Antrim Football Thread

[culchie11]

I wish the paper would print the full story as to why they 3 amigos have walked as they say!!

i am told cj was dropped for turning up to a league game in an unfit state to play & his 2 fellow club men walked in support of him.

the 3 are all important players but think we need to move on & turn the page!!

look at derry now after the difficult decision brina mciver had to make, they havent looked back!!

the paper would make it out that the 3 of them are victimns in this, it was cj fault for getting the boot & the other 2 made their own decisions.

i agree totally with the decision the management have made, you dont expect to get off with that at any level least of all senior county!!

[imtommygunn]

Yet again we are a laughing stock http://gaaboard.com/board/Smileys/default/cry.gif >

So much for the hope of Fermanagh being in disarray with the Quigleys - now we're just as bad if not worse.

Between this, the casement debacle etc etc it is can be very trying supporting this county

[NAG1]

Yet again we are a laughing stock http://gaaboard.com/board/Smileys/default/cry.gif >

So much for the hope of Fermanagh being in disarray with the Quigleys - now we're just as bad if not worse.

Between this, the casement debacle etc etc it is can be very trying supporting this county

I think the county could actually turn around it financial fortunes, by doing a fly on the wall docusoap - sure where else would you get the drama of the past few weeks.

It would be prime time viewing 

Laughing stock is putting us in too good a light at the moment.

[DennistheMenace]

Got to laugh at all these comparisons with Derry, regarding management, financial investors and players. If you are looking a blue print you should be looking at Cavan, not Derry.

Antrim have some very good players (Niblock, McCann etc) but many who have an inflated ego for whatever reason. Baker should never have went back even though he himself said this was a stronger panel of players than his first stint. Antrim need a system, from their league campaign (from speaking to friends) they don't have an obvious one. With CJ (suprise, suprise) and co dropping off the panel there seems to be an obvious disharmoney. The fact Antrim had a very poor league campaign there will be many questioning Baker already, as pointed out before Dawson got hammered last year. Paddy tweeting about 'Leagues are for playing in' is a bit disrespecful to the supporters not to mention that league form does carry some merit going to Championship.

Antrim can beat Fermanagh no doubt about it, they have the talent but unfortunately you need much more than that to make progress.

[country bumpkin]

Sure we are in no trouble at all......................those who inhabit this site seem to be absolute experts in all everything and we can look forward to an all conquering Antrim team next year.

[nrico2006]

Interested to see how Antrim minors get on tomorrow against Donegal. We have won two out of three, but Donegal beat Tyrone and that is some scalp at this level, as Tyrone looked a bit special when they played us a month ago.

Hopefully we will be competitive and get a result in this final league round match. In Ballymena at 12 midday.

Tyrone put out a weaker team against Donegal to give young players a chance.

True, a lot of the key players for Tyrone minors weren't playing against Donegal.  McKenna should be untouchable this year if you look at how good he was last year in leading them to the All Ireland final.

[manballandall]

Culchie I think you may have got your facts wrong. There is a lot going on within the county team that is a joke to day the least . Your facts surrounding cjs departure are also wrong or so I am told.

[culchie11]

unless i am told different i will believe the side of the story i was told!

too many egos involved i think!!

[bannside]

With six weeks until we play Fermanagh there is still every chance that we can go down there and get a result. No matter which players come and go, we should still have a decent 15 out on duty. If they put in 6 weeks really hard work it will still be 50 v 50 on the day.

I dont buy into this recent shitetalk that Antrim have no footballers. Or Bakers latest soundbite that Antrim football " is where it is", as if we have no players worth talking about. I find that insulting. He took the job thinking we had a better panel than in 09.

Look at it this way. Less than 2 years ago we gave Monaghan their fill of it in Clones. Since then they appointed Malachy O Rourke who I strongly advocated for the Antrim job. He was available at that time. I am not in the least surprised that Monaghan have since won both the Ulster championship and have made the journey from division three to division one in that short time.

