Antrim Football Thread

[imtommygunn]

St endas opted to join the south west not the other way round

[Milltown Row2]

St endas opted to join the south west not the other way round

They even have culchie accents!

[Saffsof82]

Following recent very disheartening u20 football result v Tyrone - a 20 point stuffing. Can anyone advise how many from u20s panel come from the fertile crescent of SW Antrim and how many went to Ivy League schools in South Derry? Or was the hammering due to City players being in the squad

Think the hammering more to do with Tyrone scoring 3-6 in the last ten minutes after Antrim lost a player to a black card for those 10 and big quinn got injured but all subs had been used. 13 v 15 at that level equals hammering.

[bannside]

13 v 15 at any level equals poor management in any coaching guideline. We were 1 - 3 down after four minutes, game as good as over. In fairness we battled gamely for the next thirty or forty minutes, and 20 points is probably an unfair reflection of a large part of the game. But if both teams were playing tomorrow my guess is that there would still be double figures in it.

Tyrone are, as you'de expect, a well drilled outfit. No surprises there. Unfortunately we are not, or not yet anyway as apparently the set up has only been together for 6 weeks. You'll find Tyrone have been together a lot longer, and probably about 6 or 8 challenge games under their belt. On that basis we simply don't deserve to be competitive with them.

On a technical note, Tyrone are moving the ball quickly, nice mixture of through the hands and kicking passes. Our men are consistently trying to carry balls through tackles and making life very hard for themselves. That simply won't work at this level and needs to change urgently or there will be further double digit losses in the weeks ahead.

[EOC1923]

13 v 15 at any level equals poor management in any coaching guideline. We were 1 - 3 down after four minutes, game as good as over. In fairness we battled gamely for the next thirty or forty minutes, and 20 points is probably an unfair reflection of a large part of the game. But if both teams were playing tomorrow my guess is that there would still be double figures in it.

Tyrone are, as you'de expect, a well drilled outfit. No surprises there. Unfortunately we are not, or not yet anyway as apparently the set up has only been together for 6 weeks. You'll find Tyrone have been together a lot longer, and probably about 6 or 8 challenge games under their belt. On that basis we simply don't deserve to be competitive with them.

On a technical note, Tyrone are moving the ball quickly, nice mixture of through the hands and kicking passes. Our men are consistently trying to carry balls through tackles and making life very hard for themselves. That simply won't work at this level and needs to change urgently or there will be further double digit losses in the weeks ahead.

I'd normally be critical but I know talking to the Cargin lads at it Antrim were very well organised at U17 and 20 and had a name in place for the 20s (all agreed) who has had a big recent success but he pulled out on them at the very last minute without warning leaving them having to go and seek a management team from scratch late November. I wasn't at the game but BS your analysis is correct that Tyrone are weeks ahead of them in preparation. I do feel this group will get stronger in the weeks ahead and lets not forget Tyrone are probably one of the favourites for the U20 All Ireland.

[bannside]

Looking forward to Laois on Saturday night. This division is opening up as expected, every team capable of dropping points. Our games get a bit harder now, good to have a couple of wins under our belt. Safety first and go from there.

[bannside]

Fair enough EOC, there were periods we were hanging in rightly for. The obvious gap to me was fitness (that can be worked on) and the length of time each player takes in the ball. Again that can be worked with. For what it's worth the players seem to like the set up, that's always a good start.

[Saffsof82]

What's Dermot injury BS? Will he be back for Laois?

[Saffsof82]

Fair enough EOC, there were periods we were hanging in rightly for. The obvious gap to me was fitness (that can be worked on) and the length of time each player takes in the ball. Again that can be worked with. For what it's worth the players seem to like the set up, that's always a good start.

My lad was playing and was guilty on a fair few occasions of doing exactly what you say bs , carrying ball into the tackle. On a very quiet journey post game to Corrigan he said the speed at which Tyrone closed down was phenomenal, he had never experienced that level of intensity before. Again back to playing top level schools football. The u20 beat Rossa seniors last week in a challenge by 16 points, so you can see the jump in level to competitive county u20 is massive.

[country bumpkin]

St endas opted to join the south west not the other way round

They even have culchie accents!

Culchie (an unsophisticated country person)........Really?

[bannside]

Dermot hurt his shoulder against Limerick Saffs but is hoping to be available for selection at the weekend. Management have some tough calls to make, Jordy did ok, Paddy Mc Aleer also did little wrong. Cannot see how Patrick Mc Cormack will not be retained in the corner. I liked Peter Healy in a corner back position too, driving forward. Although he was excellent against Donegal a few weeks ago at 5.

Personally I think we need a lot more punch upfront and Conor Murray must enter the equation. He will drive straight through the middle when others are thinking about it. Too good for ten minutes here or there.

Good to have selection headaches of the right kind.

[Saffsof82]

Peter Healy did have a good game on Saturday, but his performances at corner back last year against Waterford and Armagh would give grave concern for playing him in the corner.

[imtommygunn]

He's too attacking IMO. So is McCabe. Both very good footballers but too front footed for that position.

[Saffsof82]

Opposition on Saturday were so poor hard to gauge any of our own lads, final pass let us down so often or it could have easily been 12-15 point win

[bannside]

Fair play Saffs, not too many were in Dungarvan lol and you're right PH was caught out a few times that day. He had a full season at CB with Lenny and he was superb. Not many can play CB - it's a very specialised position. Shoehorning  outfield players into that position is asking for trouble. Mc Cabe an example of this, doubt if he ever played there in his life, but Enda obviously going forward foot first. That has risks, as I've previously stated, and to be fair Eoghan has done well enough overall, fair play, although he was definitely caught out a couple of times on Saturday.

We will get away with this whilst we are dictating the game against weaker teams, but it gets a bit harder from here on in when we will have a lot more to do defensively.

We are on a fairly good run at present and that can paper over a crack or two. Sometimes there may be closer scrutiny after a defeat, it's understandable not to do too much tweaking to a team that's winning matches.

But Healy and Mc Cormack are both specialised corner backs imo, our panel is coming down with options at HB. That's my opinion for what its worth, and that hasn't changed since last year when I thought we were a bit gung ho at times. Trying to be constructive here btw, nothing else.