Antrim Hurling

[JamesH]

Young bricks game was more speed based, and on being given the ball, not winning it. This won't wash at senior level, something i think the young fella knew. As for not playing it could have been the dislike of the manager, or of the managers honestly in telling young players the truth something he mightn't like. the young Cushendall lads on panel Graffin , Mc Manus, Shane, burke Magill, when needed stood up to Shamrocks and Dungiven.

[Tony Baloney]

Read today that Magic is a confirmed goner for Sunday. Galget had a slim chance with him in the mix, out of it they're at least 6 points and possibly double figures off the pace. Would be interested to know if Magic would have made it if they played the match on the original date?! It's not a question you'd be asking about the football final!

[milltown row]

Cushendall by 7, they have got past there tough hard hitting game. they will play a lot better than last week

[Minder]

Ballygalget by at least 25 pts

[Lecale2]

Ballygalget by at least 25 pts

Have you been drinking?

[milltown row]

aye 25 pints

i've ma beer cooling for tomorrows game. plenty of banter for the match. loads of posters on monday complaining about the drunk chip eaters from belfast.

[Fairhead]

In the paper yesterday it listed all Cushendall's championbship results this year to date and they have conceded an average of less than 10 points a game. If they do that again today i cant see them losing unless Ballygalgets defence has a complete stormer.

[davincicode]

Lads, where do i start, at the beginning say you all.

Well after paying my hard earned £12 to a grumpy UC official, 1 for me 1 for you at the turnstile, i take my seat in the stand to wait on what i expected to be a potential rip roarer of a game. Looking across casement i see no clubs flags/colours flying, no band on the field and an air of muted disappointed among the expectant spectators.

The game, promised everthing in spirits, but the referee in my opinion killed it and was very poor in his decisions. Within 5 minutes the ballygalget no4 i think, tried to decapitate the cushendal forward, i thought like most straight red! How wrong was i, and that i feel set the stall for the rest of the game.

I see some of the cushendal mentors must have been reading my posts, as MC manus played as a roaming forward and was extremely effective, can,t understand why they moved him back into the sweeping role, the forwards became ineffective after that, and made the game tighter that he really should have been. ( I wish assessor was here!) I would give the ref 5 out 10, and i am being generous when i say that, to old not up with play and decisions that beggared belief.

Shane MC Naughton needed more support, and i did,nt happen for him. Oran scullion was excellent and snuffed out Magic fairly quickly. MOTM went to Martin og Coulter, wrong N Mc Manus over the 2 games that i watched is awesome, what an all round hurler. To call this an Ulster final, ulster council should hang their heads, asking for £12 and not making a show out of the day, i tell you lads this would never happen in Dublin, no-wonder Ulster Hurling is poor, if it was football it would no doubt be a different story. Sorry lads, it was £12 that gets me. Should have gone to the marshes MR, sounds like you got the better deal.

[imtommygunn]

That just appears to be the going rate davinci which was unfortunate.

We had a programme today which was a step up from the last day.

The standard of refereeing in ulslter hurling, based on what I have witnessed this year, is abysmal and I hate saying that given they are volunteers but it is sad but true. He was a step up from that Magee guy though.

Cushendall play a dangerous game and had they been beat they'd only have themselves to blame. To play one forward inside the 45 for almost an entire half is a bizarre ploy. I'd agree that McManus was superb in the forwards but he also was in defense. Karl, to me, has been a bit off his game this year and McManus on this form is a better influence.

Credit to Conor McCambridge - he had a stinker the last day but definitely made up for it today. Also Shane McNaughton has some pace about him. He terrifies the life out of defenders. However Cushendall just look to be short on their forwards to be challenging for honours.

Fair play to Ballygalget. Coulter hit frees from everywhere which obviously boosted them and deflated Cushendall at times. That aside I thought they were second best a lot of the game. Paddy Magill should have went for goal and killed the game. Had Ballygalget not had their goal disallowed they could have ended up winning it.

[davincicode]

Itommygunn, i agree i think on what Ive seen this year, the best referees are in antrim, unfortunately they can,t referee their own clubs at Ulster. Duffy had a good county final, Elliott from what i hear went for broke and let them at it in the semi, and matthews although we have,nt seen much and  his semi was poor in comparison to the other 2 lads, but still these 3 lads seem to be Ulsters hopes going forward.

If leinster becomes a reality and they get games, antrim will only benefit, magee is a spent force, Devlin(Armagh) to old, who else is there. Hassen from Derry, the old guard are killing these games, time to move them on i say after today. hate to focus on ref,s but for £12 i expect and demand more value for my admission fee!

