Antrim Hurling

[milltown row]

nag your off the mark there, yes Dunloy had players on the line that would normally start, we also had players missing injured and so on, 6.45 start? game did not start till after 7 and Dunloy players were down before galls players!!!!!!

as for the game it was competitive till a school boy error let in ally for a goal. it was 3  2 to Dunloy after 15 minutes and they scored the next 4 points all down to that goal, heads dropped as usual.

the lads rallyed in the second half and put in a better display. now your talk of us getting frees is also daft, check the scoring of Dunloy and tell me how many frees did the referee give Dunloy?

if you were at the game then you will have seen that

[podge]

i'm not going to come and defend the attitude of the line (of which i'm part of) but the county board did a disservice here and put in place a referee who has not officiated at this level before.

you country men have i'm sure not had this referee before. he normally does the South antrim football games (beer belly leagues) and while some of the decisions were clear cut some where not. magee pulled a ball from behind the cross bar, now skull correct me if i'm wrong. he never went beyond he 45's. his first free set the tone when after some intense tackling he blew when no foul was committed.

thats two games in championship that we have ended up with a first timer, when a more experienced referee is doing the line. i understand that there is a shortage of referees in the county, and these referees need to start somewhere but, it's a sad states of affairs in antrim that we cant encourage ex players to take up refereeing, yes they may also miss things in the game but they generally get it right.

i do believe our club players do give off far too much, this is not something the management ask the players to do. if we were to concentrate on hurling,  and deal with the referees decision then we would do all right.

...and milltown you then went on to try and defend the attitude of the line..




don;lt get me wrong, there was no serious abuse or threatening of the ref but it really was like watching a bunch of adolescents gurning over nothing....


and you said  'its a sad state of affairs that we can;t encourage more ex players to take up refereriing'...  anyone watching last nights match got a perfect demonstration of why we can't.  from the first whsitle to the last, it was constant.

now from what you have said, you guys had a preconceived image of this particular ref and perhaps you thought he might react to the pressure but still no excuse...

[milltown row]

we will never beat any of the big teams unless we train, Skull you dont believe me when i say our lads never train. having been involved with the current set for the past three years, we have never once trained twice a week or had a full squad to pick from.

they just turn up for games and play. you would have 6 seniors at training doing the training and maybe four standing around trying to look injured, but football training the next night and the same players are going hammer and tong busting a gut to get on that team.

hopefully the new management team that comes in next year will improve it but i seriously doubt it. wining football comes very easily, wining hurling well thats another story. good luck in your next game. we will be going down to Loughgeil to win. it will be tough but unlike Lamhs did last night we will put in a show. to score 1-2 against 4-20 on your own pitch no pride or passion at all there.

Podge, i dont condone shouting at the referee it's not a tactic set out by the management, you only have to go onto our club forum to hear players giving stick about how embarrasing it was to hear them give off to the referee.

[NAG]

Typical result for loughgiel, hammer the little guys when it means nothing at all. Makes no diiference as to how they will play against Dunloy or Cushendall.

Think Dunloy back to full strength and all their players fit are going to be dnagerous enough.

[Balboa]

I was at the match, it was pretty scrappy fare, not helped by the ref. If he had of let the game flow a bit more it would have suited Dunloy more, as for Magee pulling one down from behind the crossbar, how the St Galls line were able to tell if that ball was over the bar is beyond me. There was a fella beside me, also a neutral who reckoned "if St Galls players put as much effort into hurling as slabbering at the ref they would be ok". I actually though the pitch does not lend itself to a good match either, it is really bumpy and as hard as the road. Kieran Mc Gourty played well for St Galls, Stoker looks out of shape though. Dunloy did what they had to do with minimum of fuss.

[milltown row]

from where i was it was a point, would not have made any difference.

the period from the first goal, Dunloy got going and that was the difference.

we scored 1-6 in the second half to dunloys 1-5. tally up Dunloy's frees to ours and you'll see it was the same. Dunloy missed 2 the hole game we missed 7 two from the wings around the 45 and two 65's straight in front but the three 21 yard frees that our lads went for goal is crazy. they were told to shoot for points. goals come from mistakes or one on ones.

Dunloy may well have went on and won. they were the better team, indiscipline cost us.

anybody at the Lamhs game, where is the lone Loughgeil poster

[girt_giggler]

Typical result for loughgiel, hammer the little guys when it means nothing at all. Makes no diiference as to how they will play against Dunloy or Cushendall.

Think Dunloy back to full strength and all their players fit are going to be dnagerous enough.

