Antrim Hurling

[NAG1]

I've said it for a while though that there are too many clubs in the city. How many Dublin city clubs are there? While Belfast has a large population, only half would be interested, a lot of that half play other sports (soccer) so it's about sweeping up the rest, doesn't leave you with that many in fairness.

If we are to go back to school days, in my primary school we'd Christian Brothers looking after all the Gaelic games, we also (where my school was situated) the local Gaa club taking us to the school games on their bus, I suppose this was a way of getting kids enrolled in their club. But there was never a shortage of male teachers who were interested in hurling/football. That's all gone now.

I'd say if Belfast had 4/5 clubs that hurled only we could improve a lot better, the dual players could also play football for the other clubs that play football only.

The big Dublin clubs have 2 junior teams 2 intermediate teams and senior and senior reserve teams all hurling, and that would be Crokes who'd be better known as a footballing club ffs!! When you look at that it's surprising (at club level) we do so well!!

Just on a side note or parallel, are the GAA still paying for 'development' officers in Queens, UUJ and St Marys? Since the colleges are not in season for probably 6 months or more of the year, surely these three officers could be utilized in a more effective way in the city to get the most out of their roles.

With smaller resources we should be working smarter. Yes it is only three (maybe) officers, but if they start to develop the systems and structures they could have a big impact.

Possibly I don't know for sure, but these initiatives have been done before, we'd members of our club going into schools but it never last long, I know at one of our AGM's it was proposed that we employed someone to do this for a year or two as a development officer assigned to local schools, this would have been 2 fold, bringing Gaelic games to the schools and possible recruitment to the club. We didn't do it because we couldn't fund it as the club has no money.

If the money was available then I think all clubs should adopt this

MR2 - This is what gets to me, with all the public funding money swirling around these areas of 'High Social Need' there is bound to be ways of getting that type of post at least part funded and then the GAA could be convinced to match the funding. There are charities being set up left right and centre with paid employees to create better opportunities for kids all over Belfast, so again I think it is a case of working smarter.

That's the role I would see for those 3 'Development' officers to source for the clubs sustained ways of getting help on the ground.

[Milltown Row2]

Look the county board have ran 'think tanks' in the past, I was invited to one or two of them but for whatever reason at the time I was unavailable but these are useful when the stuff is tried afterwards. Looking in from the outside we probably think nothing is being tried or done, all the negatives we hear about like Casement and Dunsilly (though positives in the long run) seem to tarnish the county, plus all the bad press the County team gets from past/current players doesn't help either.

As Skull has said we have a serious lack of dedicated volunteers within our clubs to implement this, I know we have made a serious push at the minute, St Johns always have as has Rossa, btdtgtt has mentioned other clubs to but I don't think these clubs will be pushing for senior status any year soon so what happens is the standard stays the same unfortunately, the amount of work St Enda's have done over the years has been great, but the senior team has not really made any inroads at becoming a serious senior club, Last Man will agree with me (I hope as he's a big lad ) Transferring great juveniles into senior teams is 10 times harder. This is also the case for the bigger Belfast clubs to by the way

[north_antrim_hound]

Look the county board have ran 'think tanks' in the past, I was invited to one or two of them but for whatever reason at the time I was unavailable but these are useful when the stuff is tried afterwards. Looking in from the outside we probably think nothing is being tried or done, all the negatives we hear about like Casement and Dunsilly (though positives in the long run) seem to tarnish the county, plus all the bad press the County team gets from past/current players doesn't help either.

As Skull has said we have a serious lack of dedicated volunteers within our clubs to implement this, I know we have made a serious push at the minute, St Johns always have as has Rossa, btdtgtt has mentioned other clubs to but I don't think these clubs will be pushing for senior status any year soon so what happens is the standard stays the same unfortunately, the amount of work St Enda's have done over the years has been great, but the senior team has not really made any inroads at becoming a serious senior club, Last Man will agree with me (I hope as he's a big lad ) Transferring great juveniles into senior teams is 10 times harder. This is also the case for the bigger Belfast clubs to by the way

Transferring juveniles into senior teams
This to me is the biggest problem in the city, of course more can be done In terms of getting weaker clubs to amalgamate and raising to standard but Belfast has always churned out plenty of good underage hurlers. But from u14 to minor they just seem to drift away. It's criminal the amount of smashing young players just don't develop into seniors. It's all about more committment required for senior hurling. I don't think players see any prestige with dedicating there time to it

[imtommygunn]

It's only the last couple of years though MR that St Enda's have started coming on. I'd expect it'd be another 3 or 4 years before(or if) that benefit is really seen at senior level.

[btdtgtt]

Transferring juveniles into senior teams
This to me is the biggest problem in the city, of course more can be done In terms of getting weaker clubs to amalgamate and raising to standard but Belfast has always churned out plenty of good underage hurlers. But from u14 to minor they just seem to drift away. It's criminal the amount of smashing young players just don't develop into seniors. It's all about more committment required for senior hurling. I don't think players see any prestige with dedicating there time to it

Well said - Couldn't agree more!

[Milltown Row2]

It's only the last couple of years though MR that St Enda's have started coming on. I'd expect it'd be another 3 or 4 years before(or if) that benefit is really seen at senior level.

