Antrim Hurling

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

i rem playing up through the grades and st pauls were the team to beat. we had some hard games with them through the years and they produced some great players. tho its the progression to senior level that killed it.
ourselves and lgiel  played and beat each other alot through my time from u12 to u21. i have played 2 U16 finals against them and 3 u21 finals. of the two teams through those grades a vast majority on our team has antrim and ulster medals and the same for lgiel eg. liam & paddy richmond, DD Quinn and Paul Gillan to name a few.
you dont have to dominate at each level but if you can bring 4-5 players a season into your senior panel to blood them in and eventually phase older players out then you can have a continued degree of sucess.
but its getting the right mix of youth and experience and not holding onto players for too ling

[Milltown Row2]

i rem playing up through the grades and st pauls were the team to beat. we had some hard games with them through the years and they produced some great players. tho its the progression to senior level that killed it.
ourselves and lgiel  played and beat each other alot through my time from u12 to u21. i have played 2 U16 finals against them and 3 u21 finals. of the two teams through those grades a vast majority on our team has antrim and ulster medals and the same for lgiel eg. liam & paddy richmond, DD Quinn and Paul Gillan to name a few.
you dont have to dominate at each level but if you can bring 4-5 players a season into your senior panel to blood them in and eventually phase older players out then you can have a continued degree of sucess.
but its getting the right mix of youth and experience and not holding onto players for too ling

The bit I've in bold means a lot, you can have great juvenile teams and they may win doubles (football hurling) right through from under 12 to minor but if the senior team is in say the 3rd division or is mainly a football club then the difficulty is ensuring the progression to senior grade is actually having a senior team with aspirations of being a senior club in the senior championship!! That's having a plan or having tradition, Loughgiel, Ballycastle, Cushendall (80's onwards) Dunloy (90's onwards) for the rest Rossa and the Johnnies they have to a certain extent faltered in this. Ourselves St Paul's Sarsfields and a couple of other North Antrim clubs will every so often push a bigger club, pushing and winning are two different things

[btdtgtt]

i rem playing up through the grades and st pauls were the team to beat. we had some hard games with them through the years and they produced some great players. tho its the progression to senior level that killed it.
ourselves and lgiel  played and beat each other alot through my time from u12 to u21. i have played 2 U16 finals against them and 3 u21 finals. of the two teams through those grades a vast majority on our team has antrim and ulster medals and the same for lgiel eg. liam & paddy richmond, DD Quinn and Paul Gillan to name a few.
you dont have to dominate at each level but if you can bring 4-5 players a season into your senior panel to blood them in and eventually phase older players out then you can have a continued degree of sucess.
but its getting the right mix of youth and experience and not holding onto players for too ling

The bit I've in bold means a lot, you can have great juvenile teams and they may win doubles (football hurling) right through from under 12 to minor but if the senior team is in say the 3rd division or is mainly a football club then the difficulty is ensuring the progression to senior grade is actually having a senior team with aspirations of being a senior club in the senior championship!! That's having a plan or having tradition, Loughgiel, Ballycastle, Cushendall (80's onwards) Dunloy (90's onwards) for the rest Rossa and the Johnnies they have to a certain extent faltered in this. Ourselves St Paul's Sarsfields and a couple of other North Antrim clubs will every so often push a bigger club, pushing and winning are two different things

I dont disagree with any of this but I will bore you again with my dual club reasoning!
It can be acheived an underage when kids might play 7days a week - but its not feasible at senior. Note the clubs MR2 mentions are predominantly one code for success, and dual clubs less successful.
That said, the overwhelming point remains as you lads stated - bridging the gap between minor and senior without lsoing players - if any club can crack it they would be the first!

[johnneycool]

What's the thoughts in putting 16 year olds etc into adult hurling?

We'll be bleeding a lot of lads just out of U-16's in reserve hurling this year, with the better ones thrown in at senior level this year as needs must, but I remember playing adult hurling when I was just out of U-14, but that was the norm back then as the club made the decision to start a thirds team to ensure a lot of the lads the same age as me had plenty of hurling rather than drift away due to lack of games between U16 and minor.

The only child protection you had then was the luxury of playing beside some grizzly old lad who'd hung up the senior boots a few years previous.

[Milltown Row2]

What's the thoughts in putting 16 year olds etc into adult hurling?

We'll be bleeding a lot of lads just out of U-16's in reserve hurling this year, with the better ones thrown in at senior level this year as needs must, but I remember playing adult hurling when I was just out of U-14, but that was the norm back then as the club made the decision to start a thirds team to ensure a lot of the lads the same age as me had plenty of hurling rather than drift away due to lack of games between U16 and minor.

The only child protection you had then was the luxury of playing beside some grizzly old lad who'd hung up the senior boots a few years previous.

Was thrown in at the same age Johnny, Under 16 and played first senior Championship game against Sarsfields!! That was grizzly and played it at the Bear Pit too FFS!!

Did me no harm and I still play 25 years on!! Kids are pussy's now

[btdtgtt]

What's the thoughts in putting 16 year olds etc into adult hurling?

