Antrim Hurling

[CitySlicker11]

2-13 to 1-12 with 5 mins to go to Galway. Great fight being put up by Laois. Fair play to them.

[btdtgtt]

This is well worth a listen and an Ulster select may be worth a try, but there are a few other aspects which need to be addressed IMO

1. Improve hurling standards right across Ulster; we need stronger club and county teams in all of our 9 counties. The Liam McCarthy will never come to Ulster until standards rise throughout Ulster. Also, we need to be look more positively at other counties (in Ulster) and help them to improve, e.g. by accommodating more teams in the Antrim leagues, accommodating challenge matches etc.

2. Parochial attitudes need to change. Players need to realise that representing their county and winning the Liam McCarthy is the ultimate honour/achievement. Talk to KK, Cork, Tipp players; they know where their priorities lie.

3. Tackle the issue of poor relations between clubs/supporters, be that between North Antrim clubs, Belfast v North Antrim and even the Ards clubs and others clubs in Down (like Bredagh) trying to promote hurling. Sean McGuinness made excellent strides in this regard when he managed Antrim and Down. I think we've lost our way a bit since then and the negativity, between so called supporters, in both Antrim and Down is shocking at times. We need to unite behind our county banners - all for one and one for all.

In down maybe.

[Kid Twist]

Not sure about an ulster team, but I do think ulster hurling people should unite into some sort of lobby group. At the minute I feel we are in a divide and conquer situation with people looking their own back gardens( club and county). Maybe something like a 'friends of ulster hurling' like Dublin had. This could look at things like leagues, schools, underage, dealing with ulster council and individual county boards etc

[Ballybredagh]

Good idea KT.

Returning briefly to Sean McGuinness. Many of the 1989 Antrim team credit Sean with doing the groundwork and addressing club rivalries which were preventing progress. Was it not Sean's Antrim team that scared the proverbials off a Cork All Ireland winning team in the early/mid 80's (in an AI SF, I think). Thereafter, we were taken seriously for a time, through 1989, until our scores got embarrassing again. A lot of the credit for our progress at that time was down to Sean.

Also, widely respected in Down and in hurling circles across Ulster, the Ultimate Friend of Ulster hurling, I'd say.

[saffron89]

Ballybredagh are u Colm mcguinness

[Ballybredagh]

Definitely not Saf89, but know both well and know about Sean's role in developing our heroes of 89. If you don't believe me, ask them!

[btdtgtt]

Sean McGuinness is a great guy - but 89 was all bout a group of men coming together at one time. Not just hurlers - but men. With a touch of goal scoring which always helps (eg) clute. And hey - let's e brutally honest a weak Offaly team. After all who gets beat in an all-Ireland semi and within moments can organise a guard of honour?
But to credit Sean McGuinness? Why not credit gilly McIlhatton or anyone else that ever did anything!

As for today - Sean is a great guy - but not responsible for any perceived benefits in Antrim hurling.

Might I add that he add a 2nd spell in charge after more recently!

[imtommygunn]

89 was the result of being very competitive in the AI semi finals for a number of years - it wasn't just a one off. Sean McGuinness prepared the teams in prior years and no doubt had a massive influence.

As for a poor Offaly team - we nearly did Kilkenny in 91 too and had some very competitive semis in a few years previous. It wasn't a one off.

[johnneycool]

This is well worth a listen and an Ulster select may be worth a try, but there are a few other aspects which need to be addressed IMO

1. Improve hurling standards right across Ulster; we need stronger club and county teams in all of our 9 counties. The Liam McCarthy will never come to Ulster until standards rise throughout Ulster. Also, we need to be look more positively at other counties (in Ulster) and help them to improve, e.g. by accommodating more teams in the Antrim leagues, accommodating challenge matches etc.

2. Parochial attitudes need to change. Players need to realise that representing their county and winning the Liam McCarthy is the ultimate honour/achievement. Talk to KK, Cork, Tipp players; they know where their priorities lie.

