Antrim Hurling

[ruairi]

My views would tend to be slightly bias against loughiel normally , but you cant take away their win last year. Any other year you could have argued that they came through the easier side odraw but not last year. They beat their 2 nearest competitors on way to winning the championshipp.thats it.                                                         Having came through that game yesterday i can tell you we are very happy to have escaped.other days we might not have.having played championship against dunloy and loughiel over the last 10 years i can assure you that that test was as good as anyone that has any one of the 'big 3' (as people hav said). St galls can compete for the next championships if they keep their minors involved and the club lets the player play both codes.                                                               I thought RM done a decent job.tried his hardest to let the game go.                    MR as far as other teams getting a handy all ireland semi as you commented last night, i dont agree with that.each team that has went over the border has went over and hurled vey well.

[Milltown Row2]

My post was directed at NAG1's post above mine.

[btdtgtt]

Some good points MR2 - although I do think u undersetimate the succes of clubs going over the border. Our clubes conistently give good performances - the gap that is there at county level is not so evident at club.

However your point on dual players (especially if they are also county players) is spot on. Think about it lads - if a dual club like St Galls / Rossa etc can compete with single code teams like Dall / Shams does that not tell us something? I mean single code teams have nothing else to focus on for the full season they are preparing for hurling championship whilst their opponents might be kicking ball in Moneyglass or the like!

Well done St Galls and our dual clubs - perhaps the single code teams might thank their medals cabinet they dont kick ball!

[Milltown Row2]

Some good points MR2 - although I do think u undersetimate the succes of clubs going over the border. Our clubes conistently give good performances - the gap that is there at county level is not so evident at club.

However your point on dual players (especially if they are also county players) is spot on. Think about it lads - if a dual club like St Galls / Rossa etc can compete with single code teams like Dall / Shams does that not tell us something? I mean single code teams have nothing else to focus on for the full season they are preparing for hurling championship whilst their opponents might be kicking ball in Moneyglass or the like!

Well done St Galls and our dual clubs - perhaps the single code teams might thank their medals cabinet they dont kick ball!

Success is measured by what you have won, we have one it once while Dunloy have been very unlucky in not winning it twice.

I put that post up as i was annoyed at some of the comments made earlier about the standards dropping, which i believe to be bullshite, the other teams down south have just raised theirs

[ruairi]

MR i play on the cushendall team, and i believe ourselves or dunloy are not as good as we were 10 years ago. Back then both teams were unlucky. In 99 cdall were up inside injury time against st josephs who were current all ireland champs and ended up in a draw. Dunloy actually got to a few finals in the following years.at that stage thechampionship  winner was always going to come from either of the 2.                                                                       Now theres chances of upsets thrown into the mix. I understand you were prob just pissed off. You just want to let that one slide?

[Hurler24]

Have just got my account activated today so bear with me commenting on the Ballycastle game as well as the other semi-final.

SIE you are a disgrace.Did u actually see the two challenges??Skinner was blown up for a foul(over carrying i thnink) he then went on to shoulder Neal McAuley in the chest and then tried to salk off with the ball.Hippy shoulderd him and he fell.Hippy then took the ball off him and went to hit the free.At which point the umpire made the call. Mattys red card was for what?Standing his ground and taking the shoulder of the runner?how many times does this happen in both hurling and football.A yellow card offence at worst. However i do agree that yes yous wud probably have won the game as our boys hadnt got into the game at all.But again your statements that A) This is the worst town team is wrong and B) That Duffy was a 9/10 is complete tripe. He let the likes of Skinner get away with wild swings in the first half yet when ballycastle players gave it back in the second half he sent them off.

In the other game Cushendall were very lucky and St Galls certainly improved since we played them in the league.Also would like to wish Cdall best of luck in final as after lgiels antics on sat and through these message boards would hate to see them win anything.Horrible team+horrible fans!!

[Milltown Row2]

Look I'm pissed off but that doesn't take away from one thing. The standard has improved up here just not to the same extent as down south.

I was at Parnell for your semi's against St Josephs and De La Salle I had been at Dunloys games also and was in Parnell last year for Loughgiel's game. De La Salle went on to get hammered by 18 points I think and have lost in their club championship this year I think

We had great hurlers in those days no doubt but the speed of the game is far quicker down there compared to us. Newtownshadrum took it to a different level then Portumna took it higher again before Ballyhale stepped in and raised it again. We have tried to get there but with no luck.

Now as a club player of Cushendall ruairi can you honestly say you have put in the same effort as those players from the teams mentioned above? For me when Dunloy started winning they were putting in that effort, yourselves had to then raise your own standards to compete with them.

But somewhere they just got better and we didn't improve as fast and the gap just got bigger. Having refereed a right few games this year at underage level I am seeing kids play hurling that 10 or 15 years ago would not be happening. Their ability is great to see and is proof that it has improved. It's the preparation when leading up to the big games that is letting us down when heading over the border.

[Megaman]

Cushendall got out of jail big time yesterday. They where awful throughout the whole game, everyting they did was so slow, compared to St Galls who looked very sharp and where faster onto every ball.

Credit to cushendall though, they fought hard and got the bit of luck which they didnt get when hitting the Post twice and one cleared off the line.

MR2, i am still convinced the standard at senior level among the top teams is not what it was a few years ago, maybe the weaker teams are getting better but as i said C'Dall & Dunloy have gone backwards IMO, loughgiel are much the same.

btw didnt De la salle get beat (unluckily) last year in the AI Semi by the eventually easy winners.?

[ruairi]

Think to say the result is all that matters is true in one respect but kind of belittles st galls effort yesterday. Cdalls best opportunity was in 2006 when they got beat by a mediocre loughrea team.your clubman trained us that winter and we were flying fit but just didnt perform that day. Realistically 8 years ago st galls wouldnt not have played better than cdall in a championship semi final.i think its a combination od us getting worse and the weaker teams getting better.

[Seamroga in exile]

Wise up hurler 24. No matter what you think Skinner should've got he didn't deserve a cowardly attack from behind. The real disgrace here is that people are actually trying to justify it. There would still have been more than ten points in it if you'd kept all your men on the field. Your hurling at the standard this year you deserve to be at going on Saturday's performance. Straight down next year again I fear.

[Just Puck It]

SIE no one is saying he deserved the shoulder in the back, but as someone already said earlier, the phrase Live by the sword, die by the sword applies indefinitely here.

[theskull1]

Another inch up and I could've been attending a wake today. Don't try and belittle the seriousness of what yer man done b+a. It was nothing more than an assault of the most cowardly kind. Shame on you for even trying to say otherwise!

I missed the challenge myself due to the number of bodies about the place. But I can tell you when it comes to cowardly assaults, the injured party in this case has a fair bit of previous over the years. Who knows if this contributed to the challenge that he took on this occasion (which was rightly dealt with by the referee) . Those who use the sword tend to come up against retribution eventually whether you or me believe it to be morally justfied or not.

I repeat

[Seamroga in exile]

I see the animosity towards Loughgiel is still alive and well within certain clubs in the county. It makes winning the championship all the sweeter.

[Seamroga in exile]

*yawns

[theskull1]

Dont want to deal with the point I'm making SIE?