We'll be bleeding a lot of lads just out of U-16's in reserve hurling this year, with the better ones thrown in at senior level this year as needs must, but I remember playing adult hurling when I was just out of U-14, but that was the norm back then as the club made the decision to start a thirds team to ensure a lot of the lads the same age as me had plenty of hurling rather than drift away due to lack of games between U16 and minor.

The only child protection you had then was the luxury of playing beside some grizzly old lad who'd hung up the senior boots a few years previous.

Was thrown in at the same age Johnny, Under 16 and played first senior Championship game against Sarsfields!! That was grizzly and played it at the Bear Pit too FFS!!

Did me no harm and I still play 25 years on!! Kids are pussy's now

There's a different breed nowadays MR2 not many real men about!
The old "shut yer **** and get on with it" doesn't get much of an airing now!

[Gizzy15]

Prior to Dunloys senior domination was a juvenile domination as well for a good few years, Loughgeil had it for a few years as well. St Johns have one set of players who have dominated to an extent at U-14 to minor, but one group is never enough to make an impact at senior level. It needs to be sustained and it's hard to sustain the work required at juvenile level as the true rewards won't be seen for several years.

The johnnies have had a fairly good record at minor level going back a fair few years JC. I'm sure they're trying to address the hemorrhaging that takes place between 18 and 21

1981, 2004, 2011, 2012

They were also runners up in 03, 05 and 2010 so they have been in 6 of the last 10 county minor finals.

Ballycastle dominated N Antrim underage hurling in the 70s which translated in to senior titles in the 70's and 80's. Dunloy dominated underage in the 80's and had another Feile title in the early 90's and look what they translated that in to at senior. L'giel won minor and u21 titles at the start of the 2000's and are now the senior champions. Senior hurling is cyclical but the basis of senior success comes from sustained hard work at underage level. Unless your St Johns.........but that may change?

Dosent always work that way, just playin Devils advocate but who won nearlly all minor titles in the 90's?

but only got 1 senior title out of it?

Good underage helps but ity is the managment of people from 17 to 22 years of age that will develop the person into a senior hurler.

[Gizzy15]

What's the thoughts in putting 16 year olds etc into adult hurling?

We'll be bleeding a lot of lads just out of U-16's in reserve hurling this year, with the better ones thrown in at senior level this year as needs must, but I remember playing adult hurling when I was just out of U-14, but that was the norm back then as the club made the decision to start a thirds team to ensure a lot of the lads the same age as me had plenty of hurling rather than drift away due to lack of games between U16 and minor.

The only child protection you had then was the luxury of playing beside some grizzly old lad who'd hung up the senior boots a few years previous.

dont think its a great thing these days or even in the oul days, played balltgalget at 15 years of age and lined marty coulter, got a lesson, was grand but by 22 had enough lessons and beatings to do me and was a bit fed up/burnt out with it. some might say that that comes with the game but i think if everyone thought of the underage players who left the game i would be in the majourity. exceptional kids will always be the exception but for the rest 17/18 on the reserves wouldnt be a bad thing. you never want a kid to grt fed up with hurlin.

[Gizzy15]

That said, winning senior teams don't come out of nowhere. Rossa had a mixture of great and shite underage teams. Some didn't want to have anything to do with a team who was weaker. The likes of Loughgiel have been there or thereabouts every single year. Their current players are drawn off about 10 different underage teams.

It's been a long time since Ballycastle have won a championship. Down to underage structures?

Think they still won bout 7 out of 12

[Milltown Row2]

That said, winning senior teams don't come out of nowhere. Rossa had a mixture of great and shite underage teams. Some didn't want to have anything to do with a team who was weaker. The likes of Loughgiel have been there or thereabouts every single year. Their current players are drawn off about 10 different underage teams.

It's been a long time since Ballycastle have won a championship. Down to underage structures?

The Town managed to win a couple of under 21's But they had a team that during the 80's that was something else, the lads that played on that team were unreal, remember thinking to myself at the time that these lads will never get bate!!

Rossa won a handful of minors and St Johns won and lost a few finals but once they move on to the senior set up and it's poor, then they will fall into that trap, if they move on to a team that has aspirations to win senior and do then it's so much different. We (Naomh Gall) only need to bring on a few lads every year to make a difference mainly because they are walking on to a senior championship winning team.

For us it's great, it drives on our development of the juveniles and while we haven't won a few underage trophies lately I'm not particular worried, cause we will have 2/3 lads that will be proper seniors once they get to senior, very rarely do you get 15 cracking players that stay together right through to senior, that's the key!!

[Gizzy15]

That said, winning senior teams don't come out of nowhere. Rossa had a mixture of great and shite underage teams. Some didn't want to have anything to do with a team who was weaker. The likes of Loughgiel have been there or thereabouts every single year. Their current players are drawn off about 10 different underage teams.

It's been a long time since Ballycastle have won a championship. Down to underage structures?

The Town managed to win a couple of under 21's But they had a team that during the 80's that was something else, the lads that played on that team were unreal, remember thinking to myself at the time that these lads will never get bate!!

