Antrim Hurling

[Minder]

Dunloy and Loughguile drew,replay on wed night in casement

[Minder]

Agree Hardstation,the venue suits the mc cooeys and blow ins a bit better. Dunloy let Loughguile back into it and it was a pretty poor match my source tells me

[Two Hands FFS]

The hurling wasn't great but it was a very exciting finish. Loughgiel could & probably should have knicked it at the end as Dunloy completely stopped for the last 20 minutes. I'd say Loughgiel will be favourites for the replay

[milltown row]

Loughgiel should have won it today. poor enough standard considering the talent on show. Winker missed a few chances which would have won the match. Dunloys older players were the difference with Ally Elliot still raking up the scores. and here in is the problem for Dunloy, as pointed out already dunloy stopped when they were 6 points up with twenty to go. fitness seemed to be with Loughgiel but they made hard work of their scores, while the dunloy scores came a lot easier.

great crowd down for the game, plenty of Frankies and chip eaters down also.

as for the refereeing lads, consistent with the over-carrying rule and there was no real dirt in it. some off the 'Butt of the stick stuff' we talked about before but clean enough

who'll win the replay? i'm sticking to my original choice Loughgiel by a point

caught the second half of the St Pauls and Clooney Gaels match. good win for the Shaws Rd men, all Belfast final, Gorts V St Pauls.
no St Johns Ambulance men needed for that match

[Last Man]

Fancied Dunloy to have more resolve with the centenary but with what little I have seen of the bodies this year they are playin with less reliance on winker who IMO has been their downfall for too long, not surprised they have rescued the game. Dunloy will relish another bite at them, they are developing a worrying trait where they have to be taken to the line before they buck up their ideas up.
Great result for the Shaws Rd men against a well fancied Clooney side,didnt think things werent looking good for them having been talking to some of their boys. Their footballers crashing out helped their cause

[Last Man]

Anybody see the St.Teresa's v Cloughmills, heard The "T's" gave them a lesson in tactics to create space, something that Cloughmills have been trying to do themselves in recent time, 2 man full forward and all that crap(Slow full backs nightmare). Played them recently, thought their backs were solid and don't concede goals easily while their forwards are happy to revel in the space they manage to create and pop the points over, Philly Maguire brings the quality req'd to their forwards also. Rasharkin will be looking to avenge their defeat the last time they met in a junior final.

[milltown row]

tuesday as well hardstation, both under 16 belfast finals in hurling on, b and a finals. hope they dont run out of bulbs

[theskull1]

Poor poor game of hurling today, with Dunloy lucky to have a second chance. Couldn't win a pig in a poke on our puck outs in the last 20 minutes. It was no coincidence that our support play totally disappeared at this time. Replays normally have no relation to the drawn game so here's hoping for better second installment.

Also with all the wonga taken at the gate you would think that our county board could supply a few hurling balls. wtf

Saw the second half of the IHC match and was impressed with St Pauls. The three goals in the second half were well set up and finished, but they also defended well to boot. Should be a good final bwteen them and GNM although it would be great to see the likes of those club step up and be compeditive at senior level. Owen Elliott also refereed the game very well.

Didn't see many chip eaters myself milltown unless you spotted them all in mortons after the match  . Fully expect them to show up in their droves on wed night 

[milltown row]

talked about your good support play in the first half Skull but as you said it died a death in the second half. worrying that Loughgiel seemed fitter than yourselves. i think that will give them a boost. what did Ally finish with? Darren Quinn didn't  hit ball and when he had that chance he shite himself. dim dim was terrible. did the Loughgiel line out the way ya expected?

[theskull1]

No milltown....didn't think the balance looked right from the start and it may have played a part. I'm hoping pride will bring out some reserves of endurance because alot of our boys just didn't hurl today

[MrT]

i agree milltown dim dim was terrible.  I expected shay Casey to start. thought James campbell did reasonably well in centre 3 for a young boy.  I doubt oul ally still got it, the more i think about his goal i think it was actually lethal! to swing on it in the air is hard to do.  I hear people talking about loughgiels shot in the dying minutes, i think ding hit it, the crowd went mad and dunloy keeper put his hands to his heads but umpire gave it a wide.  Does anybody have an opinion on that??

[slow corner back]

It is not very often you could say it about them but I thought some of Dunloys decision making today was very poor. As has been alluded to earlier Dunloys puck outs were poor all day and in the second half evolved into hit every ball to Paddy Richmond at right half forward. The bodies quickly figured this out and swamped all Dunloys puck outs for the second half. On another point all day Dunloys backs were hitting sevnty- eighty yard clearances straight down the field into the hands of the Loughgiel backs who were very dominant in the air. When they did use the ball intelligently or run at the loughgiel backs Dunloy had much more success. Paul Shiels got one pass in the second half took a good score and then was ignored for the rest of the game
As for Loughgiel once again the half backs and midfield were very good and on top for most of the game. Someone said earlier that Loughgiel were less reliant on Watson this year but I am afraid I have to disagree with that, out of 14 scores for Loughgiel today Watson got 10 or 11, mainly frees but he won a lot of them himself. I was surprised that Loughgiel kept Watson inside for the whole game where he was somewhat starved of ball and while the half forward line was shooting chronic wides in the last 10 minutes. I think Loughiel will rue the missed chances in the last 10 minutes Dunloy by three in the replay.

[theskull1]

Yes SCB, loughgiel's HB line did a good job at swamping our puckouts but where was our second man on the breaking ball. They just weren't there. Serious soul searching if we are going to turn around the performance of the last twenty minutes. Loughgiel will be be the happier going into Wednesday (alright shamrock  )

[Minder]

Skull someone was telling me gareth mcghee was at the match as a spectator,is he injured ?

[Glensman]

Dunloy Loughgeil
Thought Loughgeil should have won this in the end to be honest. They started going for goals too early but actually didn't panic in the end and it was a point by Ding Gillan, as admitted by the Dunloy keeper. Them are the breaks. Winker wasn't really allowed to let loose and was well shackled but a player of his class still comes out with a good few points. Not sure what way it will go...will arguably depend on Loughgeil's reaction - will they leave it behind? Dunloy looked very good in patches.
Thought Ray Matthews did rightly. Thought he was getting quite yellow card friendly near end of 1st half but generally he kept things under control in a game that was hard but not overly dirty.
He and his linesmen did spot and book anyone seen hitting with the butt of the hurl. Good stamping that out! (following from our earlier conversation). As much shouldering and manoeuvring for position as possible should be allowed but digging someone in the ribs with the hurl is an act of cowardice (in my opinion)

St Pauls Clooney
Caught the end of this. Surprised by the result having seen both this year but agree the footballers going out will have helped St Pauls. Was told the corner forward (forget his name) bagged 3 goals. Did the same on the occasion I saw him earlier in the year

St Theresa's Cloughmills
Spot on Last Man. Cloughmills given a lesson in tactics and there wasn't a quick enough reaction. St T's dropped a man back into half back line who cleared an awful amount of ball. Philly Maguire was in midfield but played very well. Cloughmills will rue this one, beat in last 4 semi finals. Young enough team so will hopefully bounce back.
If St Theresa's play the way they did they will beat Rasharkin. Good young team and going for a junior double.
Was not impressed at all by the referee Reilly - very very fussy and didn't let the game flow. He could do with watching Matthews/Elliott. Game never really got going due to alot of soft frees, for both sides. Doesn't help the state of Antrim hurling when a good honest hard tackle is constantly met with a free!

Predictions
Dunloy
Gorts
St Theresa's

Though could well be wrong on all of them!!