Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

Lol. I've had some great conversations with Derry players in Pats or The Fiddlers, when  Big Fergal Doherty had it the place was full of them. Ironically I did meet Brian McGilligan there too one night, a few years back, he was meeting up with an oul school mate from St Pats Maghera. Big gentleman.

[paddyjohn]

Portglenone always have a trick up their sleeve. I heard they were feeding an ex Derry man in the Fiddlers Rest one evening and giving an ex Tyrone man drink in the Duck!

thats why i saw Brian McGilligan and Plunkett donaghy getting outta bannsides car !!

Brolly and Fay Devlin I heard!

[Hoof Hearted]

Portglenone always have a trick up their sleeve. I heard they were feeding an ex Derry man in the Fiddlers Rest one evening and giving an ex Tyrone man drink in the Duck!

thats why i saw Brian McGilligan and Plunkett donaghy getting outta bannsides car !!

Brolly and Fay Devlin I heard!

poor Fay, he wouldnt get much of a word in with those 2 !!

[EOC1923]

Reading this thread, what a sorry county we are part of. F#cking hell what other county would that Dunloy thing happen, or the move to 16 teams last season, or the late move to have Division 1 play offs instead of the normal, Or the late move to redraw the championship semi pairings. What a shambles we are, unbelievable! Any wonder we are where we are

[Hectic]

There are no playoffs between Div 1 or  2 either as per said regulations!
Two teams down,  two teams up.
Ballymena are an outlier that just confuse the situation as they did play IFC to accommodate Dunloy in SFC- remember as well that they were one of the proposers of this outcome !

Correct, no more playoffs as per regulations.

But regulations don't say Dunloy are losing their place in top 16.

They also don't say who will take Dunloy's place should they exit the top 16 as some have suggested.

Did Ballymena play Intermediate to accommodate Dunloy or because they fancied a flat track run at Intermediate and a go at Ulster?

Logic surely would have said that when expanding to 16 for Senior Championship it would have been Ballymena promoted to Senior Championship as runners up last year.  Not Aldergrove, who didn't even make the Intermediate Championship semi finals if I remember correctly.

Remember also both Aldergrove and Ballymena only played Division one via round the table meetings when all games finished last year as opposed to winning promotion as set out at the start of the season.

But anyhow, no playoffs in regulations but also an absence of what to do should Dunloy exit the top 16 so might need heads round the table to make more decisions on final place in top 16 should that rumour be correct.

Simple outcome is regulations are followed as written, Dunloy remain in senior 16, which is this years Senior Championship participants minus Moneyglass and St Endas - St Paul's and Intermediate winners taking their place.  And then Division one mirroring Senior Championship.

But be good to know - even in advance of Intermediate final so that everyone knows what is on the line - not that it should affect two teams going out to try and win a championship of course.
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Just catching up and I see Dunloy appearing in Division 1 appears to be upsetting some.

Well take that back to the task force that drew up the regulations for leagues and championships ahead of last season.

I poured over them last autumn and the conclusion was that Dunloy would be top 16 as per regulations. Unless they opted out as some were suggesting at the time - seems baseless at this point.

Ballymena winning Intermediate was useful for said task force as otherwise they could have had a situation that was not accounted for when they penned their regulations.

But we are now pretty much as regulations written.

*'no playoffs' in original post refers to discussion around a 3rd set of playoffs last year.  League and championship relegation playoffs were accounted for in task force paper/regulations.

[Take the Mark]

How can it be taken back to this 'task force'? They are gone as far as I know, they came to sort their own clubs out with little consideration for any others, and fecked off.

They aren't the first committee to do that though - some members of the county board pulled manys a move like that down the years.

[Níl a fhios agam]

Yea to back up the rumors, i have caught wind myself Casements have strengthened both their line and their squad with inter county recruitment. So i say they are in a healthy position to kick on this year. With the new rules i think we could be in for a shock in 2025

[Saffsof82]

according to the BBC news this morning Corrigan has been confirmed at the venue for the Armagh game.

[Hectic]

How can it be taken back to this 'task force'? They are gone as far as I know, they came to sort their own clubs out with little consideration for any others, and fecked off.

They aren't the first committee to do that though - some members of the county board pulled manys a move like that down the years.

Yeah sorry I didn't mean literally but rather their regulations, as written, is what sees Dunloy top 16.  And nothing to do with any further horse trading.

What clubs do you think benefited most from what the task force came up with then?

Does Divison 1 work for Dunloy if they are going to play their league team?

Did Aldergrove and Ballymena getting a free promotion help them?

Are St Paul's ready for senior this year if one assumes they possibly would not have been promoted if Ballymena, Aldergrove and whoever was supposed to be relegated ahead of last season had been in Division 2 and Intermediate Championship.

Is our county team benefiting from more players making themselves available as less jeopardy at club level?

Does it all need more time?

[Take the Mark]

A youthful St Pauls team are probably better equipped for a real division 1 than several of those teams who are currently in this 16 team compost heap.

Its 8 teams too heavy and we have teams there who wouldn't beat top half intermediate teams in any other county in ulster.

The IFC this year has become the JFC, the JFC in Antrim is now Junior B. Also - the SFC needs to scrap the groups, a tiresome start to the competition that has become.

Does it all need time? Take all the time you want. If clubs aren't working to get better from the roots there is little point. I'm not sure very many have changed recently.

[inabsentia]

A youthful St Pauls team are probably better equipped for a real division 1 than several of those teams who are currently in this 16 team compost heap.

