Antrim Hurling

[Lone Shark]

Again, and for the last time, I agree wholeheartedly that this was a good game to blood new players. Nobody in Offaly is offended by that, and nobody expected otherwise. However by not showing up on time, by not getting a warm up, and by picking a handful of players who were clearly miles off the pace and never would be considered in normal circumstances, it rendered the game worthless and so nothing could be taken from it.

How about bringing 19 players in total, does that not indicate that the management didn't care about the integrity of the match? You wouldn't treat a challenge game like that. Or maybe ye do, in which case there is yet another reason why Leinster and Munster teams don't play as many challenge matches against ye as I would have said that they should.

LS agree with you there, but here's the thing it adds extra spice to it and we all like that.

Granted the team should have been named in advance for the supporters paying in to make an informed choice.

Would Offaly fans had much of a clue of the strength of the team even if it was named? We haven't got that may house hold names

Ah here. Who's being disrespectful now? I'm not saying that I'd know the best Antrim XV at any given time, but if you read a teamsheet and there's over half the team that are unknowns, then you know that you're dealing with a shadow team. Most Offaly supporters, even casuals, would know that when you leave out guys like McAuley, McManus, Carson (when fit!) and McKinley, that's what's happening.

When the Belfast Tele journalist sitting beside you doesn't know of one of the players, then you really know the barrel has been scraped here.


Again I say I can't speak for the players, but there's nothing "faux" about how disgusted I was with Antrim's attitude yesterday.

Do Antrim people genuinely believe that if this was the first round of the league, that they would have got the time wrong? Come off it.

[Milltown Row2]

Jesus the moaning in here is unreal
The throw in time mix up is unforgivable but what's wrong with giving lads who haven't had a game yet a run out
This was always going to be a shadow boxing exercise anyway
If we ran cork to 3 points and Wexford to 1 in ballycastle here then we can beat Offlay

I think some posters on here are hoping they get beat just for a bit of '' told you so''

These current crop of players and management aren't as embarrassing as our support by the look of things

JC dick isn't a selector this year. I think he is concentrating on dunloy

If we beat Offaly I wouldn't blame one of OUR county players coming on here and say up yours
If we get beat by Carlow or whoever in a relegation/ promotion  match then the detractors on here will be saying words to that effect anyway
I have never met kevin Ryan but he was in dunloy last week taking a session with our p/7 players from the school. I mention this to illustrate how much an interest he's showing in all things antrim
I hope he isn't coming on here because it's as embarrassing as our county board, the social club fiasco or turning up late for a meaningless match

Few things, at that level, Div1b teams should be named the night before, the team should arrive on time (not only for the supporters who have made their way down and paid in but for the players themselves, be they under21's or senior, nothing worse getting off the bus and changed hurriedly to get on the pitch) Team should also play with a bit of pride, the scoreline at half time was ridiculous.

Whether we beat Offlay this Sunday or not means nothing, we are a lower tier team and the best preparation for us is big games. How else are you meant to improve, coming into the game on the back of a competitive game would do us no harm. We fight every year to get to play the bigger teams and when we do we send down a under 21 team.

Anyways I'll be up in Ballycastle this week hopefully we can avoid a banana skin v Carlow

[johnneycool]

Again, and for the last time, I agree wholeheartedly that this was a good game to blood new players. Nobody in Offaly is offended by that, and nobody expected otherwise. However by not showing up on time, by not getting a warm up, and by picking a handful of players who were clearly miles off the pace and never would be considered in normal circumstances, it rendered the game worthless and so nothing could be taken from it.

How about bringing 19 players in total, does that not indicate that the management didn't care about the integrity of the match? You wouldn't treat a challenge game like that. Or maybe ye do, in which case there is yet another reason why Leinster and Munster teams don't play as many challenge matches against ye as I would have said that they should.

LS agree with you there, but here's the thing it adds extra spice to it and we all like that.

Granted the team should have been named in advance for the supporters paying in to make an informed choice.

Would Offaly fans had much of a clue of the strength of the team even if it was named? We haven't got that may house hold names

Ah here. Who's being disrespectful now? I'm not saying that I'd know the best Antrim XV at any given time, but if you read a teamsheet and there's over half the team that are unknowns, then you know that you're dealing with a shadow team. Most Offaly supporters, even casuals, would know that when you leave out guys like McAuley, McManus, Carson (when fit!) and McKinley, that's what's happening.

When the Belfast Tele journalist sitting beside you doesn't know of one of the players, then you really know the barrel has been scraped here.


Again I say I can't speak for the players, but there's nothing "faux" about how disgusted I was with Antrim's attitude yesterday.