What you want them to do? stop scoring so it looks better for the other team?

[NAG]

girt

Not saying that at all, its just a typical result for them at this time of the year. Its time these stupid group matches were over with to get down to te serious business.

[girt_giggler]

agree.

just don't see why they were singled out when cushendall & dunloy from what i remember have also knocked up big scores against the 'little guys' as you put it.

with the lack of quality / quantity of hurling teams in Antrim these scores are going to be common for the forseeable future

[McCracken]

anybody at the Lamhs game, where is the lone Loughgeil poster

Milltown,

Here I am!!

The game last night threw up no surprises, but fair play to Lambs they never quit right to the end. They just couldnt score, won plenty of ball and although the scoreline doesnt reflect it, they actually made a match of it, quite physical.

Our boys played well as a unit with perhaps still a couple of places unconfirmed. We had a couple of goals dis-allowed for reasons only best known by "Eugene" so the difference in the score line could have been greater. Not entirely sure what NAG thinks we should do, drive the ball out over the corner flag instead of taking scores??

Anyway, looking forward to our meeting with St Galls as you Milltown men always manage to put it up to us.

WRT the group stages,I think every one and their dog know that they are not "The finished article", however, we do need to remember that the likes of the Gorts, Glenarriffe, and Lambs, now have at least had a taste of Hurling at this level, whereas in simple Knockouts they may have had only one game. I know that repeated hammerings does no-one any favours but the players involved now know the levels that they need to raise their game to. There is still work to be done.

I do feel that the open draw after the qualifiers is silly as, if and I repeat if, we beat St Galls, then ourselves and dunloy are through before we play each other. Therefore, our group stage match is a nonsense before its played. I think that there is merit in grading the top 2 in each group, so that they have something to play for, ie: no. 1 seed from group 1 vs no. 2 seed from group 2 and vise versa. The problem with that is that we then potentially end up doing exactly what NAG is saying we shouldnt, and try to gou out to stuff everyone into the ground so that if it comes down to scores difference at the end of the group stages, the club with the highest scores ends up top. Dammed if you do, dammed if you dont.

[North Antrim]

U-21 final on friday against dunloy...hopefully milltown you will do us a favour and cut lumps out of them tonight and hopefully slow a few of them down for Friday night Wink

Skull or max - is it true Sean dowds is out with broken bone in hand?

Our preparation are going well at present, so hopefully we can pull it off

As for 2nite - dunloy will pull away in last 20 to win easy while Shamrocks will slaughter Lamh Dearg who like GNM have nothing to play for!"!

Story of your life NorthAntrim..........

Good lad Balboa - and you say i should be on the Hogan Stand Board!! - you are definitely painting a great picture of yourself.........

Dunloy game def was closer than i thought, then again they wernt overly impressive against us on saturday night in Ulster League with virtually the same team. Althouh they were missing alot of key men, as already pointed out. Lamh Dearg were brutal i heard. chatted with a sham in a shop on way to work this morning and he said they just folded after 15 minutes..... the next 3 games will tell the tale - Cushendall v St Johns, St Johns v Ballycastle, Loughgiel v St galls. If we can win tomorrw night i fancy us to beat St Johns....if we dont - were F****D!!

on a serious note - condoloences to our manager and legend Humpy McKillen - whose brother Billy died on Tuesday Night RIP.

[NAG]

Echo North Antrim's condolences to Humpy and his family from all over the county, Ulster and Ireland.

Boys dont get me wrong I wasnt having a go at Loughgiel for stuffing LD, I know they can do nothing else other than beat the teams infront of them. It was more of gripe against the system, whats the point in stuffing these teams when it comes down to Loughgiel and Dunloy going through to an open draw. I think it does the serious teams no good whatsoever these kind of matches.

Means that there is nothing but pride for Loughgiel and Dunloy to play for in their group match.

[North Antrim]

Pride - they prob will knock lumps out of other!!!!

[NAG]

North Antrim

Yeah they probably will but it will still be for nothing when the final whistle goes. St Pauls went to play cargin in the league earlier in the year knowing thats who they would meet in the championship later in the year, st. pauls only played like 3 - 4 starters and got a stuffing. Come championship st pauls beat cargin.

Would either of the two teams have the bottle to go for something like that or do they not want to concede any ground to each other.

[North Antrim]

God knows...id reckon Dunloy wud be a wee bit cuter with that stuff with Shane Elliot involved. Either way 23rd Sept in when the real stuff begins. I have a horrible sneaking feeling for Loughgiel......