Antrim Hurling

[Tony Baloney]

The person assigned as manager is becoming less important with each passing year as they'd need to be a miracle worker. Over the past few years we've seen players from the big clubs, players from the smaller clubs, various trainers and backroom staff and it's clear there has been no progress. The whole setup needs looked at another manager can't change it by himself.

[paddyjohn]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

[btdtgtt]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

Agree Shane Elliot is certainly worthy.
Have the talent? That's not quantifiable - I mean - talent for what?
Attitudes certainly need changing - but I think the inter club rivalry issue is vastly over-stated in terms of its role in our hurling fortunes.
All counties have internal rivalries and ours are no different.
It's a smokescreen to hide other short-comings.

[paddyjohn]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

Agree Shane Elliot is certainly worthy.
Have the talent? That's not quantifiable - I mean - talent for what?
Attitudes certainly need changing - but I think the inter club rivalry issue is vastly over-stated in terms of its role in our hurling fortunes.
All counties have internal rivalries and ours are no different.
It's a smokescreen to hide other short-comings.

Talent on the pitch, Cross & Passion getting to AI finals, have St Marys not competed in the last few years?

Agree inter club rivalry is part of the game but ours is almost toxic at times. We talk about the GAA family, not up here, we seem to take delight in people messing up instead of helping.

[btdtgtt]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

Agree Shane Elliot is certainly worthy.
Have the talent? That's not quantifiable - I mean - talent for what?
Attitudes certainly need changing - but I think the inter club rivalry issue is vastly over-stated in terms of its role in our hurling fortunes.
All counties have internal rivalries and ours are no different.
It's a smokescreen to hide other short-comings.

Talent on the pitch, Cross & Passion getting to AI finals, have St Marys not competed in the last few years?

Agree inter club rivalry is part of the game but ours is almost toxic at times. We talk about the GAA family, not up here, we seem to take delight in people messing up instead of helping.

I wouldn't put any correlation between our schools results - and those of the county senior team.
Certainly we have a hardcore number of people that delight in failures - but that's the attitude thing for me - not club rivalry.
Overall I think we need to accept our levels & standards have dropped. Both in terms of the county team and club hurling.
Short term we need to get a senior hurling squad with players who have the correct attitude (even if not considered naturally most gifted hurlers) but longer term it's about (here I go again) increasing the broader base of players and club standard - that's the only thing will ultimately lift our county senior standard.

[north aontroim gael]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

Agree Shane Elliot is certainly worthy.
Have the talent? That's not quantifiable - I mean - talent for what?
Attitudes certainly need changing - but I think the inter club rivalry issue is vastly over-stated in terms of its role in our hurling fortunes.
All counties have internal rivalries and ours are no different.
It's a smokescreen to hide other short-comings.

Talent on the pitch, Cross & Passion getting to AI finals, have St Marys not competed in the last few years?

Agree inter club rivalry is part of the game but ours is almost toxic at times. We talk about the GAA family, not up here, we seem to take delight in people messing up instead of helping.

Whilst its great that CPC, St Louis and the Belfast teams do well from time to time in the schools competitions it should be noted that these are the second tier competitions.  If our schools entered the A grade competitions we would get the same tankings that our senior team would get against the Division 1 teams.

'We have the talent' is a sweeping statement.  I think we have the talent to compete with the lower tier Division 1B teams and that's about it.  I think we are a world away from competing with Division 1A teams and in my opinion that void will increase over the next 5 years rather than decrease.  I think part of our problem is that we still believe we belong at the top table when in reality (as recent results show) we've never been further away.

[clootfromthe21]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

What evidence is there of this talent?  Loughgiel's All Ireland in 2012? Rossa and Creggan winning Intermediate and Junior?

From time to time we can produce a very good club team. That said, coming out of Ulster is a huge advantage for our clubs as we don't have to slog through a competitive championship a la Leinster or Munster before we get to a All Ireland semi final. Even then, we frequently get "surprised" by a Down or Derry team.

When was the last real "statement" result from the senior hurlers? Beating Dublin in 2010?

Apart from beating Wexford in the semi in 2013, our under 21s have never beaten anyone outside Ulster (afaik).

When have our minors ever won a championship game outside of Ulster - when they played in (and got to a final of) a Leinster championship in the 1970s?