Do Antrim people genuinely believe that if this was the first round of the league, that they would have got the time wrong? Come off it.

LS, that wouldn't be uncommon for the Belfast telegraph to be fair. In all honesty I'm shocked they sent someone down to it.

[north_antrim_hound]

Again, and for the last time, I agree wholeheartedly that this was a good game to blood new players. Nobody in Offaly is offended by that, and nobody expected otherwise. However by not showing up on time, by not getting a warm up, and by picking a handful of players who were clearly miles off the pace and never would be considered in normal circumstances, it rendered the game worthless and so nothing could be taken from it.

How about bringing 19 players in total, does that not indicate that the management didn't care about the integrity of the match? You wouldn't treat a challenge game like that. Or maybe ye do, in which case there is yet another reason why Leinster and Munster teams don't play as many challenge matches against ye as I would have said that they should.

LS agree with you there, but here's the thing it adds extra spice to it and we all like that.

Granted the team should have been named in advance for the supporters paying in to make an informed choice.

Would Offaly fans had much of a clue of the strength of the team even if it was named? We haven't got that may house hold names

Ah here. Who's being disrespectful now? I'm not saying that I'd know the best Antrim XV at any given time, but if you read a teamsheet and there's over half the team that are unknowns, then you know that you're dealing with a shadow team. Most Offaly supporters, even casuals, would know that when you leave out guys like McAuley, McManus, Carson (when fit!) and McKinley, that's what's happening.

When the Belfast Tele journalist sitting beside you doesn't know of one of the players, then you really know the barrel has been scraped here.


Again I say I can't speak for the players, but there's nothing "faux" about how disgusted I was with Antrim's attitude yesterday.

Do Antrim people genuinely believe that if this was the first round of the league, that they would have got the time wrong? Come off it.

I would be surprised If a journalist from the the Belfast telegraph knew any of our first team players TBH never mind our fringe players

Maybe the throw In time mix was intentional
Seems to have got you pretty rattled, maybe offaly will come up now so rattled they won't be focused
If BW didn't get upset at what loughnane said a few weeks ago I don't think this will impact their preparations for next Sunday

BW said in the press prior to yesterday's match that it was meaningless and he is giving Offlay fringe players a run and would fully expect a Antrim to do the same
He even stated that he would prefer if the two fixtures could be combined to render the first game meaningful
I fully expect yesterday's events to have no impact on how he prepares for Sunday
Unless you have some impact with him

[imtommygunn]

Jesus the moaning in here is unreal
The throw in time mix up is unforgivable but what's wrong with giving lads who haven't had a game yet a run out
This was always going to be a shadow boxing exercise anyway
If we ran cork to 3 points and Wexford to 1 in ballycastle here then we can beat Offlay

I think some posters on here are hoping they get beat just for a bit of '' told you so''

These current crop of players and management aren't as embarrassing as our support by the look of things

JC dick isn't a selector this year. I think he is concentrating on dunloy

If we beat Offaly I wouldn't blame one of OUR county players coming on here and say up yours
If we get beat by Carlow or whoever in a relegation/ promotion  match then the detractors on here will be saying words to that effect anyway
I have never met kevin Ryan but he was in dunloy last week taking a session with our p/7 players from the school. I mention this to illustrate how much an interest he's showing in all things antrim
I hope he isn't coming on here because it's as embarrassing as our county board, the social club fiasco or turning up late for a meaningless match

Few things, at that level, Div1b teams should be named the night before, the team should arrive on time (not only for the supporters who have made their way down and paid in but for the players themselves, be they under21's or senior, nothing worse getting off the bus and changed hurriedly to get on the pitch) Team should also play with a bit of pride, the scoreline at half time was ridiculous.

Whether we beat Offlay this Sunday or not means nothing, we are a lower tier team and the best preparation for us is big games. How else are you meant to improve, coming into the game on the back of a competitive game would do us no harm. We fight every year to get to play the bigger teams and when we do we send down a under 21 team.

Anyways I'll be up in Ballycastle this week hopefully we can avoid a banana skin v Carlow

The worry for me would be that the way we are going at the minute the scoreline may not be that disimilar this sunday!!

I wouldn't read anything into Belfast Tele journalists. There's only a select few journalists know particularly much about hurling up here.

Sounds like a farce. Dunno what we were at but don't like it particularly much. Nothing will have been achieved except annoying people and making yourself look stupid.

[paddyjohn]

Can anybody name the team from yesterday??

[Minder]

Can anybody name the team from yesterday??