3. Tackle the issue of poor relations between clubs/supporters, be that between North Antrim clubs, Belfast v North Antrim and even the Ards clubs and others clubs in Down (like Bredagh) trying to promote hurling. Sean McGuinness made excellent strides in this regard when he managed Antrim and Down. I think we've lost our way a bit since then and the negativity, between so called supporters, in both Antrim and Down is shocking at times. We need to unite behind our county banners - all for one and one for all.

In down maybe.

I want to dispel this myth about the the Down hurlers all sitting in different factions in the changing room at the start of Sean McGuinness reign in Down.

Most of the team he had went to the same secondary school, some lived beside each other and a few of the main players worked together, some were even married to sisters such as Hugh Gilmore from Ballycran is married to a girl who's sister is also married to Paul McMullan from Portaferry, Noel Keith works along with a ballygalget lad and has done as long as I've known him, Dermot O'Prey also works along with a ballygalget lad at the bricklaying. Gerard McGrattans two sisters are both married to Ballygalget lads, I could go on.

Yes, there were hot and heavy games amongst ourselves, but very seldom did it spill outside the confines of the pitch into ordinary day lives.

What Sean did do however was get a settled team of lads who were all in and around their prime and. motivate and organise them and got a lot better treatment for them from the county board, staying in much better hotels, training gear etc, etc which was unheard of up until that and that has to be commended.

[saffron89]

these 89 guys were also playing underage in Leinster.

[btdtgtt]

89 was the result of being very competitive in the AI semi finals for a number of years - it wasn't just a one off. Sean McGuinness prepared the teams in prior years and no doubt had a massive influence.

As for a poor Offaly team - we nearly did Kilkenny in 91 too and had some very competitive semis in a few years previous. It wasn't a one off.

It was a one-off! Literally! It's the only semi we won therefore its a one-off!

I agree that it wasn't out only competitive year and we should have won more - but giving Sean McGuinness credit is a bit much.
As JC says there's been a bit of revisionism in down too - crediting McGuinness ignores the bloody talented bunch of hurlers that he had!

If he was such a messiah what happened his 2nd Antrim spell?!

[imtommygunn]

It wasn't a one off that the 89 team was competing with the big boys. McGuinness had that same group of players competing in a regular basis beforehand. The next time we played the leinster champions we lost by 2 points in a game that could have went either way.

If you're as far behind as antrim currently are you'll not even have a chance in a one off game.

No-one says he created them but the guy had a very positive influence in the 89 group of players.

[north aontroim gael]

Fair play to St Johns.  The team that persisted with a focus on hurling won.  It appeared to me that Ballycastle thought it was going to be / or could be won via a very physical approach.  Didn't really materialise that way.

St Johns focused on their own game and proved worthy winners.

Well done to those involved.

[NAG1]

It wasn't a one off that the 89 team was competing with the big boys. McGuinness had that same group of players competing in a regular basis beforehand. The next time we played the leinster champions we lost by 2 points in a game that could have went either way.

If you're as far behind as antrim currently are you'll not even have a chance in a one off game.

No-one says he created them but the guy had a very positive influence in the 89 group of players.

+1

I don't think that could be argued against.

[johnneycool]

It wasn't a one off that the 89 team was competing with the big boys. McGuinness had that same group of players competing in a regular basis beforehand. The next time we played the leinster champions we lost by 2 points in a game that could have went either way.

If you're as far behind as antrim currently are you'll not even have a chance in a one off game.

No-one says he created them but the guy had a very positive influence in the 89 group of players.

Antrim were also within an assess roar in 1986, the goals conceded were the killer, 7-11 to 1-24 in favour of Cork and then a year later in Dundalk vrs Kilkenny, one I remember being at so as much it was a one off victory against an aging Offaly, momentum had been building for a few years before it.

I think Sean McGuinness fell out with Antrim Co Board over a club related issue and nothing to do with the hurling aspect of it.