Our schools regularly contest B All Ireland finals but there is no prospect of any of them going up to A and surviving at the minute.

Antrim hurling has many issues but (imho) one of the biggest is our over-inflated view of ourselves as a "hurling" county. Hence our attitude that we "should" beat Meath. Why should we presume to beat Meath? I have no idea but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Meath senior hurling championship has as many clubs as we have in ours and, moreover, a bigger spread of winners than we have had over the last 25 years.

By dint of our potential playing population, we have the prospect (if we got organised) of become competitive but I just don't see this huge pool of talent out there being held back by attitude and inter-club rivalry.

[Minder]

Shane Elliot is as good a shout as any, we need somebody like Alec Emerson in with him. Somebody who knows the game inside and out.

I don't care what anybody says, we have the talent, it's more attitudes and inter club rivalry we need to sort out.

What evidence is there of this talent?  Loughgiel's All Ireland in 2012? Rossa and Creggan winning Intermediate and Junior?

From time to time we can produce a very good club team. That said, coming out of Ulster is a huge advantage for our clubs as we don't have to slog through a competitive championship a la Leinster or Munster before we get to a All Ireland semi final. Even then, we frequently get "surprised" by a Down or Derry team.

When was the last real "statement" result from the senior hurlers? Beating Dublin in 2010?

Apart from beating Wexford in the semi in 2013, our under 21s have never beaten anyone outside Ulster (afaik).

When have our minors ever won a championship game outside of Ulster - when they played in (and got to a final of) a Leinster championship in the 1970s?

Our schools regularly contest B All Ireland finals but there is no prospect of any of them going up to A and surviving at the minute.

Antrim hurling has many issues but (imho) one of the biggest is our over-inflated view of ourselves as a "hurling" county. Hence our attitude that we "should" beat Meath. Why should we presume to beat Meath? I have no idea but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Meath senior hurling championship has as many clubs as we have in ours and, moreover, a bigger spread of winners than we have had over the last 25 years.

By dint of our potential playing population, we have the prospect (if we got organised) of become competitive but I just don't see this huge pool of talent out there being held back by attitude and inter-club rivalry.

Agree 100%.

[theskull1]

'if we get organised'

To me means 100s of coaches need to up their game (its not all about silverware... its about developing the required skills in young lads with the ultimate aim of them looking forward to playing on at senior level)
100's of hurlers need to dedicate a bit more and aspire to ultimately represent their club at senior. You'll never be a hurler going to one or two sessions a week
100's of parents need to stop treating GAA clubs as baby sitting service and push their kids to represent their club beyond 16-18
More people need to support their local club as well as their county teams
..........

Its the high levels of half heartedness (coaching/player attitude/parental support etc) which ultimately hits us and shrinks the talent pool. Thats a lot of organising. 

[btdtgtt]

I think the last couple of years have solidly put to rest any arguments for me in terms of:
- we have the talent "but"
- we need to get organised
- attitude
- underage (and club  "succes"
For me it's just time we realised that our results are now a fair reflection of our standard.
We're a third tier league team - and Christy ring challengers.
This is our standard. Get with it.

Just heard woody's comments on the USHC.
He made the point of the fixture clashing with the Munster final every year.
Why?
Because Ulster council wouldn't have a precious football weekend clash or compete with the Munster final!

How are the club's getting on?
Must be mixture of holidays and eyes turning towards championship?
I'm back up north at the end of the month to catch up!

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

'if we get organised'

To me means 100s of coaches need to up their game (its not all about silverware... its about developing the required skills in young lads with the ultimate aim of them looking forward to playing on at senior level)
100's of hurlers need to dedicate a bit more and aspire to ultimately represent their club at senior. You'll never be a hurler going to one or two sessions a week
100's of parents need to stop treating GAA clubs as baby sitting service and push their kids to represent their club beyond 16-18
More people need to support their local club as well as their county teams
..........

Its the high levels of half heartedness (coaching/player attitude/parental support etc) which ultimately hits us and shrinks the talent pool. Thats a lot of organising.

Agree 100%. I think its something ive seen more and more since my involvement in underage coaching. Its only 3 years now and ive got my eyes open as to the amount of work that both needs to be done and work thats being done in order to continue the development of the youth.

As you say parents use the GAA now as a baby sitting service with many of those kids never going beyond U14 at times.

