Antrim Hurling

[Seamroga in exile]

All quiet on the Antrim front tonight, you'll be happy to hear.   

[saffron89]

talking to some of the panelists last nite in the cathederal quarter.  Will not say at what time.

would like to say that will be watching the leinster final today on the box, as for the ulster final unless the derry men travel i would say around 200 people at the absolute max.

see the loughgiel men getting the nod

SIE, have to make the point don't think its wise starting the shams that have just arrived recently for simply the following reason

they are not up to speed fitness wise, the antrim lads were if nothing else fit, these shams were fit and have been pretty inactive the since st paddys.  Even maybe abusive to their bodies (as they say).

there should probably be about 7 in the starting line up, but only if they are fully fit and part of the panel for a few months.  Nelson for all his experience should know better.  the wee man let himself down this past couple of weeks

[CitySlicker11]

Antrim minors draw with Down.

[Seamroga in exile]

Antrim 1-03 Derry 0-02. Carson scored the goal after great work between him and Watson. Winker looks up for this.

[Seamroga in exile]

McManus playing a blinder. 1-07 - 0-04.

[Seamroga in exile]

Ht. 1-09 - 0-05. We should have at least 4 or 5 goals. Derry keeper having a great game.

[chocoholic]

Just watching Galway giving the Cats a bit of a hiding here. Their intensity in their tackling is awesome. 

But can't help notice that in Antrim, the ref would have blown his whistle a thousand times by now.  An awful lot to say for just letting it go instead of having a match decided by free takers.

[Seamroga in exile]

Derry losing their heads. Down to 13 men. couple sent off in last few minutes. 3-16 - 0-07. derry a poor enough side with a good keeper. Could have had 8 goals so far.

[Seamroga in exile]

Ft. 3-18 - 0-08

[Seamroga in exile]

You're prediction was the closest sleeping giant. 

[Sleeping giant]

I no my stuff

[clootfromthe21]

Antrim minors draw with Down.

Anyone at the minor match?

[Last Man]

Antrim minors draw with Down.

Anyone at the minor match?

We had the better team on paper but just didn't play as a cohesive unit. Sambo has had trouble getting this group to train and I think it showed. But for McGoldricks free taking we would have been out the gate.

[Fairhead]

the problems in antrim hurling didnt just appear this year. they also are not the fault of jerry wallis, sambo,dick o kane, dinny cahill or may i add the loughguile or c'dall playing contingent this year. what we are now seeing is the culmination of 20 wasted years at grassroots level. listen 20 years ago when we had a at least half decent county team & our possible route to an all ireland final was fantastically easier than it is now because we got into a semi automatically, ONCE & only ONCE did we ever manage to drag ourselves into the final. now please god tell me how any sane minded person actually believed that the introduction of the qualifiers & the reality of playing up to 3 games against good opposition before we could even smell a semi was going to suit us??  this has now made it ten times more difficult for us rightly so fairer for better teams than us ie losing munster finalists who previously were out. what we should perhaps have tried after the humiliation of the '89 final was to go away & examine the structures in all the clubs in the county. emphasis should have been on the same top level of coaching the skills in ALL the clubs & a style of play adaptable & familiar to all the clubs so that like in most other counties you have a steady stream of capable players being sent from the clubs to represent the county. but what actually happened here was that the clubs were left to their own devices & some fared better than others. b'castle who were a real force in club hurling in the 70's & 80's seemed for years to ignore the underage set up & have paid the price ever since.only now are they starting to turn the corner & reap the rewards of a good underage set up implimented about 10 years ago. dunloy as well brought their own great senior team right up through the ranks & swept all before them. sadly now their underage teams are not producing the same level of players. the teams in the city have barring the johnnies & occassionally rossa havent produced anything of real worth. even today c'dall have a very good underage system but i can put my hand on my heart & say that neil,shane & arron are the only 3 players good enough to play inter county hurling. thats whats really frightening. we have been there or thereabouts at senior level now for nearly 30 years & we have only 3 players up to inter county level. loughguile had 6 starters last week & rightlly so as at the minute they are the best club team in the country. but when we strip it back to the bones i would say that although all these players are definitely good enough to be on the antrim county team ,i dont believe they are all good enough for inter county level. in my opinion we need to get into all the clubs & put in place structures where by everyone is being coached to the same highest levels & that most of the clubs can compete at all age groups. you would then naturally have a better hurler being sent to the county. this is not a 2 or 3 year fix. this could take 10 years or more but we have to start at the very earliest age we can. so what of our current squad? well this may seem ruthless but we should play christy ring & if we won it at a canter as some suggest (i dont think for a second we would) then so what,it hasnt bothered anyone that we have won 11 ulster titles in a row. for me the current squads its too late to ever make any impact on the liam mc carthy but that doesnt mean the honest players & management shouldnt get just reward of all ireland success in a lower grade. for now i would forget about running the county team like a club team. let them train once a week & play their league & c'ship games. the other nights of the week they would be of far more use training with their clubs teams where they would be helping to bring on their club mates & hopefully raising the standard of the club hurling & surely the natural progression is that when the club hurling is stronger & far more competitive the county can only benefit. we have tried everything else, why not this? the only obstacle in my view would be a very few people who are benefitting financially through jobs within the county who legitimise their roles by cintinuously championing the idea that we are in fact capable of challenging for an AI

Agree with most of what your saying Auld Stock but would question a couple of things. I never heard any "sane minded person" saying that the qualifiers would suit Antrim, of course they don't.

Secondly whats frightening about any club in any county having only 3 players on the county team? Thats a great acheivement for any club. Apart from Ballyhale over the last few years having 3/4 players on the Kilkenny team its generally made up of 9/10 clubs. Thats what Antrim havent being doing so rather than focusing on any of the big 6 clubs (see senior championship roll of honour exluding defunct clubs) should we not be hoping that more clubs develop to give us a wider base to chose from? And in my mind over the last 10 years 2 clubs have made big strides to that, firstly Cloughmills and moer recently St Endas. We need more clubs like them to come through with players to supplement the traditional clubs that we have.

[johnneycool]

Antrim minors draw with Down.

Anyone at the minor match?

We had the better team on paper but just didn't play as a cohesive unit. Sambo has had trouble getting this group to train and I think it showed. But for McGoldricks free taking we would have been out the gate.

Replay in Ballycran this sunday I hear.