Antrim Hurling

[Leyland]

Look lads. We wont win the Senior Championship this year. But we certainly will try to compete.

Loughgiel finished game last night with oly Johhny campbell missing from all-Ireland team. Taking that into account with our age profile, injuries, etc last night was a good win. Can we beat Cushendall - again i hope lads give it a rattle.

But as i said last night - loughgiel wont be too worried.

NAG - you seem to have a thing against us - that we always lie down - honestly thing this young group will prove you wrong ovr next 4-5 years. Put it like this id rather have our panel going forward than yours......

As for championship - winner will be Loughgiel or Cushendall. Simple.

[NAG1]

Look lads. We wont win the Senior Championship this year. But we certainly will try to compete.

Loughgiel finished game last night with oly Johhny campbell missing from all-Ireland team. Taking that into account with our age profile, injuries, etc last night was a good win. Can we beat Cushendall - again i hope lads give it a rattle.

But as i said last night - loughgiel wont be too worried.

NAG - you seem to have a thing against us - that we always lie down - honestly thing this young group will prove you wrong ovr next 4-5 years. Put it like this id rather have our panel going forward than yours......

As for championship - winner will be Loughgiel or Cushendall. Simple.

Leyland nothing against the club at all, just going on pure facts and having watched them for a good number of years.
Always expect them to do better than they have done and then when it comes to it they don't produce. Maybe this crop of young players coming through will help maybe they won't, but too many times I have expected them to come to the championship and be really competitive recently and when it came to it just didn't count.

[Sleeping giant]

Ballycastle must be early favourites for the championship now.

Remember a feis win for us in Dunloy.   Showed a lot of our lads a few things about winning.  Ment a lot at the time.   If town could now go and beat the dall.   Surely they would be bussing.

And come championship they will roll over like they always do, same old same old.

i wouldn't say always nag.   You must be very young.

[imtommygunn]

Ballycastle used to be top dogs but have found it tougher in recent years. Rather than saying they don't perform I don't think they've had the players there to compete.

This is looking like it may correct itself in years to come if they hold on to the youunger players however that is an if.

I don't know that they've ever rolled over.

[NAG1]

Ballycastle must be early favourites for the championship now.

Remember a feis win for us in Dunloy.   Showed a lot of our lads a few things about winning.  Ment a lot at the time.   If town could now go and beat the dall.   Surely they would be bussing.

And come championship they will roll over like they always do, same old same old.

i wouldn't say always nag.   You must be very young.

Not that young, but when I say always I meaning in the recent past say. Not harking back to the 60's and 70's.

They have had some serious talent through the club in the last 20 years and maybe ran into a couple of decent teams in that time but I feel like they have under achieved.

[btdtgtt]

Ballycastle must be early favourites for the championship now.

Remember a feis win for us in Dunloy.   Showed a lot of our lads a few things about winning.  Ment a lot at the time.   If town could now go and beat the dall.   Surely they would be bussing.

And come championship they will roll over like they always do, same old same old.

i wouldn't say always nag.   You must be very young.

Not that young, but when I say always I meaning in the recent past say. Not harking back to the 60's and 70's.

They have had some serious talent through the club in the last 20 years and maybe ran into a couple of decent teams in that time but I feel like they have under achieved.

I agree the town have produced some great talents and they have went an unbelievable tine without the volunteer cup - but I'm not sure the word under-achieve is suitable.

In their defence - the 90s saw the dall and Dunloy dominate with the latter proving one of the best club sides in Ireland into the 2000s. Nowadays we have an all Ireland winning side from loughgiel.
So having a good team and some incredible lay talented individuals is always relevant to the opposition?

Would be great to see them back competing for the championship.

[Jesusjones]

You have to remember as well that Cushendall beat Ballycastle in three finals in the 90's and Dunloy beat them in a few finals as well. We beat them in 1992, 1993 and 1996 and they should really have won in 1992 but for some heroics from the late Danny Mc Naughton and Jackie Carson who both got goals in the final ten minutes. They had great players at that time, Humpy, Jennings, Liam Gallagher, Stephen Boyle, Dessie, Brian & Ronan Donnelly.

[Sleeping giant]

Ballycastle must be early favourites for the championship now.

Remember a feis win for us in Dunloy.   Showed a lot of our lads a few things about winning.  Ment a lot at the time.   If town could now go and beat the dall.   Surely they would be bussing.

And come championship they will roll over like they always do, same old same old.

i wouldn't say always nag.   You must be very young.

Not that young, but when I say always I meaning in the recent past say. Not harking back to the 60's and 70's.

