Antrim Football Thread

[bannside]

RM...good wee read for ya in todays Irish News. Write up about Cathal Mc Shane from lower division Leckpatrick wins an All Star. Shows what can be done if you've got the ability and the right attitude....no matter where a player is from!

[Belfast GAA man]

I passed casement an hour ago and there was a truck parked outside it . It must be lost 

[Belfast GAA man]

Fitzpatrick's defection to ground football is a big blow to Antrim and St. John's. St. John maybe on a downhill path since 2017 final

[BigBallWeeBall]

I passed casement an hour ago and there was a truck parked outside it . It must be lost 

Must've run out of red diesel. Can anyone shed any light on the Casement debacle

[Jeepers Creepers]

I passed casement an hour ago and there was a truck parked outside it . It must be lost 

Must've run out of red diesel. Can anyone shed any light on the Casement debacle

The grass is now four foot long. An inch up on last year. Toilets still the same.

[Rodger Mona]

RM...good wee read for ya in todays Irish News. Write up about Cathal Mc Shane from lower division Leckpatrick wins an All Star. Shows what can be done if you've got the ability and the right attitude....no matter where a player is from!

BS, read it. Again i dont COMPLETELY disagree with what you have said. i do however want to scrutinise your logic and clarify my view.  Im basically saying, theres no coincidence that weaker counties who tend to do well (compete consistently) have a nucleus of players within their squads who have been successful at club level. Antrims squad should have similarities to armagh, laois, down, fermanagh etc..  on the make up of their squads with a heavy influx of players from winning clubs. Supplemented by the top players from other clubs.

Examples; Squad should have predominantly Cargin, LD, & perhaps few Galls players populating 50% of match day squads in an ideal world. Supplemented by the best of the rest. If everyone made themselves available theres no questioning that would be the case. Armagh have that with the cross/ Maghery contingency, Fermanagh with the Derrygonnelly and Roslea lads (2x finalists), Laois with Portlaois lads etc.. Them teams i would say are at a level antrim should be at and i would say at the moment, they would beat antrim 9 times out of 10

You however are trying to compare antrim to tyrone and other counties which have better structures, better coaching across the Schools and a better environment all round for Football in their counties. Their intermediate/ junior leagues play at a higher level than ours. Their colleges do better than ours, their development squads are consistently better than ours, their facilities are better than ours. Their clubs do better than ours in provincial games....Need i go on??

Thats why they can pull players with the calibre of mcshane, and the likes of dooher, o'neill and players from div 3. Antrims best lower league players on the panel at the moment are C.Duffin, E.Fyffe, P.McCormick or P.gallagher. I dare somebody to name me a player from the lower divisions that would start that antrim team week in week out or would stand out at senior club cship.

Looking at a match programme from a few years back antrim had 4/5 Ballymena men on the panel, 3 glenavy, 3 pg1, 2 st.endas, 2 aldegrove, 3 creggan, 4 st.johns under Geroid and co.
Any coincidence they under performed that year. Same could happen this year!

Alot of discussion recently regarding that 09 team. Best team in recent history?? What was the make up of that squad, Galls players who won all round them, Cargin players who won it 2 years prior.... supplemented by the best of the rest. UUJ won sigerson the year before with antrim players amongst the squad.

Wining breeds winning

You want to know why Antrim are the laughing stalk of ulster, look at the structures we have, coaching in schools and look what at the amount of players who have won absolutely nothing whether at club, county, schools or university level which makes up our county senior panel.

Too many optimists in this board and in our county and not enough realists who can see a glass half empty but know how to get it filled! 

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

i think you only have to look at schools like Cross and Passion where they have it nailed on big time. Thier hurling and camogie is competing with the best and their structures and coaching is fantastic. St Louis in Ballymena are coming up behind them now as their structures in all 3 codes is taking good shape.

our own primary school in Dunloy is fantastic and i cant emphasis that enough. our kids are playing non stop, taken to tournaments all the time and getting fantastic coaching from within the school and outside of it with the likes of woody playing a big role. The kids love him and what he brings to each session.

that along with the fact they use our academy for free and whenever they need it plays a massively important role within our own community.

There is good work being done at the moment in the county with the help of Gaelfast and the inner structures of the schools themselves but it will take time to grow. Its only a start of work that has to be done but there is a positive start there. were still a long way off but once the seed is sown it will grow.

[imtommygunn]

How many Cross players are about the Armagh squad RM? There are also not very many Kilcoo players on the Down squad either.

Derrygonnelly maybe have a few in Fermanagh yes but I don't think you are right on Armagh and Down at least.

