Antrim Hurling

[Two Hands FFS]

Very disappointing result, they'll get tore into us on the Sunday Game.   

[Fairhead]

Not a lot to be said about today. We are well behind Dublin in the pecking order now. The best thing i heard today was from Ciaran Barr on the radio afterwards. He said its about structures and numbers and said that in Dublin they have 140 in a development squad up to u16 and then they pick the elite from this to go on to minor and u21. Never mind Antrim no other county has those numbers to work with. I think its been said before on here that the Dublin model wont work in Antrim because of the difference in numbers but we have to try and find something more suited to our county. I hope somebody can come up with something soon so that in 10, 20 years we might be able to start competing, maybe nite regularly but even occasionally with the top counties.

[Two Hands FFS]

Not a lot to be said about today. We are well behind Dublin in the pecking order now. The best thing i heard today was from Ciaran Barr on the radio afterwards. He said its about structures and numbers and said that in Dublin they have 140 in a development squad up to u16 and then they pick the elite from this to go on to minor and u21. Never mind Antrim no other county has those numbers to work with. I think its been said before on here that the Dublin model wont work in Antrim because of the difference in numbers but we have to try and find something more suited to our county. I hope somebody can come up with something soon so that in 10, 20 years we might be able to start competing, maybe nite regularly but even occasionally with the top counties.

Dublin have loads more money pumped into them than Antrim. They also have about 30 more Full Time Hurling coaches than Antrim..that is also a massive differance. It was announced today at Croker that Ballyboden St Enda's(who paraded round the pitch)who won the Dublin U14 Feile's at Hurling,Football & either Camogie or Ladies Football have 600 juvenile members. That is a massive amount.

[JamesH]

Just home from the match myself, very disappointing performance and the dub's were not that good. they were there for the taking but then beat us by 10. Two many lads put in poor shows although some tried u can't fault Delargy, Karl Stewart, and perhaps big paddy and MC Manus fall into that category the other forwards were Shiite and didn't put themselves about to much, Micko and God Mc Goat should  just retire. The defence had a hard day Mc Garry in full back was perhaps the worst defender , very limited in skill but committed alright. I feel he isn't up to county hurling. As for our keeper and those Fu**ing short Puck outs, Jesus Stevie wonder could see they cause us trouble the whole way through the league and then three more today in which hippy saved us a couple of times. And is it just me, but why was MC Garry on his arse for the first goal it wasn't very brave was it? should he not have advancedand cut down the target size.
As for the squads the u14's and u15's are now divisional and seem to have started of very well with plenty of matches  this is the way to go. Barr is right, but what he didn't say was that they were North, West, East and South Dublin teams and each plays plenty of matches and this attracts all the best talent in the county which is the idea behind the divisional squads here now. Also they have 60 gpo's and as of July we will have only one, now thats progression, listen our county board are as bad as Ulster council as long as the hurlers don't cost any money they will  get the counties full backing. Woody has started full time, god he will be popular in North Antrim and even more so in Loughgiel not. I look forward to seeing the new plans coming from our happy county Sec.

[NAG1]

Lads,

I think the summary of the game has been quite fair. It was always going to be a balancing act of bringing paddy out the field any ball that he did play in wasnt sticking because we have no ball winners in that area. The problem is your robbing peter to pay paul, as paddy is a good target man on his day but then who would have been playing the ball in.

The defence worked hard but god did we look pedestrian at times? CmcG in the corner seemed more intent on hitting 'late' with the body that actually making a block on the ball a number of time he could have robbed the forward but wasnt interested in the ball. NmcG is a committed hurler but he doesnt have the raw pace or the hurling for this level. Graffin looked at ease in this company and again showed he is our leading defender and maybe hurler over all. CD is too slow for centre back and doesnt actually seem to have the positional sense either. The two wing men hurled well at times but I would also say that their men did quite alot of hurling too.

Im honestly not sure where to go now with this team, this nonsense of now having 25 committed hurlers for the next manager to take on, as if there havent been that in other squads up to now. Again I look back to Dinny and you will know I am no fan but he had the team at a different level of intensity and pace in our hurling one that we can only dream of now.

[NAG1]

Seriously hatchfield where do you come to that conclusion that they are doing a good job? where is your evidence?

Im just curious as to who apart from Ciaran Heron and maybe Pinkie would have made any difference of those that were missing?

[theskull1]

It's easy to say I told you so.........but I can't help it...... CJ McG should never have been within an asses roar of a place on the panel. To play a light hurler with a terrible first touch in a two man FF line was very strange, the reality being though that his below par stickwork should have kept him from the panel completely never mind the starting 15 ( and never mind the other reasons). Also S&W showed a real lack of faith in their bench when with 15 to go it was obvious that the game was slipping away and changes should have been made whether they were going to improve things or not.