Its 8 teams too heavy and we have teams there who wouldn't beat top half intermediate teams in any other county in ulster.

The IFC this year has become the JFC, the JFC in Antrim is now Junior B. Also - the SFC needs to scrap the groups, a tiresome start to the competition that has become.

Does it all need time? Take all the time you want. If clubs aren't working to get better from the roots there is little point. I'm not sure very many have changed recently.

There's 34 clubs across 3 divisions at present.

I'd say a 11 teams in div 1/2 and 12 in div 3 it'll probably line up better with teams levels.

So div 1 (based on this year) would be:

Cargin, Brigids, Ballymena, Randalstown, St Galls, Creggan, PG1, Rossa, Aghagallon, Ahoghill, LD

Div 2:

Ednas, Johnnies, Glenravel, Aldergrove, Moneyglass, St Pauls, St Teresas, Glenavy, Lisburn, Davitts, Dunloy

Div 3:

Sarsfields, Rasharkin, Gort, Ardoyne, Comgalls, Laochra Lao, Na Piarsaigh, O'Ds, Aggies, Malachys, Eire Og, WolfeTones

Give it a year or two to settle in, as there's definitely teams there that looked at the league and thought, "All I have to do is win a playoff" and didn't bother like Johnnies

[BigGreenField]

A youthful St Pauls team are probably better equipped for a real division 1 than several of those teams who are currently in this 16 team compost heap.

Its 8 teams too heavy and we have teams there who wouldn't beat top half intermediate teams in any other county in ulster.

The IFC this year has become the JFC, the JFC in Antrim is now Junior B. Also - the SFC needs to scrap the groups, a tiresome start to the competition that has become.

Does it all need time? Take all the time you want. If clubs aren't working to get better from the roots there is little point. I'm not sure very many have changed recently.

There's 34 clubs across 3 divisions at present.

I'd say a 11 teams in div 1/2 and 12 in div 3 it'll probably line up better with teams levels.

So div 1 (based on this year) would be:

Cargin, Brigids, Ballymena, Randalstown, St Galls, Creggan, PG1, Rossa, Aghagallon, Ahoghill, LD

Div 2:

Ednas, Johnnies, Glenravel, Aldergrove, Moneyglass, St Pauls, St Teresas, Glenavy, Lisburn, Davitts, Dunloy

Div 3:

Sarsfields, Rasharkin, Gort, Ardoyne, Comgalls, Laochra Lao, Na Piarsaigh, O'Ds, Aggies, Malachys, Eire Og, WolfeTones

Give it a year or two to settle in, as there's definitely teams there that looked at the league and thought, "All I have to do is win a playoff" and didn't bother like Johnnies

Some sense in that , while an 8 team Div 1 is the way to go no chance of getting clubs to do so.

I would go further and allow reserve sides in and have 4 divisions , as has been shared by many here a senior to junior B structure is needed (bad would give clubs at the bottom a chance of some silver)

Still mad that as a county we are happy for reserves to work away in hurling leagues (and see the benefit of that) but not have the same in football.

[Lár na páirce 1]

Yea to back up the rumors, i have caught wind myself Casements have strengthened both their line and their squad with inter county recruitment. So i say they are in a healthy position to kick on this year. With the new rules i think we could be in for a shock in 2025

Cargin may have added to the backroom team also but it's the hype train once again with the portglenone boys as usual!!

[inabsentia]

A youthful St Pauls team are probably better equipped for a real division 1 than several of those teams who are currently in this 16 team compost heap.

Its 8 teams too heavy and we have teams there who wouldn't beat top half intermediate teams in any other county in ulster.

The IFC this year has become the JFC, the JFC in Antrim is now Junior B. Also - the SFC needs to scrap the groups, a tiresome start to the competition that has become.

Does it all need time? Take all the time you want. If clubs aren't working to get better from the roots there is little point. I'm not sure very many have changed recently.

There's 34 clubs across 3 divisions at present.

I'd say a 11 teams in div 1/2 and 12 in div 3 it'll probably line up better with teams levels.

So div 1 (based on this year) would be:

Cargin, Brigids, Ballymena, Randalstown, St Galls, Creggan, PG1, Rossa, Aghagallon, Ahoghill, LD

Div 2:

Ednas, Johnnies, Glenravel, Aldergrove, Moneyglass, St Pauls, St Teresas, Glenavy, Lisburn, Davitts, Dunloy

Div 3:

Sarsfields, Rasharkin, Gort, Ardoyne, Comgalls, Laochra Lao, Na Piarsaigh, O'Ds, Aggies, Malachys, Eire Og, WolfeTones

Give it a year or two to settle in, as there's definitely teams there that looked at the league and thought, "All I have to do is win a playoff" and didn't bother like Johnnies

Some sense in that , while an 8 team Div 1 is the way to go no chance of getting clubs to do so.

I would go further and allow reserve sides in and have 4 divisions , as has been shared by many here a senior to junior B structure is needed (bad would give clubs at the bottom a chance of some silver)

Still mad that as a county we are happy for reserves to work away in hurling leagues (and see the benefit of that) but not have the same in football.

I think there would be too much yoyo-ing with an 8 team div 1, there'd be no chance for teams to get up and stay up.

But I agree integrating reserve sides into the pyramid would allow for more competition across the board. Problem will be where do you place them to start?

Cargins reserves would competitive in div 2 at present

[statto]

See that Antrim are 1/500 with the bookies at the weekend.  Paddy Power mustn't read this thread! Leitrim 50/1 do we know why Leitrim have been so poor to date?  Must be the shortest odds ever for a league game.