S McToal
T O'Ciaran
P Burke
M Bradley
R McCambridge
T McCann
J McGreevy
M Donnelly
D McKernan
C McCann
S McAfee
S Beatty
C Clarke
PJ O'Connell
N Elliott

[north_antrim_hound]

Can anybody name the team from yesterday??
[/quote

Antrim - S McToal; T O'Ciaran, P Burke, M Bradley (0-2); R McCambridge, T McCann, J McGreevy; M Donnelly, D McKernan; C McCann, S McAfee (0-1), S Beatty; C Clarke (0-5f), PJ O'Connell (3-0), N Elliot (1-1). Subs: N McKenna for R McCambridge, M Connolly for T O'Ciaran, D McGuinness for S Beatty, F Donnelly for D McKernan.

14 of these players have already played NHL this year so it's a whinge feast over nothing and should make lone shark more confident about next Sunday to

[Lone Shark]

14 of these players have already played NHL this year so it's a whinge feast over nothing and should make lone shark more confident about next Sunday to

Okay, after this I'm out, because there is some serious misrepresentation going on here.

Nobody cares about the team that Antrim chose to select - that is their prerogative. That was not remotely the issue - the issue was the manner in which Antrim approached the game, bringing just 19 players and showing up late. That fed through to the team, who made some errors that you wouldn't expect from junior hurlers. Everyone here in Offaly knows enough about Antrim hurling to know that a middling club side would make a better fist of things than that, and that this will bear no resemblance to the Antrim team, in personnel or critically in attitude, that we'll meet next week.

I've no idea how the players or BW will feel, I just know how it made me feel as a supporter who went into the game. Yes if I was on the panel I would be rattled and yes, quite possibly that was what Antrim were hoping for when they decided to roll up ten minutes before the throw in. As I've said before, I don't believe for a minute that they genuinely got the time of the game wrong, and it was obviously done for some reason.

[theskull1]

14 of these players have already played NHL this year so it's a whinge feast over nothing and should make lone shark more confident about next Sunday to

Okay, after this I'm out, because there is some serious misrepresentation going on here.

Nobody cares about the team that Antrim chose to select - that is their prerogative. That was not remotely the issue - the issue was the manner in which Antrim approached the game, bringing just 19 players and showing up late. That fed through to the team, who made some errors that you wouldn't expect from junior hurlers. Everyone here in Offaly knows enough about Antrim hurling to know that a middling club side would make a better fist of things than that, and that this will bear no resemblance to the Antrim team, in personnel or critically in attitude, that we'll meet next week.

I've no idea how the players or BW will feel, I just know how it made me feel as a supporter who went into the game. Yes if I was on the panel I would be rattled and yes, quite possibly that was what Antrim were hoping for when they decided to roll up ten minutes before the throw in. As I've said before, I don't believe for a minute that they genuinely got the time of the game wrong, and it was obviously done for some reason.

You see I think on this one you're going out of your way to get offended.  Who in their right mind would do such a thing an know that it would backfire on them because of accusations of incompetence? There's more likelihood of that being the case and I think you know it

[Zulu]

I agree with you LS and I'm surprised by the attitude of some Antrim posters here. It seems some view any complaint, no matter how reasonable, as whinging. There is no excuse for what happened yesterday and anyone involved or interested in Antrim hurling should be at least saddened if not embarrassed by yesterdays whole performance. I see no benefit to Antrim hurling from yesterday and I'm sure Croke Park will have taken note the next time Antrim complain, sorry whinge, about lack of decent hurling games for their teams.

[imtommygunn]

I agree with you LS and I'm surprised by the attitude of some Antrim posters here. It seems some view any complaint, no matter how reasonable, as whinging. There is no excuse for what happened yesterday and anyone involved or interested in Antrim hurling should be at least saddened if not embarrassed by yesterdays whole performance. I see no benefit to Antrim hurling from yesterday and I'm sure Croke Park will have taken note the next time Antrim complain, sorry whinge, about lack of decent hurling games for their teams.

Zulu at the minute we are not in a good place with the hurling unfortunately. Offaly could feasibly do to us this weekend what they did yesterday.

Compare those players yesterday to the rest of our league teams. Yes we are 5 or 6 down but most are u21s and this was the game to give them.

If we messed around with times then that is disrespectful and shouldn't have happened.

However every one of those players is on the panel from what I know. If Offaly feel disrespected because they deemed some of our skills to be rubbish then maybe a) we should be worried as these are our squad players and b) maybe they are the ones disrepecting us!!

We're in division 1b and leinster championship so we have no right to be complaining about a lack of decent hurling games. We also compete in the leinster minors (league anyway) so no leg to stand on there. Some people, who seem to be in officaldom in this county, like to complain about things which a lot of us don't agree with.