But unless their senior team knuckle down a push towards div 2 at least then those good kids will only play at the standard they need to, I've seen it so many times, I played against lads right through juvenile and when it came to senior these lads stepped up to div 1 clubs I played div 2 they improved we stayed the same, we only improved when we played against better teams for longer periods

[theskull1]

Transferring juveniles into senior teams
This to me is the biggest problem in the city, of course more can be done In terms of getting weaker clubs to amalgamate and raising to standard but Belfast has always churned out plenty of good underage hurlers. But from u14 to minor they just seem to drift away. It's criminal the amount of smashing young players just don't develop into seniors. It's all about more committment required for senior hurling. I don't think players see any prestige with dedicating there time to it

Well said - Couldn't agree more!

I hope youre only agreeing with the transferring juveniles into senior teams bit and not the amalgamate bit. Amalgamations in the city haven't worked to date (last years U16s being one to forget). They serve a purpose in North Antrim  but seem hard to sustain year on year as I see St Brendans aren't fielding this year (is that lack of commitment from parents/coaches or lack of players..I dunno).

St Endas are playing B grade all the way through juvenile this year I believe, but they've had a decent 10 years or so at juvenile


All boils down to lack of volunteers ...  simples

[Milltown Row2]

Transferring juveniles into senior teams
This to me is the biggest problem in the city, of course more can be done In terms of getting weaker clubs to amalgamate and raising to standard but Belfast has always churned out plenty of good underage hurlers. But from u14 to minor they just seem to drift away. It's criminal the amount of smashing young players just don't develop into seniors. It's all about more committment required for senior hurling. I don't think players see any prestige with dedicating there time to it

Well said - Couldn't agree more!

I hope youre only agreeing with the transferring juveniles into senior teams bit and not the amalgamate bit. Amalgamations in the city haven't worked to date (last years U16s being one to forget). They serve a purpose in North Antrim  but seem hard to sustain year on year as I see St Brendans aren't fielding this year (is that lack of commitment from parents/coaches or lack of players..I dunno).

St Endas are playing B grade all the way through juvenile this year I believe, but they've had a decent 10 years or so at juvenile


All boils down to lack of volunteers ...  simples

My point is transfering good juveniles from the one club into good seniors in the same club, not transfering them away to 'bigger' clubs, not sure if btdtgtt is referring to that.

[btdtgtt]

I'm referring to transferring from juvenile to senior - not club to club.

Also I'm not a fan of amalgamations full stop.
I have no objection to sanctions as the players come under one banner but I think amalgamtions don't represent as much and therefore the potential exists for lack of discipline on one side as recently shown - or different clubs carrying a flag of convenience just to win something.

As for it all boiling down to a lack of volunteers - obviously this is a huge problem but it's far from the only issue.

[Milltown Row2]

I'm referring to transferring from juvenile to senior - not club to club.

Also I'm not a fan of amalgamations full stop.
I have no objection to sanctions as the players come under one banner but I think amalgamtions don't represent as much and therefore the potential exists for lack of discipline on one side as recently shown - or different clubs carrying a flag of convenience just to win something.

As for it all boiling down to a lack of volunteers - obviously this is a huge problem but it's far from the only issue.

I'm not for amalgamtions either, I'm for forming hurling only clubs and football only clubs, that way players can still play both but for separate clubs.

[Tony Baloney]

Amalgamations at juvenile have rarely been anything other than temporary and cosmetic. To fully succeed with an amalgamation you are talking about permanently creating a new club, not a new under-16 team, from the remnants of other clubs. Are any clubs prepared to walk away from 100 years of club history to start fresh? A bridge too far for most I would say regardless of how much they are struggling.

[theskull1]

As for it all boiling down to a lack of volunteers - obviously this is a huge problem but it's far from the only issue.

I'd contend that it is 90% of the problem

Once the bodies are on the ground, they can be organised and skilled up and given a bit of structure. Introducing and developing hurling needs time and long term effort by enough interested men. Lets not over complicate it.

Somebody tell me different

[Tony Baloney]

As for it all boiling down to a lack of volunteers - obviously this is a huge problem but it's far from the only issue.

I'd contend that it is 90% of the problem

Once the bodies are on the ground, they can be organised and skilled up and given a bit of structure. Introducing and developing hurling needs time and long term effort by enough interested men. Lets not over complicate it.

Somebody tell me different

Sexism won't help.

[theskull1]

 
Are they not busy doing all the work in primary schools these days?   

point taken

[Tony Baloney]

As for it all boiling down to a lack of volunteers - obviously this is a huge problem but it's far from the only issue.

I'd contend that it is 90% of the problem

Once the bodies are on the ground, they can be organised and skilled up and given a bit of structure. Introducing and developing hurling needs time and long term effort by enough interested men. Lets not over complicate it.

Somebody tell me different

Say the volunteers are gathered up. Where does the centralised strategy for promotion of coaching excellence come from in Antrim?

I know times have changed and many men are helping out more at home and can't get away with leaving this missus to it, as would have been the case in many households when we were growing up. However, I would say if there was some real structure there with a long-term plan and there was a request for volunteers to carry out the letter of what is required, you would get all the people you need. Maybe I am naive 

EDIT: I know a couple of fellas at the coaching conference lately but is this specific to Antrim? Is it just clubs? How does it fit into the county setup?