Antrim Hurling

[Give-it-Timber]

What about the match on Sunday, does anyboby think we have any chance.?

SATURDAY timber Saturday!!  obvioulsy a typing error, but just incase you travle up on sunday and theres no-body about!
[/quote]

no i meant the club league games on sunday..................    

..........ok, ok i messed up, well what do you think anyway.

[Give-it-Timber]

ok, ok i messed up, well what do you think anyway.

Yeah, we all think you messed up too.

Eh           

[Big Bob]

Just put a few quid on Antrim to win tomorrow on Paddy Power - 13-2. And a few quid on First Goal scorer. John Tosh within the first 10 minutes - 21 yard free - back of the net!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up the Saffrons.....................

[slow corner back]

Right, even after all our arguments, disagreements, discussions etc etc Will everyone be turning out tomorrow, rain or shine, to cheer on our county hurlers? to provide that 16th player to hopefully push the lads onto success?

Antrim fans are probably the quietest in the country. Even when the team is going well we do not raise much noise. Think back to the Tipp match in C,Dall last year. Antrim had won the first two league games beating Laois and Galway, we had a nice tight pitch in C,Dall and a good crowd but virtually no noise. the game was tight all the yet Our support never got behind the team, IMO. I hope tomorrow is different but I wont be bringing my ear protectors.

[Tony Baloney]

Anyone know what the weather is doing tomorrow afternoon? The stand will be packed to the rafters if it is pishing!

[Balboa]

Just put a few quid on Antrim to win tomorrow on Paddy Power - 13-2. And a few quid on First Goal scorer. John Tosh within the first 10 minutes - 21 yard free - back of the net!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

from talking to the antrim players pinky will be hitting any penalties, for 21 yard frees for the net pinky or neil mcmanus. tosh may as well throw them in

Colonel you have obviously never faced a Tosh penalty/21 yard free if you are spouting shite like that........

[Gold]

Well- good game but disapointing--antrim were always chasing the game.

Even when antrim got on top in the 2nd half they insisted on driving the ball in high to the full forward line instead of taking their points.

Clares goals were all too easy, antrim can play well but always seemed to go to sleep after getting a score and let Clare men waltz through.

Too many times a Clare man came out with the ball when there was 3 antrim men contesting it with just one clare man.

Some of antrim's forwards were waiting on the perfect ball and appeared to close their eyes when the ball was in the air.

Delargy, Kelly and Graffin had good games, so did paddy magill--other players were good in parts--thought shane mcnaughton stayed on too long but when McFall came on he didnt look up to the pace.
Some positives but still lost by 9

Tosh was poor-missed a terrible free just before half time then Clare went up and scored with last puck of half

Difference was that Clare were clinical, frighteningly clinical--and this is meant to be a very poor Clare team

[Balboa]

9 pt defeat to an average Clare team,probably shows us where we are. Clare just always seemed to have a score when they needed it, far more economical than Antrim, they hardly hit a wide in the first half. Antrims midfield struggled, cant agree about Sean Delargy playing well, he was behind the man a lot in the first half, i thought Mickey Monty was really poor and he is usually one of our better players. Tosh wasnt at it today but i thought young Sambo got far more ball and did nothing with it, he should have been called ashore earlier. Mc Manus was excellent after a quiet start,ditto for Paddy Magill. People talk about us not being used to the intensity of southern teams, but Clares basic skiills were superior to ours, how many times did you see 3 or 4 antrim players surrounding a Clare player and he was always able to get the ball in his hand and clear it with minimum effort. Couldnt understand when we were getting closer in 2nd half we started pumping high balls (Shorty particularly guilty) into the forwards, end result was Clare backs batting the ball down to their free man about 3 times in a row.

[theskull1]

Just don't have the players IMO to operate at this level at the minute, but hopefully this qualifying system will stay in place and give Antrim 4 meaningful games to try and improve as time goes on.

Good performances from Magil and McManus. Michael Herron also competed very well. I thought the half back line were poor the whole game and made life really difficult for their full back line for the first half hour until shorty had to come back to cover (eventually!! ). Things tightened up at the back after that but we lacked the fire power up front and their spare man swept up everything. Agree with others opinion that Shane McN stayed on for too long. I would have moved tosh into the corner and taken shane off due to his experience and extra strength. All those crying for McFall to get a start should catch themselves on. As good a stickman he is, he's carthorse slow now and not a viable option in the corner IMO. Decent enough game and 9 points was about right

[Ruairi Og exile]

Agree with skull, bottom line is the players arent just good enough. Any mistakes we made were punished straight away. Full back line improved in the second, Graffin was superb in the 2nd half, Pinky improved though should never have let his man catch the ball for the 2nd goal(square ball anyone?). Sean Delargy was far too loose at times. Micky Monty I thought had a good game when he went to centre half, at least he was willing to make a tackle. Johnny Campbell.....i'll say nothing. Midfield was second best especially Brendan Herron who was non exsistent. Magill hurled well & worked very hard & took some good scores. McManus hardly hit a ball til he got the goal & came into more in the second half with a few good assists. Tosh was poor...that missed free was awful. Shane McN started brightly but should have been taken off 5-10 minutes in the second half as by then his man had him well beat. Michael Herron done well when he went to FF at start of 2nd half & as for McFall...the people's(mccooey's) champion...my arse

When Antrim went man for man they struggled(start & end of match) bigtime.When Shorty was brought back to protect the full back Antrim done well but this resulted in big long clearances to no-one. When Shorty went back to corner forward it left the space again & Antrim struggled again. The players fought very hard & cant be faulted for effort but just up to it just yet.