We have held an open coaching sessions now for all our under age camogs from U8 to U16 once every few weeks in which coaches in the club come along and give up an hour to work on the basics with groups of the girls. Its not much to me in terms of what could be done but to those kids it means the world and they love it. Ive had a fair few parents thank us for it and how much the kids are getting from it both in terms of coaching and fun.

If we can keep the majority there (and there was around 80 there previously) and still involved in the game up to adult level it will be something to keep building on.

All of that isn't achieved without hard work, good coaches and new coaches. As Skull says, its a lot of organising and if coaches/parents/players are coming to training with a half hearted approach then it will hit us in the long term.

[Tony Baloney]

'if we get organised'

To me means 100s of coaches need to up their game (its not all about silverware... its about developing the required skills in young lads with the ultimate aim of them looking forward to playing on at senior level)
100's of hurlers need to dedicate a bit more and aspire to ultimately represent their club at senior. You'll never be a hurler going to one or two sessions a week
100's of parents need to stop treating GAA clubs as baby sitting service and push their kids to represent their club beyond 16-18
More people need to support their local club as well as their county teams
..........

Its the high levels of half heartedness (coaching/player attitude/parental support etc) which ultimately hits us and shrinks the talent pool. Thats a lot of organising.

Agree 100%. I think its something ive seen more and more since my involvement in underage coaching. Its only 3 years now and ive got my eyes open as to the amount of work that both needs to be done and work thats being done in order to continue the development of the youth.

As you say parents use the GAA now as a baby sitting service with many of those kids never going beyond U14 at times.

We have held an open coaching sessions now for all our under age camogs from U8 to U16 once every few weeks in which coaches in the club come along and give up an hour to work on the basics with groups of the girls. Its not much to me in terms of what could be done but to those kids it means the world and they love it. Ive had a fair few parents thank us for it and how much the kids are getting from it both in terms of coaching and fun.

If we can keep the majority there (and there was around 80 there previously) and still involved in the game up to adult level it will be something to keep building on.

All of that isn't achieved without hard work, good coaches and new coaches. As Skull says, its a lot of organising and if coaches/parents/players are coming to training with a half hearted approach then it will hit us in the long term.

Not sure how you get around that one. I would say practically every supervised activity for children is used in this way by a lot of parents. It has the double-whammy of getting the wains involved in sports combined with giving parents time to go and do the messages.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

Went to the league game last night between ourselves and Loughgiel. I cant rem a more boring encounter between ourselves and Lgiel in a senior game in a long time.

we were very very poor IMO from start to finish. Was very disappointed in our performance esp up front, i felt we offered no threat at all.

TBH both teams were far from their best. Neither keeper had anything of note to do other than puck the ball out such was the lack of penetration up front from either side. Lgiel took the scores when presented with the chances where as we over complicated it too many passes.

Im still convinced we wont win the championship this year, were lacking the players up front to make a difference. The defence is solid but its up front is the bother.

[north aontroim gael]

In fairness the conditions were poor last night. There was a significant amount of water lying on the surface of the pitch in certain areas that made it difficult.

Have you many players to come into the team?

From the team that started for us last night there were a few missing who will be pushing for a place come Championship. The ones who spring to mind are DD, Tony, Odhran, Winker, Damon, Duck and James McNaughton. Obviously not everyone can start but I'd expect us to make a few changes.

[Milltown Row2]

Went to the league game last night between ourselves and Loughgiel. I cant rem a more boring encounter between ourselves and Lgiel in a senior game in a long time.

we were very very poor IMO from start to finish. Was very disappointed in our performance esp up front, i felt we offered no threat at all.

TBH both teams were far from their best. Neither keeper had anything of note to do other than puck the ball out such was the lack of penetration up front from either side. Lgiel took the scores when presented with the chances where as we over complicated it too many passes.

Im still convinced we wont win the championship this year, were lacking the players up front to make a difference. The defence is solid but its up front is the bother.

A lot of slow ball and wild clearances... the first touch for everyone was always going to be shit last night considering the conditions.... wouldn't read too much into it, Loughgiel took their score easier as you said and both defences were on top as you'd expect on a slow pitch...

Championship will bring out a different team for both, with a different intensity I'm sure

I'll take that 'boring' as a compliment