Antrim Hurling

[Sleeping giant]

I won't go to far down this road again, IMO it's not all the managers fault.  But if he is to leave.  Id be asking someone within out own county.(Not Sambo)

[Seamroga in exile]

I'm going to post this one thing. Take from it what you will. We (loughgiel) played the Derry county team in a challenge match on Saturday. We beat them 3-15 to 1-14.

[Last Man]

I won't go to far down this road again, IMO it's not all the managers fault.  But if he is to leave.  Id be asking someone within out own county.(Not Sambo)

KR is managing county hurling on a number of fronts, a template similar to that adopted by the most successful counties in the game. Against the tide of opinion that we know what's best for us, we'll just do our own thing and everything will be alright. Remember we've been here before in Dunloy heyday and it was no magic bullet.

[Antrim Coaster]

Not long in from Mullingar.It pished continuously from 2pm but to be honest this result was no surprise.

Antrim insisted on using the same tactic against Laois of poc outs down the left towards Neal McAuley.

Westmeath copped onto this & Neal wasnt as effective as he was last week.

Antrim did not seem to have a Plan B. Aaron Graffin's injury was an unsettling factor (its a dislocated knee. It looked an awful lot worse & hopefully he is on the mend).

Westmeath pulled Antrim all over the park with Eoin Price given licence to roam at will without being picked up. They were slick in their hurling, something which had Michael Ryan's influence written all over it.

14 points down at half time and if I had any sense I would have left then. The heads dropped soon after the restart with Westmeath picking up where they left off.

This has to be the worst Antrim performance in years. Its not the players - they play the way they have been coached.

Whilst I have great respect for Kevin Ryan I dont think he is the man to bring Antrim forward. In his 3rd year we have dropped to Div 2A and are on the verge of being relegated to the Christy Ring. It would be no surprise if Carlow did a number on Antrim in Dr Cullen Park in 2 weeks.

This defeat plus the Kerry result will have a serious knock on effect in that interest in the county team will dwindle as if it isnt bad enough already.

Ive been on the road many times following Antrim home & away but today takes the biscuit & I dont think I'll be back for a while. At least I wont have to worry about a long trip to Carlow.

Unfortunately I think we got the wrong Ryan.

[Last Man]

"This has to be the worst Antrim performance in years. Its not the players - they play the way they have been coached. "
No its the way a player has been coached by his club in his formative years, he reverts to type when his confidence is shot, an incredibly difficult problem for any coach to break down. So where does the blame sit?

[Sleeping giant]

So it's the clubs fault that antrim were beat today and have been stinking this year??   Speaking just from my own club.  Players change and can change there style of play fairly simple.  It's doing what your asked to do is the key.  From what I've seen and heard.  Far to much gym work and not enough hurling is a problem with in the antrim set up.  One of many problems.   

[Antrim Coaster]

My point is, they are playing to a system to which they are being coached by the county management eg. the short handpassing.

Its not working & the management do not seem to have an alternative.

[brendanbelfast]

This was appalling. No other word for it. Second to every single ball, from full back line to full forward line. Off the pace, slow, looked unfit, no imagination when in possession, truly awful. Poor on the pitch and poor on the line, can't dress it up.

Now, Westmeath were a lot better than I though they would be, a helluva lot better. But my God we were dire.

It gives me zero pleasure to say it will be a while before I hit the road to support this team again.

[Sleeping giant]

All club teams won't play the same way, so it's not as if every player is gonna walk in and no the way a manager wants to play.  But isn't that what training is for.  Isn't that what he's paid for?    It's a simple game.  Do the simple things fast, Jesus Christ.  Hand pass hand pass hand pass, when you've one of the fastest forwards in Ulster busting his balls to get out infront of his man.  Let the fecking thing into him, if that doesn't work,  Try the long ball or the shooting from distance.   Surely we are better than this.  Please God someone tell me we are better than this!!!!

