Antrim Hurling

[Ruairi Og exile]

Just back from match.Very good win so far play to the lads as lot of pressure on them, should have won by more, alot of bad wides, wrong options but I though there was alot of fight by our boys, tackling was good. Ciaran Herron was excellent in half back, I said yesterday he had to start there , Malachy Molloy much improved from Sunday.Thought Karl mcKeegan covered very well at times.McManus done well especially in the first half. Michael Herron was alot better in the second half, cos his man cleared alot of ball in the 1st half. Barney wasnt poor enough tonight, especially in the second half.Any other views??

[aontroim]

Would agree with that Ruairi Og Exile - a lot of the time the wrong option taken in the forwards - Paddy Richmond didnt have one of his better games - dont think he got a score all game (missed first couple of mins) - just wasnt his usual self - won plenty of ball but took shots when a pass would have been better option.

Barney must have been affected by the lights as at least twice he dropped balls he seemed to have caught on the edge of the square - but thanks to the better tackling on the night he got away with this.  I though Shields would have been taken off instead of McFall - he is definitely not strong enough yet though his agility got him out of trouble a number of times.

A win none the less but much improvement needed if we are to trouble Limerick down there.

[theskull1]

Some may say I'm being a bit critical, but I think tonights win was more about Dublin not showing up rather than Antrim raising their game to the standard where Dublin  have been at in previous weeks. Definately they up the effort 100%, but the standard wasn't any better. Fair play to them for getting the win.

[Ruairi Og exile]

Yeah Skull, thought Dublin were pretty poor, their half forward line was non-exsistent, they had very little attacks in the second half. McFall huffed when coming off, I would have had him earlier for Tosh, he had alot of ball.

[NAG]

Any chance of some player ratings from last nights game?

[Keyser_Soze]

First of all just a general comment about the lights:  it looks good from a spectators point of view but I would imagine you could lose the ball quite easily as someone earlier pointed out. 

Onto the game itself.  Not brilliant hurling as others have said but a very gutsey performance and it was great to see this from Antrim.  It was disappointing to see Brian McFalls reaction when he was replaced by Tosh late on, he ran straight off the pitch into the changing rooms and I would imagine he was showered, changed and on his way home before the final whistle blew.  He shouldn't have been that suprised either, apart from his frees he hardly got a look in, his lack of pace was very apparent. 

Still a lot of basic errors from Antrim, exemplified by near the end McKeegan was hitting a line ball and hit it short to Paul Shields.  Shields treid to pick it up, missed it and tried to tap it back to Karl.  He was tackled, and Dublin made their way up the field - very frustrating to watch from a spectators point of view.

Just on Paul Shilds again, he played a full game for Antrim last night and he is going out today to captain his school's soccer team in the Northern Ireland cup.  I'm not a soccer man but fair play!

[Keyser_Soze]

Any chance of some player ratings from last nights game?

The Irish News today carries a report and player ratings.  I just bought the paper, I don't have access to the website

[tayto]

Fair play to antrim, I had a feeling you would give us a reality check.

[theskull1]

Just on Paul Shilds again, he played a full game for Antrim last night and he is going out today to captain his school's soccer team in the Northern Ireland cup.  I'm not a soccer man but fair play!

Well that is abuse, plain and simple . Its not as if he was running the game last night, but he was made to be the free man and cover the ground in front of the full back line and then push forward up into attack time and time again. Sambo and Woody are going to ruin shorty if he or they don't catch themselves on. He is being treated like a commodity. fcuk that makes me angry

[podge]

Heres my tuppence worth:


First and foremost a much improved performance and shows what a bit of effort can do.  They got stuck in well.

Its amazing what a bit of belief and a different attitude/mindset can do;

Overalll a v disappointing game in terms of stanard.  given that the dubs posted some great results this year, their performance was poor.  genuinely disappointed that they are now unlikely to make the play-offs and this is likely to be a big bl;ow  in terms of their c'ship confidence.  It would be good to see a new team challenge some of the bigger guns, even it is the dubs!

The referee was nothing short of awful.  I never slept last night as there was constant blowing of a whistle in my ear!