Thought the effort and intensity in the 1st half was pretty good especially in the middle 3rd but totally disapperared in this area in the second half. But to play a two man one toothed FF line with the breeze ultimately laid bare antrims limitations and ambitions for the game and Dublin responded in the second half although they'll be far from pleased with their performance.

We are where we are. I don't think we should be too down on the team on the whole as there was alot of effort put in in alot of places but the reality is that this County is mentally weak and we should not be surprised when history repeats itself. How we change the mindset will require alot of hard work by alot of people.

[theskull1]

Seriously hatchfield where do you come to that conclusion that they are doing a good job? where is your evidence?

Im just curious as to who apart from Ciaran Heron and maybe Pinkie would have made any difference of those that were missing?

Shorty
Winker (if he committed but seems incapable of doing so)

for starters

[NAG1]

Shorty unproven at this level and Winker serious complete lack of committment and wasnt on the panel skull.

[theskull1]

You asked the question without preconditions...I answered it

Just on the basis that Shorty is unproven at this level  in your opinion, could you point out to me those on the starting 15 who you would say are proven at this level.

[NAG1]

Skull dont get me wrong I wasnt putting any preconditions on the question or on your answer and I take your answer the way it was meant.

But that is part of my point that very few of the boys have actually proved themselves in club hurling let alone county hurling to have some of the ego's that they have.

[theskull1]

No bother NAG1

not defending anyone, but,

can i just ask where are these players meant to prove themselves

is it in a very poor league or maybe a couple of relativley competitive championship matches.

This is the crux of it Shrek IMO. If you don't have a well manned well skilled well orginised well financed complete development structure then we should not be surprised at the outcomes (yesterdays match)

But when you have clubs who struggle to get enough volunteers .......who then struggle to get them to attend coaching courses.......in a county that struggles to procure finance.........how do we move forward without over burdening those that are already overburdened? I struggle with that. You have to look and see what you can deliver and set your expectations in a way that they are grounded in reality but still worth trying to work towards.

[NAG1]

The league as we know is poor enough but in my mind these players should be dominating their own clubs and should be the main men and driving force for their teams. Even in a bad league good players should be standing out and putting back to back performances in for their clubs, however there seems to be an attitude that the county players are too good to play in the league games. In the matches I have seen so far this year it would trouble anyone to pick out the county players from club games.

[Two Hands FFS]

Going through the team, McGarry didn't have much to do in nets. Kieran McGourty done ok in the corner. Neil McGarry struggled out the pitch abit as he doesnt have the stickwork at the top level.  Hippy & Neilly were nearly playing in the same space in the first half which meant we coped ok in there..but I dont think Hippy has the mobility to sweep across like say McManus could do. When it was more spread in the 2nd half Hippy struggled & more space developed down the middle. Graffin done ok apart from 2 bad 10 minutes spells(which were shown in the Sunday Game), one in each half...but when you have alot of ball going into one of the top forwards in Ireland for 70 minutes who are going to concede. Johnny done grand & cleared a few balls. Alot of the ball was away from JC & McGourty & down the other side. Neal McA was very good in the first half..some great tackles & catches which helped lift us in the last 10 minutes before Half Time.

Karl tried really hard in Midfield right to the end, one of the few to do so, set up a couple of good scores in 1st Half. Paddy done ok at times but should have been moved to FF after 5/10 minutes of 2nd Half. PJ was completely lost & rightly subsitutued. Was Brendan Herron fight to start??

Our HF line was cleaned out, Herron & Delargy very poor apart from 1 point each. Both should have been off earlier. Your HF line is one of your most important lines in the pitch & in the 2nd half we couldn't get the ball past their HB line. The constant changing of McManus & Stewart didn't help either. Why was McManus, arguably the best hurler in Antrim left in FF in 2nd half with about 2 balls directed to him. CJ was a like a wee boy out there, cant believe he stayed on the whole match.

Tactics weren't great I thought. 2 man FF line in 1st half with the breeze wasn't working. Its not as if Dublin were that good. A lot of bad wides from frees & open play. McManus's 3 goal chances were vital . Thought Shane McNaughton deserved a run one for CJ. Not saying that no-one tried but didn't think that anyone really threw themselves into tackles bar or put their bodies on the line bar Karl & Neal McAuley...especially in the 2nd Half. Looked like a team with few leaders

Overall..are we really surprised we struggled..the hurlers are simply not there. When Dinny was manager he had a really good team with players at their peak...Most of them big strong men who could win their own ball..not 20/21 year old kids like we have now. Who else in the county would make a big differance. Obviously Shorty & Ciaran Herron were injured. Only really Watson who won't commit or maybem Tosh would help. Anyone else??

[NAG1]

Do we think S&W will stay on after some of the reports earlier in the week?

Can someone post up the article that Loughnane did in the Irish Star on saturday, I didnt see it but i think he was very tough on the squad.