Antrim Football Thread

[Maximus Marillius]

I was talking to John about these problems in the not to distant past and he assured me that he had every ambition to fix these problems, but that it was going to take time to break down the very top heavy committee way things are currently conducted in Antrim. He said it would take at least another year to remodel the county board structure. maybe ye want to much that cant be delivered that quickly

[SlimShady]

wanting the Championship Final to be played at a reasonable time of year is too much? Antrim were out of the Championship by the July holidays and we finished the Championship near Halloween!

[Ethan Edwards]

the fixtures problem is not soley down to Dr John, the fecking clubs wont play the matches when they are fixed, they make up of sorts of excuses, I am mainly refering to league matches, the clubs cant always blame the board they must take a look at themselves and stop gerning

[johnjoe]

Point taken Slim. Liam O Kane has paid the price for the fixtures c**k-up. He is a big loss to the county though. Take a good lok at the county strategic plan, and then tell me we can do without a man like Liam O Kane!

Seriously, make it a priority to get a copy of this document. Liam O kane courted the opinions of every segment of GAA activity in the county, ran seminars, invited written submissions from every club, individual ,or group. His final version not only diagnoses our problems,(which every bar room expert already knows) but has implemented an action plan to remedy. Yes, a timescale, the finance involved, and who is taking actual responsibility fot its deliverance. Its the best road map of its kind in the country, and after a year of burning the midnight oil, and coming up with such a brilliant piece of work, he gets shafted over the one job he didnt want to touch with a bargepole.

The floodlights in Casement were supposed to be on, except for unforeseen planning objections, so a lot of windows were lost to read up the log jam etc. And  of course the one match that needed a result ended up with the draw that cocked things up even further.

Fixtures were a total mess tho, no one can dispute that. But surely JMS has contributed more in a year than his predecessor did in ten! I`d be well impressed with his first year.

[culchy1]

heard that frankie delargy is to coach glenravel this year with barney reid as manager!

good luck to them both, they'll need it.

also heard that a fella mcgarry from loughiel is for playing football for glenravel this year, he was fullback all year,then dropped for the championship final and has
had a falling out with loughiel, just what i heard maybe speculation.

[Ethan Edwards]

Wish Frankie all the best with Glenravel, as you sy Clunchie it'll be a tough job, I would have thought that Frankie would have wanted to be manager aswell, but there you go

[aontroim]

Any major news on inter-club transfers yet - transfer window opened since start of Jan - closes end of Feb.

Havent heard anything concrete yet but there was talk of a lot of McDermotts players going to St. Pauls and of course the Portglenone saga talked about before Christmas.

Anything definite yet?

[saffronman]

I hear from word up the county that Paddy Logan will be playing for All Saints Ballymena this season, can anyone confirm?

[milltown row]

no McDees men going anywhere, from what i heard Matt Bradley will be taking them next year

[hightower]

i hear he's for casements but now delargy is supposed to be glenravel bound,delargy could now be in for him 'saffronman'

[johnjoe]

Was talking to a die hard Antrim football supporter last night, who hasnt missed a game fot years. He had been "reasonably" impressed with the displays against Down and Donegal, but reckoned that last Sundays game against UUJ was by far the worst Antrim performance he has ever seen. Thats some statement, because there have been a fair few stinkers in the length of time this person has been following our senior footballers.

Not wanting to dampen any of this new found enthusiasm for the new management team, and I know a lot of players were missing/playing for uni`s etc, but this guy is a good judge, and reckons we are rank outsiders on Sunday against Mick O Dwyers Wicklow who have been re-vitalised. Hope I`m wrong, cause this was one of the few fixtures last year where we got league points, albeit at Casement.

Hope our little bubble will last longer than the first couple of league games!

[Ethan Edwards]

Its Official Frank Delargy is new coach at Glenravel but he is not involved in team selection,

[johnjoe]

I know Frankie right and well, and if he takes on Glenravel, he will put his everything into it.

Most teams have a few players who are county class, and tragically Glenravel lost one of theirs as we all know. Who are their main players outside of O Loan, if he plays, Windows, and an aging Martin Mulholland? Would they be expected to come straight up from div 2?

[NICSSA]

Johnjoe,

Even before what happened to Shaun Paul we weren't expecting to have an easy year as we don't have the players coming through so it could be a couple of years before we're challenging for promotion.
It won't be easy with local derbies against Ballymena and Rasharkin with a few akward trips to belfast, following Shaun Pauls death it will be interesting to see how we react this year

[shady character]

I know Frankie right and well, and if he takes on Glenravel, he will put his everything into it.

I love it! Just cheered me up on a Friday John Joe! You are a legend!