They have had some serious talent through the club in the last 20 years and maybe ran into a couple of decent teams in that time but I feel like they have under achieved.

I agree the town have produced some great talents and they have went an unbelievable tine without the volunteer cup - but I'm not sure the word under-achieve is suitable.

In their defence - the 90s saw the dall and Dunloy dominate with the latter proving one of the best club sides in Ireland into the 2000s. Nowadays we have an all Ireland winning side from loughgiel.
So having a good team and some incredible lay talented individuals is always relevant to the opposition?

Would be great to see them back competing for the championship.

WOULD IT???

[Fairhead]

Leyland nothing against the club at all, just going on pure facts and having watched them for a good number of years.
Always expect them to do better than they have done and then when it comes to it they don't produce. Maybe this crop of young players coming through will help maybe they won't, but too many times I have expected them to come to the championship and be really competitive recently and when it came to it just didn't count.

If your not from Ballycastle NAG, what facts are you going on that gave you such optimism about Ballycastle over a good number of years and that has left you so disappointed?

I can give you some facts as well. The 1990's was a barren time for our underage development and teams and apart from a handful of players there wasn't sufficient numbers coming through to step in to the senior panel. That meant when the core of the team from the 90's left the scene in the mid 2000's we were at a very low ebb at senior level and there was no real competition for places. It came to a stage that around 2007/08 there was only really Pinky and Cosey over the age of 24/25 in the senior team and it was a case of putting in players from the '07 u21 team like Cormac Donnelly, Neil McAuley, the Dallats, Gerard Laverty etc. That still didn't give us a big enough squad and we have then really had to wait to the last couple of years for the next good underage crop (this years u21 team mainly) to blend in with those other lads. This has given more numbers at senior level and competition for places again but of course this year we are missing one of the top players in the county and no team can afford to lose a player like that.

We are still developing a team and a squad and who knows it could be a few years before we get back to a senior final but we will get there. So I certainly haven't been disappointed with the teams efforts over the last few years, in fact I have been getting more and more optimistic.

[BlackandAmber]

Leyland nothing against the club at all, just going on pure facts and having watched them for a good number of years.
Always expect them to do better than they have done and then when it comes to it they don't produce. Maybe this crop of young players coming through will help maybe they won't, but too many times I have expected them to come to the championship and be really competitive recently and when it came to it just didn't count.

If your not from Ballycastle NAG, what facts are you going on that gave you such optimism about Ballycastle over a good number of years and that has left you so disappointed?

I can give you some facts as well. The 1990's was a barren time for our underage development and teams and apart from a handful of players there wasn't sufficient numbers coming through to step in to the senior panel. That meant when the core of the team from the 90's left the scene in the mid 2000's we were at a very low ebb at senior level and there was no real competition for places. It came to a stage that around 2007/08 there was only really Pinky and Cosey over the age of 24/25 in the senior team and it was a case of putting in players from the '07 u21 team like Cormac Donnelly, Neil McAuley, the Dallats, Gerard Laverty etc. That still didn't give us a big enough squad and we have then really had to wait to the last couple of years for the next good underage crop (this years u21 team mainly) to blend in with those other lads. This has given more numbers at senior level and competition for places again but of course this year we are missing one of the top players in the county and no team can afford to lose a player like that.

We are still developing a team and a squad and who knows it could be a few years before we get back to a senior final but we will get there. So I certainly haven't been disappointed with the teams efforts over the last few years, in fact I have been getting more and more optimistic.

Hear hear.

And for North Antrim's big 3 - Loughgeil and The Dall and Dunloy I think they should be takin a good hard look at St Johns this year and not Ballycastle.

[Sleeping giant]

It's there for the winning.   Best team will win.

[Milltown Row2]

It's there for the winning.   Best team will win.

Always do as far as I'm concerned

[btdtgtt]

Even with my Belfast bias - St. John's won't count once it hits championship pace at the top table.
Still loughgiel for me.

[Milltown Row2]

Even with my Belfast bias - St. John's won't count once it hits championship pace at the top table.
Still loughgiel for me.

Their pace is fine, if they continue to get fitter and sharper they'll do alright, I'd say Michael will have plenty of games lined up in preparation before the Championship. The southern teams play plenty of challenge games leading up to Championship, Galway teams playing Limerick and Clare teams and vice versa. We (in the North) can't really get those quality games unless we travel.

Belfast to Dublin 1h45mins so you could get decent teams for prep. It's about the effort the team puts in, if they are willing and buy into it then most managers will get them as much as they could.

[btdtgtt]

I mean the pace of their stickwork rather than their legs.
St. John's are nowhere near a championship pace Dunloy team let alone the shamrocks.