How do you know any of those guys would not make an impact at senior c'ship?? You don't!!

[Rodger Mona]

TG, when Burren won the down cship they had 6 on it. A number of kilcoo men havnt committed for a number of reasons lately. Location being one of them, and the years they got kilcoo men out they done well.  the two Johnstons, Lavery, Devlin, Brannigans and O'Hanlon. As for Cross they have 6 in the armagh panel if Clarke declares himself available.

Read the link below and youll find Tally is seeking more Kilcoo involvement.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/tally-keen-to-tempt-kilcoo-players-back-into-thick-of-it-for-down-38764418.html


And as for "How do you know any of those guys would not make an impact at senior c'ship?? You don't!!.... Well all i can say is iv watched Intermediate and Junior C'Ship games and alot of  them didnt stand out for me at that level. Infact i would say the likes of Seamus McGarry, Caolan Molloy, Dermot McErlaine stood out more in the Intermediate Cship  than the county guys did.

[johnnycool]

TG, when Burren won the down cship they had 6 on it. A number of kilcoo men havnt committed for a number of reasons lately. Location being one of them, and the years they got kilcoo men out they done well.  the two Johnstons, Lavery, Devlin, Brannigans and O'Hanlon. As for Cross they have 6 in the armagh panel if Clarke declares himself available.

Read the link below and youll find Tally is seeking more Kilcoo involvement.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/tally-keen-to-tempt-kilcoo-players-back-into-thick-of-it-for-down-38764418.html


And as for "How do you know any of those guys would not make an impact at senior c'ship?? You don't!!.... Well all i can say is iv watched Intermediate and Junior C'Ship games and alot of  them didnt stand out for me at that level. Infact i would say the likes of Seamus McGarry, Caolan Molloy, Dermot McErlaine stood out more in the Intermediate Cship  than the county guys did.

What's the location of Kilcoo got to do with their county panel participation?

[imtommygunn]

TG, when Burren won the down cship they had 6 on it. A number of kilcoo men havnt committed for a number of reasons lately. Location being one of them, and the years they got kilcoo men out they done well.  the two Johnstons, Lavery, Devlin, Brannigans and O'Hanlon. As for Cross they have 6 in the armagh panel if Clarke declares himself available.

Read the link below and youll find Tally is seeking more Kilcoo involvement.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/tally-keen-to-tempt-kilcoo-players-back-into-thick-of-it-for-down-38764418.html


And as for "How do you know any of those guys would not make an impact at senior c'ship?? You don't!!.... Well all i can say is iv watched Intermediate and Junior C'Ship games and alot of  them didnt stand out for me at that level. Infact i would say the likes of Seamus McGarry, Caolan Molloy, Dermot McErlaine stood out more in the Intermediate Cship  than the county guys did.

There is a lot of stuff in your last few points which I think is nonsense to be honest. I think you just don't rate the guys they're picked. That's fair enough but just say it. I doubt you have seen enough of them to say mind you. Molloy and a few other Dunloy ones could do a job but you'd rarely get a dunloy footballer for the county with hurling commitments. I rarely remember one.

Also they're division 2 players not division 3 and not one of the ones you mentioned played junior.

I'm not from moneyglass but anything I read about their c'ship games and Duffin was doing a lot of damage. Fyffe from Glenravel likewise.

[bannside]

If we had a St Galls or Cargin team like we did a decade ago I would totally agree that players from those clubs should form the basis of the county squad. That's because a Cargin/ St Galls select back then would beat a county select, they both had so many classy players.

Thats no longer the case. Cargin are holding on to their top team status atm but there are half a dozen teams not too far away and all those clubs have two or three players capable of being on a county panel.

You must not go to many county matches RM, because Peter Healy was probably the best player we had in 2018 and last year Paddy Mc Cormack was outstanding. So too was Patrick Gallagher who wasnt far away from that accolade either.  All "lower" division clubs!

This year in particular Lenny has taken a different approach. He had every championship game covered senior intermediate and junior. He went out if his way (as is his duty) to attract the best players in....no matter what club they played for.  He widened the net and went for a larger panel. He chased up a few of the outstanding players of this years championship....Dermot Mc Aleese,  Marc Jordan etc. He added a bit of experience and class in Tomas and Paddy Cunningham who are back. He chased up Conor Small who was missing last year and introduced a few young players Eamon Fyfe and Adam Loughran.

There are still players missing and everyone has their own opinion on who those players are. But you could find that the reason they are not there is not Lennys fault. Not all approaches are taken up!