Ciaran Herron was star man by a country mile.  Very impressive.  Other to impress were Ryan in nets, Mc Manus, Molly, S Delargy.  Karl seemed to be covering for J Campbell a lot with the effect that campbell was anonymous.  Mickey Mc Cambridge was solid.  Barney didn;t have his best day but he was out in front most of the time which is half the battle- he just fumbled one or two and paid the price.  Mc Falls reaction to being called ashore was out of order.  As someone has already said, his lack of pace was apparent and he got away with taking it 3 in the hand which is a basic error- pretty steady on the close in frees.

This isn;t meant to be over critical, merely a point of observation- in the first half we had a fair breeze behind us.  We had 4 very scoreable frees from between the 2 70 yard lines.  Each free was taken by a different person  -Mc Fall, Karl, Mal Molly and Barney McAuley.  Not one scored.  Surely any free taker deserves a second chance to learn from his first mistake/correct his error with the experience of one effort behind him?  partciular when there is a tricky breeze!  This could have been crucial in what was a tight match.  To me, that is a mangement issue and shows a lack of proper direction pre match.


Anyway, fair paly to the lads.  It will be interesting to see how they shape up against Limerick.

[Syd The Sailor]

There was no doubting the effort last night, they got stuck in from the first minute to the last. I didnt think the standard was great last night though, i think that match was as much about how poor Dublin were, dont know if it was the journey up in the middle of the week or the chance to reach the QF'S if they won but they didnt look like a team that has beaten Galway, Limerick and drew with Kilkenny. I couldnt believe Tosh wasnt on sooner, Karl Stewart never hit a ball, Mc Fall did nothing other than hit frees and Shields seems a bit light, every time he was hit he was going backwards, he couldnt break tackles. Mc Falls reaction to getting taken off was typical, he would rather score a pile of frees and get beaten than not score and win. There will have to be an improvement again against Limerick on Sunday.

[Noname]

Mc Falls reaction to getting taken off was typical, he would rather score a pile of frees and get beaten than not score and win.

so very true Syd, he is not the only one though, this i think is a problem with too many of our hurlers, as long as the name gets in the paper doesnt matter if they win or lose.

but thats a matter for another day, good result last night, wasnt at the match (work :-(  ) so cant comment on performance etc.  just hope people still realise there is a lot of work to be done and that this result doesnt do much except give the lads a bit of confidence which is part of the battle.

lets have patience ad hopefully progress with county teams, instead of barracking county managers and players we ALL need to be constantly at the people in charge of this county and of clubs to get the leagues sorted out.

[Orior]

Orior, Liam Watson refused to travel to Tipperary on St Pats day prefering to drown his shamrock instead and has been kicked off the panel.

Then the county are a lot better of without him. I wish that same example could be exercised in clubs too.

[imtommygunn]

Excellent win and one which brings Dublin right back down to earth with a bang.

In a lot of these matches I don't think Antrim even believe they can compete whereas Dublin are a team they have always believed they can beat. Therein is a big difference.

Good to hear McManus improved and Ciarn Herron has been off the boil a bit for a while so would be good to see him back to his former self. Shields is too young and slight for this level but there is a serious dearth of forward talent in this squad so I would say managements hands are kind of forced here. I think we have the makings of a good full and half back line but from there up I'm just not so sure the talent is there.

McFall's attitude has always stank. This is the boy who in a club match, when winning by a cricket score against GNM, hit a penalty from down on his knees. That says it all really.

[Poocher]

Been hovering about for a while here, waiting to make an entrance, so ill start with this one. 

Good win last nite, if not for the performance, then the attitude.  100% commitment and a bit of passion, just what the doctor ordered.

Back line looks solid, but they have go to get rid of Johnny campbell, anonomous again last night.  Karl is a much better centre half and seemed to be clearing up johnnys mess last night.  Ciaran herron and Molloy were solid. (Personally I would have mickey kettle in before molloy).  Full back line was good, looked in trouble early on but came out on top.

Forward line is more worrying.  McFall is too slow, Karl Stewart was missing, Micko was poor enough and Shields is too light.  Paddy richmond done well, added that bit of strength and Neil McManus was good. (Still a lot to learn, likes to run to much, doesn't get rid of it quick enough).

Hate to be this critical but we wouldn't have beaten any of the munster or big leinster teams with that performance last night.  A lot of work needs to be put in on getting the basics right and keeping things simple.  Still too many mistakes and basic errors, which the big teams will capitalise on.