The other man I was keen on was Brian Mc Ivor but there was a slight window between the job vacancy and his appointment in Derry, and we didnt get a chance to make that move in time, and when Derry made their move we had no chance. Look at them now. From disarray under John Brennan, top players not making themselves available and reports of disharmony - to a division one final in the blink of an eye.

Two great operators, who I have absolutely no doubt would have had Antrim Football in great shape by now. Anyone who thinks we have no players in Antrim is badly mistaken, and this fallacy is being used as a smokescreen for some terrible performances. We beat Cavan in last years league and they are now 16 places higher than us in league rankings.

In the right hands can we do a Cavan, a Derry or a Monaghan. Of course we can.

[whiskeysteve]

In the right hands can we do a Cavan, a Derry or a Monaghan. Of course we can.

Agree with you on the potential of the current crop of players up to this point. Even if you get an elite management in the starting point is so mucher lower than the above examples. McIver took Derry from a low division 2 status to div 1 final. O'Rourke took Monaghan from a strong division 3 team to Ulster title/div 2 champs. Antrim have just finished 3rd last in division 4 - surely there is no chance of emulating the above achievements any time soon?

Right enough Cavan were at a very low ebb a few years back but they have a conveyor belt of U21s. Even Derry are currently backboned by players who won AI minor in 2002 and were AI minor runners up in 2007, as well as seniors who won the Div 1 final in 2008 and were finalists in 2009.

[glens abu]

Heard Paddy wasnt happy with CJs attitude  Kettle and pot come to mind.Another mess before championship.

[bannside]

Im sure the Irish News are all over CJ at the minute for some sensational headlines for tomorrow.

Whiskeysteve I would gladly settle for a year or two of continued mediocrity IF we were using our resources to build solid platforms at minor and under 21 level. Your 100% right. Cavan have showed what can be done from the bottom up.

Lets say our senior football  preparations cost £900 per week in reimbursements/mileage expenses and other titbits.

Id be in favour of letting a good loyal Antrim insider toil away with the seniors for a few years, many who in the past have done it for practically nothing. And if worst case scenario, that meant division four football I could live with that..... IF..... we were making tangible progress at minor and under 21 level.

The £900 I would make available to the minor and u-21 management teams for reasonable expenses - similar to taking a club team. I would build 3 top men into each programme, constituting strength and conditioning and all the skills development etc.

I would make it attractive to be part of this management period. The minor management after two or three years would progress with their players to under 21, and the under 21 management move up to seniors. So their would always be a huge incentive, both financially and from a management opportunity to progress.

And crucial to this is a joined up plan, and a vision/blueprint that can be sold to 20-30 businessmen to get behind - which they would do if they saw an achievable vision and shared that.

Put it this way. After what I saw Donegal minors doing to our lads on saturday, we really need a three or four year programme to develop our players just to be competitive. This involves a lt of work, and resources.

With this in mind, would anyone agree that whatever money we do have for football should be used wisely building a stronger platform from the bottom up?

Just one of several ideas that might be worth discussing.

[shawshank]

I am assuming that their is no money for the county teams. How can a county the size of Antrim with the population its has, and half its clubs in Belfast (the largest city in the north by far) not generate money for the county teams. Am I not getting it, or is incompetence with regards to generating incoming and sponsorship. Can someone explain it to me please

[shawshank]

Heard Paddy wasnt happy with CJs attitude  Kettle and pot come to mind.Another mess before championship.

Delighted that you have him, rather than us, look at what has happened since Mc Ivor ignored him.

[bannside]

Shawshank Id call it gross incompetence.

We have nothing. No plan vision blueprint or formula. No football board, no criteria for who should make appointments, no knowledge of what it takes, no check or balances, no tough questioning by club delegates. No equity of funding compared to hurling.

Nothing at all.

What we do have is what I call the "loadaballs" strategy.

Get  a manager and give him a bag with some footballs. After that your on your own.

What businessman in their right mind would support that?