Antrim Hurling

[The Dark Knight]

Jesus that county website has gone to P***. That aghagallon-county PRO has lost the plot completely! We have,nt got it full stop! Bradley has at least instilled a bit of belief in the footballers, the other two idiots could,nt even spell the word. Listen they are only there because they are cheap and low maintenance, you all BS on about this COE at antrim, we continually pay for the sins of x-county chairmen who systematically looked the other way when it came to the reddies! We can,t afford anyone thats the bottom line, and until the county shrugs off the debt created by previous chairs we will stay exactly where we are!!!

We should put the COE on hold and pay for the likes of Justin Mc Carthy etc to come and instill the confidence,intelligence and belief that we lack completely. The skill level is their but the intelligence isn't!!

[Fairhead]

Took my young nephew to the game, and he thought it was great with all the goals going in . But jaysus boys that was bad.
I keep trying to convince myself that, we will sometime in the not too distant future compete with the high table of hurling, but on the last three displays id say we wouldn't even win a christy ring cup! Honestly!

Groundlie your right; Antrim's level whether people like it or not is Div 2 / Christy Ring Cup level and i know this is boring to say but until we are competing at underage over a number of years that will be our level. And when i say competing at underage im talking about:

1. Different clubs competing and even winning Div 1 of the u14 Feile,
2. The county minors winning, and if not winning at least not getting humped, outside of the Ulster championship,
3 .The u21s getting to an Ireland final, and
4. A single school, or if has to be, a combined schools team getting to and winning the All Ireland A colleges.

Do all of thes things sound familiar to people? Well they should because that is what teams from Dublin have done over the last 5 years. So no one cant say that such things aren't possible.

[theskull1]

Exactly

[youngfella]

was just watching highlights of the dublin tipp game. Antrim in there current form will get beat by more than a dozen points easily, furthermore Dublin will play the cats in the leinster final, and wouldnt be too far away!

[the colonel]

dublin has far better facilities, more rich men, more government support and more full time coaches than antrim has and in 5/8years i would guess dublin could be a top 4 team. antrim hasnt the resources to match this. thats a first. dublin also has a larger population base who are involved in gaa which we don't have in Antrim. I agree that things have to be done/aspired to, but what works in Dublin won't work in Antrim. Each county top county has their own plan specific to the needs of that county.

to get to division 1 feile, you need years of work before hand, you cant just throw teams in there
for good minor teams/u21, you need excellent preparation/development squads, but more importantly good dedicated players, which are nurtured by their clubs
maybe a combined SA schools and a combined NA schools might work.

[clootfromthe21]

Cross and Passion's game against Colaiste Eoin is down for 4 o'clock in Newry on Sunday with Deccy Magee the referee.

[Minder]

Cross and Passion's game against Colaiste Eoin is down for 4 o'clock in Newry on Sunday with Deccy Magee the referee.

I predict a riot.........

[NAG]

Aye now to be fair decky isnt great!

[clootfromthe21]

Cross and Passion's game against Colaiste Eoin is down for 4 o'clock in Newry on Sunday with Deccy Magee the referee.

Apologies ladies and gentlemen, I misread the paper - C&P's match is on Saturday evening at 4pm! Good thing as otherwise it was going to be very tight for the multitudes to get to Newry from Portlaoise on Sunday afternoon - the M50 would have been bedlam!

[Tony Baloney]

Cross and Passion's game against Colaiste Eoin is down for 4 o'clock in Newry on Sunday with Deccy Magee the referee.

I predict a riot.........

I fully expect the ref to blend into the background and allow a good hard game of free-flowing hurling 

[Fairhead]

dublin has far better facilities, more rich men, more government support and more full time coaches than antrim has and in 5/8years i would guess dublin could be a top 4 team. antrim hasnt the resources to match this. thats a first. dublin also has a larger population base who are involved in gaa which we don't have in Antrim. I agree that things have to be done/aspired to, but what works in Dublin won't work in Antrim. Each county top county has their own plan specific to the needs of that county.

to get to division 1 feile, you need years of work before hand, you cant just throw teams in there
for good minor teams/u21, you need excellent preparation/development squads, but more importantly good dedicated players, which are nurtured by their clubs
maybe a combined SA schools and a combined NA schools might work.

My point was really just to concur with Groundlie's assessment that Antrim are Div 2 level. No where in the country has the population of Dublin but Antrim i think are in the top 5 in the country in terms of number of clubs in the county so why cant they, as you say Colonel, put their own specific 10/15 year plan in place and at least aim to be really competitive at underage. I think that can be done but a monumental amount of work, dedication, preparation and cash is needed over a long period of time. Whether the county board has the vision and the will to think along those lines anybodys guess is as good as mine.

Fair play to S&W for trying to change the mindset and working hard with the players but when you dont have the raw material coming through (and im having noy having a go at any player) and are trying to manufacture the finished product at that age (19,20 or 21) you just will not producw a sustained level of competitiveness over a long period of time.

Good luck to CPC on Saturday and i think it should give an insight, however small, into how underage development is progressing in Antrim and Dublin.

[NAG]

Fairhead to be honest I agree with most of your assessment.

However S&W enherited the minors that they worked with from our development system and this is supposedly the best bunch of hurlers that we have produced at one time in the last few years and I have yet to see an improvement in any of them. And that is being perfectly honest. When these boys were minors they were pushing hard but this has not made the transfer to the senior grade I am not saying that I know why these guys havent progressed the way they should have but heaping the pressure on them the way that S&W have done has certainly not helped.

[Last Man]

Minors will be too late to do anything with IMO, The work will have to start at U11/12 where the right standards are ingrained, skills, style of play, mental toughness, discipline etc etc. Back to the drawing board I am afraid, don't be fooling yourself otherwise.

[theskull1]

Minors will be too late to do anything with IMO, The work will have to start at U11/12 where the right standards are ingrained, skills, style of play, mental toughness, discipline etc etc. Back to the drawing board I am afraid, don't be fooling yourself otherwise.

And that has to happen in the clubs. 80-90% of them anyway. When you look at the problems in the South Antrim leagues getting teams to show for their fixtures, then you can see that the problems go farther than S&W. Points regarding S&W's tenure may have a certain validity, but why should we persist with scraping at the surface of the challenges that need to be faced. Easy targets for our frustrations

[NAG]

Guys I was using their tenure to do anything other than illustrate the point.

This was the first good bunch we have brought the the development system with all its flaws but instead of following up the good work with sound practice it was thrown away.
There needs to be a complete overhall and no matter what manager is incharge from u10 club to u13 development squad right through to the top that they are working to that system.