What we do have now is a collection that involves the end result of a long period of attracting the best players to come in board. Mark Sweeney looks like being a big miss, and obviously Matt Fitz too. Paddy Mc Cormack is on work placement in Galway so he's out too for the year. But there is a good panel there to work with atm and they are working away. And no doubt there are half a dozen players on a reserve list if they are needed.

Every county misses out on players that we would love to have. Billy Joe Burns (St Pauls) is playing soccer Sean O Neill (Davitts)  is too. Keelan Molloy (Dunloy) arguably the best under 21 footballer in the county is hurling. Domnall Nugent is hurling. Some of these are lower division clubs too, but have the talent to play inter county football if circumstances permitted.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

TG, when Burren won the down cship they had 6 on it. A number of kilcoo men havnt committed for a number of reasons lately. Location being one of them, and the years they got kilcoo men out they done well.  the two Johnstons, Lavery, Devlin, Brannigans and O'Hanlon. As for Cross they have 6 in the armagh panel if Clarke declares himself available.

Read the link below and youll find Tally is seeking more Kilcoo involvement.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/gaa/tally-keen-to-tempt-kilcoo-players-back-into-thick-of-it-for-down-38764418.html


And as for "How do you know any of those guys would not make an impact at senior c'ship?? You don't!!.... Well all i can say is iv watched Intermediate and Junior C'Ship games and alot of  them didnt stand out for me at that level. Infact i would say the likes of Seamus McGarry, Caolan Molloy, Dermot McErlaine stood out more in the Intermediate Cship  than the county guys did.

There is a lot of stuff in your last few points which I think is nonsense to be honest. I think you just don't rate the guys they're picked. That's fair enough but just say it. I doubt you have seen enough of them to say mind you. Molloy and a few other Dunloy ones could do a job but you'd rarely get a dunloy footballer for the county with hurling commitments. I rarely remember one.

Also they're division 2 players not division 3 and not one of the ones you mentioned played junior.

I'm not from moneyglass but anything I read about their c'ship games and Duffin was doing a lot of damage. Fyffe from Glenravel likewise.

i seen Moneyglass 3 times this year and they have some fantastic players in their squad. good enough to play at a higher level if they were given the chance.

we have plenty of lads in the same boat but 90% of our football team are also hurling players as well. balancing that dual player status at club level is hard enough without also county commitments.

[bannside]

Definitely DR and those players are known to football management. I know you've got your finger on the pulse there and you are aware of a couple of approaches that were not taken up for the reason you speak of. It's time Dunloy threw up another Speedy Mc Allister who put football first lol. Frank Fitz senior told me once that when he managed Antrim in the eighties he wrote Speedys name at 11 and built a team around him!

[Rodger Mona]

ITG, we are getting side tracked here. My comments were based on Bannsides post which he directed my way. You are coming at me with assumptions so please stick to what im saying and take it literally instead of interpreting my words to suit your agenda. I do rate an awful lot of the current antrim players, WITHIN the antrim club scene. Though because the other clubs outside of LD, Galls and Cargin havnt won a thing i fear for the over all mindset within the panel v other counties. Which is why i keep talking about the winning mentality, alot of our boys dont know how to win when it comes to the crunch

Moneyglass players you talk about, id like you to name the ones who stood out when it mattered. in the final against aldegrove the only men i seen that stood up was Dermot McEerlaine and their CHB. Both of which arent county players. Fyfe wasnt good v Moneyglass in the semi's but i wont dwell on him as he is very young

BS when you say them guys had a good year. What is a good year in your interpretation? Because from Lenny has came in, Antrim havent had a good year... so all this nonsense about his approach, trying things with men throughout all clubs, in all divisions in antrim is all mumbo jumbo. Now what looks like to be his last year, what has he went and done.....back to default..... Called in the guys who have cship pedigree. T.McCann and Cunningham, who are well in their 30's. So he obviously feels the need to call on men who have won something.  Im sure if he had of got a few more of the lads he had called upon he would of soon forgot about some of the current guys he has been working with. Also worth mentioning M.Fitzpatrick won a sigerson with St.Marys 2017, following year 2018,  id of said he was best club player in antrim. Really kicked him on

Someone put up a good argument against what im saying or atleast offer an alternative point of view instead of trying to twist my words. Im just saying what i think would be best for Antrim football at the moment, and having a panel of kids, from clubs who havent won anything or been to a final isnt going to cut it against the good counties in and around Div 3 if thats what we are aiming to get to and build from there

And obviously im not alone as Tally has called upon more Kilcoo involvement, McGeaney has 6 Cross men, Derry have 5 S'neil men, D'gonnely have 5 on fermanagh panel...