[theskull1]

I agree with you LS and I'm surprised by the attitude of some Antrim posters here. It seems some view any complaint, no matter how reasonable, as whinging. There is no excuse for what happened yesterday and anyone involved or interested in Antrim hurling should be at least saddened if not embarrassed by yesterdays whole performance. I see no benefit to Antrim hurling from yesterday and I'm sure Croke Park will have taken note the next time Antrim complain, sorry whinge, about lack of decent hurling games for their teams.

He's every right to be annoyed and complain about it, but he's joining the dots to imply that Antrim we're TOTALLY disrespectful yesterday

I'm commenting on LS's belief that he believes that the throw in time mix up was intentional. If it was done intentionally then that's disgraceful unsporting behaviour. The betting though would suggest incompetence before shoot yourself in the foot cutehoorism. 

We can be saddened by the thing but not for the same reasons. Very unprofessional

[north_antrim_hound]

I agree with you LS and I'm surprised by the attitude of some Antrim posters here. It seems some view any complaint, no matter how reasonable, as whinging. There is no excuse for what happened yesterday and anyone involved or interested in Antrim hurling should be at least saddened if not embarrassed by yesterdays whole performance. I see no benefit to Antrim hurling from yesterday and I'm sure Croke Park will have taken note the next time Antrim complain, sorry whinge, about lack of decent hurling games for their teams.

Zulu at the minute we are not in a good place with the hurling unfortunately. Offaly could feasibly do to us this weekend what they did yesterday.

Compare those players yesterday to the rest of our league teams. Yes we are 5 or 6 down but most are u21s and this was the game to give them.

If we messed around with times then that is disrespectful and shouldn't have happened.

However every one of those players is on the panel from what I know. If Offaly feel disrespected because they deemed some of our skills to be rubbish then maybe a) we should be worried as these are our squad players and b) maybe they are the ones disrepecting us!!

We're in division 1b and leinster championship so we have no right to be complaining about a lack of decent hurling games. We also compete in the leinster minors (league anyway) so no leg to stand on there. Some people, who seem to be in officaldom in this county, like to complain about things which a lot of us don't agree with.

Could not agree  more
Six if those players where in the field against cork and the rest of them where on the panel
So lone shark comes on to an Antrim discussion forum and likens them to junior club hurlers and he is the one offended(let's all have wipp round and give him his 13 euros back)
Then Antrim being Antrim got the throw in time wrong and this is some unprovoked assault on the psychological warfront
A more feasible explanation is all our away Sunday games this year where at 3 o clock ( I could be wrong but last game was three v Laois and  nobody had the brains to check the time for this one

Looks like we are in for a real tanking next week, not because half of our panel is junior club level but because we weren't punctual yesterday- laughable

[NAG1]

I agree with you LS and I'm surprised by the attitude of some Antrim posters here. It seems some view any complaint, no matter how reasonable, as whinging. There is no excuse for what happened yesterday and anyone involved or interested in Antrim hurling should be at least saddened if not embarrassed by yesterdays whole performance. I see no benefit to Antrim hurling from yesterday and I'm sure Croke Park will have taken note the next time Antrim complain, sorry whinge, about lack of decent hurling games for their teams.

Zulu at the minute we are not in a good place with the hurling unfortunately. Offaly could feasibly do to us this weekend what they did yesterday.

Compare those players yesterday to the rest of our league teams. Yes we are 5 or 6 down but most are u21s and this was the game to give them.

If we messed around with times then that is disrespectful and shouldn't have happened.

However every one of those players is on the panel from what I know. If Offaly feel disrespected because they deemed some of our skills to be rubbish then maybe a) we should be worried as these are our squad players and b) maybe they are the ones disrepecting us!!

We're in division 1b and leinster championship so we have no right to be complaining about a lack of decent hurling games. We also compete in the leinster minors (league anyway) so no leg to stand on there. Some people, who seem to be in officaldom in this county, like to complain about things which a lot of us don't agree with.

Could not agree  more
Six if those players where in the field against cork and the rest of them where on the panel
So lone shark comes on to an Antrim discussion forum and likens them to junior club hurlers and he is the one offended(let's all have wipp round and give him his 13 euros back)
Then Antrim being Antrim got the throw in time wrong and this is some unprovoked assault on the psychological warfront
A more feasible explanation is all our away Sunday games this year where at 3 o clock ( I could be wrong but last game was three v Laois and  nobody had the brains to check the time for this one

Looks like we are in for a real tanking next week, not because half of our panel is junior club level but because we weren't punctual yesterday- laughable

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT