno what we can do about the county, suppose my point is i dont think the rapid decline in numbers is exclusive to Antrim, i think all bar maybe 5-6 counties are experiencing it.

I obviously can’t talk about Antrim football specifically but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head in a general sense there.
I know a lot of people (Galway & Mayo mainly) who would have been big into going to every game who now would go only occasionally as they find county football a hard watch.
It can still produce fantastic games from time to time but a lot of it is drab enough.
I go to all the Galway football games league & chanpionship but would also watch a fair amount of club football in both Galway and Mayo - one thing I find in these counties anyway still is that the very defensive football you see at county level hasn’t overly filtered down to the club scene.
Not in Galway and Mayo anyway from what I’ve seen.
There are exceptions of course - but few enough teams go that way from what I’ve seen.
Bad club games are more about just old fashioned bad football rather than defensive football borefests.
Was up in Casement for the Galway Antrim game in 2012.Awful day for Galway football but an enjoyable day out

Always good to get an outside view and see that we aren't unique in Antrim. Unfortunately i think now, a lot of clubs are introducing a defensive style, was chatting to a div 1 player few weeks ago who was said he really wasn't enjoying his football anymore because of 'the system' this is a team full of quality players with lots of flair but who are being held on a leash by a system, let the players go and express themselves i dare say it would surprise managers what can happen.

On that game at casement, i remember it well, we had a good side at that time. I remember Galway were on a slow decline at the time and remember being quietly confident we could get a win. Would that have been seen as a catalyst for change in Galway? i seem to remember a lot of the older guard playing that day, was that the game that finally finished a lot of them off? When i look at Galway now i wonder was that day we beat them the rock bottom and they've built from it? Which then begs the question, we are at rock bottom now, how do we get that bounce to start going again

Truthfully i think mchugh is right that ulster football has a lot to answer for. Even our lower divisions are loaded with "sweepers".

[Caesar]

Anyone know what happened during the Lamh Dhearg vs Creggan game?

[tiempo]

Any idea when the club football Championships start, are there dates?

[bannside]

Just preliminary round dates 7-9 September Tiempo. Fixtures on Antrim Gas website. All quiet on LD v Creggan, but would you really want, or expect all the unsavoury details on a discussion forum. Next thing it will be page one of the Belfast Telegraph and headline news on the TV.  Any chance they get....

Having said that it's important that discipline is enforced (consistently) through the proper channels and our games can be played in a sporting fashion. Hope the player in question makes a good recovery.