Antrim Football Thread

[EOC1923]

The Limerick team of 2020 were flying top of Div 4 with four wins out if four. Just saying. But there you go again, totally trying to rubbish the work Lenny did. Beating them by 14 was a huge performance.

Lennys league tenure - all in Division 4 - 55% win rate
McGinleys league games - Inc one season in Div 3 - 73% win rate

[bannside]

That was an impressive statistic, not debating that for a second. It's the 0% of wins in the last four games that brought up this discussion.

Or the average of 7 points loss per game across those 4 games if you want to dive into the detail.

[Belfast GAA man]

does anyone no why mcginley quit? it is really very good info for the next manger to know and the county board. after 2 years in charge he can privde good insights
take antrim from 4 to 3 is success - too much negativity here

[ck]

I have to add my twopence here but BS is bang on the money on his analysis IMO. He hasn't uttered a single inaccurate word regarding the senior footballers and management. After some promise the wheels came off. Players leaving the squad rang alarm bells for me. Never a good sign.

[EOC1923]

I have to add my twopence here but BS is bang on the money on his analysis IMO. He hasn't uttered a single inaccurate word regarding the senior footballers and management. After some promise the wheels came off. Players leaving the squad rang alarm bells for me. Never a good sign.

Why not aim this at the players who left rather than the management. Like the full back dropping you in it to go to America the week of a championship game, your goalie throwing the head up as the back up goalie got some game time at the end of the league. Other established players not making themselves available. These are player commitment issues not management issues CK. Ended poorly for Antrims management and another year wasn't going to work out, I agree with that.

[bannside]

EOC coming out now to agree that another year wasn't going to work out for EMG - there was me going thinking I was in a minority on this... That's good, it's great when you hear your own words finally coming back.

Re player walk out. There had to be a reason why so many took this route. Did anyone think of asking the players themselves?

Paddy Gallagher didn't walk out. He'd have walked through a brick wall to be on that squad, a definite starter for the three or four years beforehand, still only 29 at the time, and wasn't given the respect of even a trial. That set a bad tone for me from week one.

[country bumpkin]

I have to add my twopence here but BS is bang on the money on his analysis IMO. He hasn't uttered a single inaccurate word regarding the senior footballers and management. After some promise the wheels came off. Players leaving the squad rang alarm bells for me. Never a good sign.

Why not aim this at the players who left rather than the management. Like the full back dropping you in it to go to America the week of a championship game, your goalie throwing the head up as the back up goalie got some game time at the end of the league. Other established players not making themselves available. These are player commitment issues not management issues CK. Ended poorly for Antrims management and another year wasn't going to work out, I agree with that.

Jeez PG1 had three players invited to join the Antrim squat at the outset of Enda's tenure....only one made himself available...!

BS, told this board in a matter of words that they, those who did not answer the call, that they wished to concentrate on club.

[EOC1923]

EOC coming out now to agree that another year wasn't going to work out for EMG - there was me going thinking I was in a minority on this... That's good, it's great when you hear your own words finally coming back.

Re player walk out. There had to be a reason why so many took this route. Did anyone think of asking the players themselves?

Paddy Gallagher didn't walk out. He'd have walked through a brick wall to be on that squad, a definite starter for the three or four years beforehand, still only 29 at the time, and wasn't given the respect of even a trial. That set a bad tone for me from week one.

Wasn't going to work because of the lack of commitment from some players, no other reason.
You need to let it go BS, another average enough player into the starting lineup wouldn't of helped I don't think, but I'm sure the new man will give him a chance if he wants it.

[imtommygunn]

EOC coming out now to agree that another year wasn't going to work out for EMG - there was me going thinking I was in a minority on this... That's good, it's great when you hear your own words finally coming back.

Re player walk out. There had to be a reason why so many took this route. Did anyone think of asking the players themselves?

Paddy Gallagher didn't walk out. He'd have walked through a brick wall to be on that squad, a definite starter for the three or four years beforehand, still only 29 at the time, and wasn't given the respect of even a trial. That set a bad tone for me from week one.

That makes it sound like you had your mind made up before things had even started.

[bannside]

Once again you go disrespecting the previous manager who did rate him. And I can assure you seeing that it was before you started going regularly, that PG rarely let us down. But go ahead and tell us that in your opinion he is average.

He may or may not have started all the time, but was huge on leadership and was first to arrive at training every night. A model panellist and very popular amongst the squad. Gassed without even a trial or a thank you after 10 years of sterling service. Simply shocking.

[bannside]

No definitely not ITG. Was hoping it would work, but that was a bad start you have to admit.

[imtommygunn]

Should he not have been coming in with a clean slate and making his own decisions ?  The luck and this are two things that I don't see as being particularly objective tbh. I mean first to arrive at training every night - really? I used to be first at training near every night - still was no good at football!!

[bannside]

Football can be harsh, tough decisions made and managers cannot please everyone. No one denies that ITG but there's a way of doing it. PG got badly treated, there's no nice way of dressing that up.

Most of the players who toiled with him over the years for the county will attest to that. It wasn't new managements finest moment, let's put it that way.

[Flanker]

The Management had virtually everyone of the top 40 odd players in Antrim available to them. There was virtually no one who made themselves unavailable from the outset. Some weren't selected, some after year 1 retired, some didn't make themselves available, some were dropped & some dropped out throughout the year. Part of management is to mould what you have into a cohesive unit greater than the sum of the parts. Get buy into your philosophy and systems of play. Improve and develop players. Out of the 40 odd we ended up with around 20 plus 5 or 6 under 20's for the final game.

How did we end up with around 20 out of the 40/45 that were originally available or drafted in @ the start of year 2.
Can anyone name 3 or 4 players who you would say developed a reasonable amount over the 2 years?
Can anyone identify an area of our play that showed marked improvement?
From what I could see we had most of our better players available at the begining (not always the case for Antrim managers) got fitter and beat the teams around us and a few above. There isn't a huge difference between the top half of division 4 and the bottom half of Div 3. We played most of the weaker Div 3 teams at the start of the league and picked up points. When we hit the slightly stronger teams it really exposed our setup. We basically didn't have one and didn't know how to deal with teams who were well setup.
Credit for getting out of Div 4 and staying in Div 3. However there was no sign of the building blocks and basics being put in place to move on.
At the end we ended up with half a squad who looked like they were rounded up on the morning of the game

[EOC1923]

Football can be harsh, tough decisions made and managers cannot please everyone. No one denies that ITG but there's a way of doing it. PG got badly treated, there's no nice way of dressing that up.

Most of the players who toiled with him over the years for the county will attest to that. It wasn't new managements finest moment, let's put it that way.

What did you want them to do, have a wee going away party for him? Wise up BS, you are actually doing PG a disservice yourself substituting him in for what your real gripe is, shame on you!