[Last Man]

No it certainly won't work if the player in possession holds on too long or looks to break a tackle because he can't see what he should do, or the player receiving is standing flat footed, are you suggesting that's being coached. The problem with us is a disproportionate amount of people think they know better, some of those possibly close to the set up. How will we ever achieve the buy in required to ever succeed. There's no magic formula for success, every manager will have his own system so the detail isn't critical. What he must get is everyone behind him. All the same the cancerous negativity that afflicts this county will even be the undoing of the dream team waiting in the wings

[btdtgtt]

So it's the clubs fault that antrim were beat today and have been stinking this year??   Speaking just from my own club.  Players change and can change there style of play fairly simple.  It's doing what your asked to do is the key.  From what I've seen and heard.  Far to much gym work and not enough hurling is a problem with in the antrim set up.  One of many problems.   

+1

[theskull1]

My point is, they are playing to a system to which they are being coached by the county management eg. the short handpassing.

Its not working & the management do not seem to have an alternative.

Plenty of teams move the ball out of pressure with a short handpass. Why shouldn't Antrim be attempting to do it? The fact its not working isn't down to the system being wrong. We are where we are and have zero reason to think we "should" be better than the likes of Kerry or Westmeath. Our structures and our levels of interest are weaker than they should be and it looks as if we are living hand to mouth year on year rather than having a system where both administrative structures and player commitment are a given. Its perfectly easy for me to not be surprised that Westmeath are stronger than us if their structures are better.

[Antrim Coaster]

Antrim's hurling today was laboured. There was no quick ball into the forwards. Why play Dessie McClean at full forward & deprive him of the ball. If the ball was pinged in low towards him he could have used his pace to engineer a score. He was taken off after 10 minutes. Conor Carson came on & I envisaged a repeat of the Laois match where high ball was pumped into the full forward line. This didnt even happen. As Brendan Belfast stated there were far too many mistakes made by Antrim today.

We as a hurling county have certainly regressed under KR. There was no idea what to do from the sideline as Westmeath ran riot.

Im all for the buy in to Antrim hurling but far too long in the tooth to know things are not right with the current set up. Ive been to all the championship games played under KR & there has not been much improvement over 3 years.

This goes back to when the county board decided to appoint Jerry Wallace over Dinny Cahill.

Dinny knew how to get championship performances out of his teams. Tipp, Wexford, Laois, Dublin spring to mind

[Antrim Coaster]

My point is, they are playing to a system to which they are being coached by the county management eg. the short handpassing.

Its not working & the management do not seem to have an alternative.

Plenty of teams move the ball out of pressure with a short handpass. Why shouldn't Antrim be attempting to do it? The fact its not working isn't down to the system being wrong. We are where we are and have zero reason to think we "should" be better than the likes of Kerry or Westmeath. Our structures and our levels of interest are weaker than they should be and it looks as if we are living hand to mouth year on year rather than having a system where both administrative structures and player commitment are a given. Its perfectly easy for me to not be surprised that Westmeath are stronger than us if their structures are better.

Skull agree with you. The short handpass can be and is effective but why on earth can we not seem to perfect this?  We have no God given right to think we are better than Kerry, Westmeath, Laois etc. Heard that Westmeath minors beat Wexford on Saturday & Westmeath are slowly but surely reasserting themselves on the hurling stage again. Dublin were lucky to get out of Cusack Park last year with a one point victory so today's result would seem to be no great surprise.

[theskull1]

We as a hurling county have certainly regressed under KR. There was no idea what to do from the sideline as Westmeath ran riot.

Im all for the buy in to Antrim hurling but far too long in the tooth to know things are not right with the current set up. Ive been to all the championship games played under KR & there has not been much improvement over 3 years.

I do think change has to come now. History has taught me though that a change in manager will not be the stand alone long term solution. If anyone thinks that, they're  deluded IMO. We have bigger problems to solve and with the work force out there I don't think we'll ever get to where plenty of people think we should be on a consistent year in year out basis. The odd surprise here and there... sure, but I don't expect a change in the mean level where we've been for 25 years. The blind negativity of those who blindly EXPECT us to be at a higher level is energy sapping when the structures and support doesn't allow it to happen.

On a slightly related point .... If there was a poll where people in every county were asked if they feel positive or negative when they think about their county board? I think in Antrim (rightly or wrongly) would fare poorly. Where there's disunity, there's failure and disappointment.