Rossa won a handful of minors and St Johns won and lost a few finals but once they move on to the senior set up and it's poor, then they will fall into that trap, if they move on to a team that has aspirations to win senior and do then it's so much different. We (Naomh Gall) only need to bring on a few lads every year to make a difference mainly because they are walking on to a senior championship winning team.

For us it's great, it drives on our development of the juveniles and while we haven't won a few underage trophies lately I'm not particular worried, cause we will have 2/3 lads that will be proper seniors once they get to senior, very rarely do you get 15 cracking players that stay together right through to senior, that's the key!!

are you talking Hurling or Football?

[Milltown Row2]

What's the thoughts in putting 16 year olds etc into adult hurling?

We'll be bleeding a lot of lads just out of U-16's in reserve hurling this year, with the better ones thrown in at senior level this year as needs must, but I remember playing adult hurling when I was just out of U-14, but that was the norm back then as the club made the decision to start a thirds team to ensure a lot of the lads the same age as me had plenty of hurling rather than drift away due to lack of games between U16 and minor.

The only child protection you had then was the luxury of playing beside some grizzly old lad who'd hung up the senior boots a few years previous.

dont think its a great thing these days or even in the oul days, played balltgalget at 15 years of age and lined marty coulter, got a lesson, was grand but by 22 had enough lessons and beatings to do me and was a bit fed up/burnt out with it. some might say that that comes with the game but i think if everyone thought of the underage players who left the game i would be in the majourity. exceptional kids will always be the exception but for the rest 17/18 on the reserves wouldnt be a bad thing. you never want a kid to grt fed up with hurlin.

It's how you dealt with the lessons and came back. Marked Coulter, Sands, Elliot, Murphy, Chopper, marked Dessie a couple of times, marked Clute for years (got skint every time ffs) tried stopping Tosh and and a host of others, some you held scoreless some you got whipped off after half time, wasn't exceptional but never tired of playing hurling or football.

Looking back it was the norm and that's that, as said already plenty of older ones looked after you, two incidents stand out, running in on goal at 16 years of age in a make or break league match against Rossa, can't remember getting hit but ended up in the net and a lot of shoving happening same against the Crans and doing nets, same age and Blaney charging in on goal, put ball and me into Kirkcubbin!! The older lads got stuck in and those things drove us on, oh I wish I was 16 again, do it all over again.

Football Grizzy, the last part but it's about clubs and how the cycle goes, the Johnnies are a football team they wiil be back

[Gizzy15]

What's the thoughts in putting 16 year olds etc into adult hurling?

We'll be bleeding a lot of lads just out of U-16's in reserve hurling this year, with the better ones thrown in at senior level this year as needs must, but I remember playing adult hurling when I was just out of U-14, but that was the norm back then as the club made the decision to start a thirds team to ensure a lot of the lads the same age as me had plenty of hurling rather than drift away due to lack of games between U16 and minor.

The only child protection you had then was the luxury of playing beside some grizzly old lad who'd hung up the senior boots a few years previous.

dont think its a great thing these days or even in the oul days, played balltgalget at 15 years of age and lined marty coulter, got a lesson, was grand but by 22 had enough lessons and beatings to do me and was a bit fed up/burnt out with it. some might say that that comes with the game but i think if everyone thought of the underage players who left the game i would be in the majourity. exceptional kids will always be the exception but for the rest 17/18 on the reserves wouldnt be a bad thing. you never want a kid to grt fed up with hurlin.

It's how you dealt with the lessons and came back. Marked Coulter, Sands, Elliot, Murphy, Chopper, marked Dessie a couple of times, marked Clute for years (got skint every time ffs) tried stopping Tosh and and a host of others, some you held scoreless some you got whipped off after half time, wasn't exceptional but never tired of playing hurling or football.

Looking back it was the norm and that's that, as said already plenty of older ones looked after you, two incidents stand out, running in on goal at 16 years of age in a make or break league match against Rossa, can't remember getting hit but ended up in the net and a lot of shoving happening same against the Crans and doing nets, same age and Blaney charging in on goal, put ball and me into Kirkcubbin!! The older lads got stuck in and those things drove us on, oh I wish I was 16 again, do it all over again.

Football Grizzy, the last part but it's about clubs and how the cycle goes, the Johnnies are a football team they wiil be back

Understand, marked a lot of the above as well, dont think Jonty would want jonnies to be labelled as a football club, think he might prove what i had been saying as true, a manager that knows the young players and can push them without pushing them away, trophy wise they may win fu@k all for the next few years but if they are all still playin in 3/4 years they will win somthin, as much as it may hurt

[theskull1]

If youre good enough, youre old enough was the well used phrase. Very few are good enough at 16 for senior. So far all I can think of in no particular order is ally elliott, mill town and jc 

Anybody that had 'the pleasure' of marking cloot knows why he is held in such high esteem in hurling circles. He was a wizard

[Gizzy15]

If youre good enough, youre old enough was the well used phrase. Very few are good enough at 16 for senior. So far all I can think of in no particular order is ally elliott, mill town and jc 

Anybody that had 'the pleasure' of marking cloot knows why he is held in such high esteem in hurling circles. He was a wizard

Agree, 100's have done it, only tens have made it.