[Minder]

Cushendall fans are not very nice people.

What were they at today?

[Minder]

Ballygalget scored a goal. Ballygalget fans cheered. The goal was disallowed. I don't know why. Cushendall fans jumped up, cheering and gave w**ker signs to the Ballygalget fans.

They had some group of wankers at the Antrim final, pissed out of their skulls shouting crap throughout the match. There werent as many last week as it wasnt a final

[johnneycool]

Official match report

Ballygalget started shite.
Shane McNaughton had a stormer.
Martin Og Coulter should take the Og out of his name but had a good game.
Ballygalget came into it well.
Ref was a dungbag. Some baffling decisions.
Cushendall won. Fair play, Cushendall.
Loads of pints. Fair play, hardstation.

WE WUZ ROBBED  

The start ultimately cost us the game this time around. IMO we started with the wrong man on Shane McNaughton as it was going to be a big ask of Chrissy Branniff to hold him as he's quite raw at this level and was caught the wrong site far too often. I'd have started wee Liam on him and Chrissy on Aidan Delary as Aidan isn't the same player he was a few years ago. This seemed to panic a few of the other defenders as big Aaron was particularly jittery, dropping balls, missing lifts etc gifted the Dall forwards a good few scores, including the goal in the opening spell. Chrissy was extremely lucky to stay on the field after his shoving the hurley into McNaughtons head. Seamy Roddy had his hands full with shane but knew how to sheperd him better into wider angles. Apart from shane McNaughton and the odd forray from McManus, Sean Delargy and McGill, the Dall forwards didn't pose that much of a threat. Our problems were getting the ball low into Dingy and stevie Clarke who looked fairly dangerous when in possession, as some of our lads were intent on trying to run the ball, Darren Flynn being the worst culprit for running down blind alleys and losing the ball rather than letting fly into the spaces.
Big Magic's arrival had only one desired effect in that it made Cushendall put another defender in front of him giving dingy more space now in the half forward line. Magic himself didn't touch leather although he may have got a touch to the goal which wasn't given for a square ball which was a harsh decision as the only man who may have possibly been in the square was Paddy rat and he was in the other corner from where the ball came in and no way near the keeper who missed it completely. The umpire and referee totally coped out on that one, home town decision or what! It's always been said that if you want to beat Antrim or an Antrim team in Casement you'll need to win it well as any close decisions will go against you and that proved the case yesterday. Even after we got the goal and with time running out one of our lads was blatantly bundled over in our own half back line, yet no free as it would have been either dropped in or within Grahams range. That aside there were some strange decisions against both teams, two hand passes which looked clean enough to me, plus one overcarrying by a Cushendall defender not that long after big Aaron had been correctly adjudged to overcarry. Even the double sending off could have been avoided as both lads were only slapping each other and apart from a bit needly was harmless enough. Poor refereeing is one thing but poor umpiring is in excusable, Yet again this Sunday we had umpires who didn't seem to know how to position themselves and scratching their heads when scores were disputed. The cushendall farwards complained about one wide which did look be over, from the sam gobshites who gave the square ball.

In all fairness Cushendall do have the better hurlers yesterday, shear heart and determination kept us in the game and we could and should have won it but for poor decisons from some of our own players as well as the referee.
I think they'll need to rethink some of their tactics as the better teams won't play aimless balls into their sweeper plus the likes of whoever comes out of Connaught (most likely Portunma) will be able to cope with Shanes pace a lot better. Fighting a rear guard action won't get you enough scores on the board in February.


Also I really do begrudge paying those f**kers on the ulster council £12 into a game when as someone rightly said, they made no effort to make the final into a spectacle, no band or f**k all. I'd also say they screw both clubs when it comes to diivving up the money by not declaring the full takings plus subtracting some petty fines for a hurley carrier being on the pitch with one sock down or the likes. Shower of useless c***ts if you ask me.

[imtommygunn]

While I also didn't see a reason for your goal to be disallowed johnney the ref gave you a few dubious frees to keep you in the game first half and you had a man who should have walked after about ten minutes...

[johnneycool]

While I also didn't see a reason for your goal to be disallowed johnney the ref gave you a few dubious frees to keep you in the game first half and you had a man who should have walked after about ten minutes...

Dubious free's at both ends of the field tommy. Agreed about our corner back though, he would have walked most other days. Maybe he was given the benefit of the fact that the game wasn't long started. It probably did look a lot worse than it actually was but a sending off nonetheless