[Give-it-Timber]

have to agree with the opinions on the game.

game i thought was slow to start, but eventually got going, although antrim never looked like winning it was quite enjoyable.
i would find it hard to say that anybody actually played really well, a few good performances, but even those people made basic errors.  S Delargy had a really poor first half but had a good second, pinky i thought was ropey enough, Graffin was not bad, Johnny campbell was poor apart from a few good clearances, disagree with previous post, i thought Micky Monty had a good game overall, made a few mistakes but tried really hard, ciaran herron played steady enough, midfield i thought was terrible and never in the game at all, k stewart done nothing to help when he came on. up front best player was P Magill, some great scores from play, young mcmanus had a poor first half , came into it more in the second, Micko wasnt in the game at all until he went into FF, did a bit better in there. Do have to agree though Shane McN should have been off alot earlier, had plenty of ball but didnt do anything with it, johnny was poor as i expected, really poor free which would have brought it back to 2 just before half time. shorty was terrible until moved out, done well there except for delivery of the ball in, then was terrible again when put in the corner again.

most important thing is to stay in the LMCC, Antrim need games this this every year, only that way will they improve. a previous poster mentioned it was the basic skills that antrim lack not intensity, its playing at that intensity (or above) regularly that you learn to use those basic skills better.

i just believe this is the level we are at, we (as plenty of posters have said previous) need to get our club leagues back to meaningfull games, with intensity in them.

a full set of club fixtures tommorrow (i think) . are the county players allowed to play, if so i wonder how many will play?

[Give-it-Timber]

McFall...the people's(mccooey's) champion...my arse

This just shows that the north Antrim, anti-Belfast attitude still exists. It is a joke that Sambo jnr wasn't taken off earlier in the game. For some reason every ball was put in his direction. He won about 20%. They put Brian Mc Fall on. He put himself about and won a fair amount of ball. Why are you so against him? You have made him out to be the worst in the world. He wasn't on long enough to be judged. Take a look at the players that started before you go mad at someone who came on when the game was basically over.

have to agree with some of what you have said hard, mainly about shane, he is a very good huler IMO, but should have been taken off earlier. dont agree with you on McFall, he didnt win any ball at all and he had plenty of ball hit into him, and won nothing, he had numerous high ball (everyone and his dog knows McFall couldnt catch the cold), and one ball that went into the corner he looked like a carthorse. i dont like to get at Mcfall because he has done good for antrim for years and showed good commitment this year sticking at it, but his day (of starting) is gone IMO.

i also dont think the above statement was meant as anti-belfast, i think it was due to the fact that it is only supporters from Belfast that think McFall should start.

so what does everyone think for next week, or first, about the club games today?

[Ruairi Og exile]

It wasnt anti-belfast, it was as give it timber said, that only people from Belfast seem to look for his inclusion onto the team, he cant win any sort of ball & is very slow now. I've nothing against him at all. As regards to Shane, I already stated he should have been off at the start of the second half as he had some good low ball into his corner.

[theskull1]

anti-belfast my arse hardstation. Hurling in Belfast would benefit greatly if there were a few more "local heros" on the county team and I would love that to be the case as hurling it would mean more depth existed at club level, but to hold Brian up as one of those who should get is chance on the starting 15 is quite frankly laughable. If you were arguing the case for Simon McCrory's inclusion then your opinion would have some credibility as he a player showing promise, but McFall . Come on man...take a step back...its as clear as the day that he isn't up to county level anymore. Dunloy played the Johnnies today and he was anonymous apart from frees.

[imtommygunn]

I thought there were quite a few positives to take out of the game too.

The defense was quite good when they got going. Corner backs were slow to start but when they got going they were good. Delargy's block in the first half was excellent and Graffin in the second half was also superb. I thought Ciarn Herron was good and Micky was solid but perhaps made a couple of unforced errors which got punished. Johnny Campbell wasn't brilliant - he's too loose a marker - but I think he wasn't as poor as being made out here. Pinky struggled withe the pace of the game - I'm not sure he's fit. Malachy Molloy would have been a big plus for the defense in that game.Clare had an awful amount of free catches. Midfield well - Herron wasn't in it but I thought Karl did well. I thought Micko did well when put into full forward though he should maybe try to catch it a time or two rather than consistently flicking it on. McManus allowed Gerry Quinn too much dominance in the air but was good on the ball. Paddy McGill put in a good performance. Young Sambo , I think, merits his place. He is pacy and I think it was worth a shot seeing if that would bother an aging Clare defense. He did see a lot of ball and didn't win enough but I think when he fills out he'll be a good county player. Tosh wasn't at it at all and Shorty did well picking uploose ball behind half back line but maybe needs to think before just sending it liong as Clare had too many bodies.

In summary I think it's like people say - at the minute we just don't have the players. I however think this time last year or the year before Clare would have gave us an awful spanking and at least we competed.  If Paddy Richmond and Malachy Molloy were playing it could have been a much tighter game. We also need to be a lot sharper, and position ourslves better , for breaking ball. If a ball is coming high between two men there should always be another man coming in for the break. That wasn't the case a lot of times yesterday. Not all doom and gloom - next day Micko to start at FF, Tosh at CF and McCrory in WHF. That's what I would like to see. McFall hasn't the pace to start though I think he's good for an "impact" sub.