Antrim Football Thread

[ck]

We stayed up which is an obvious positive, but all things considered a poor league campaign came to an end today and how anyone can argue any different I don't know.
Enviously looking at Fermanagh and Louths recent progress, maybe our turn next season?

Poor league campaign by Antrim.

Any different from last year's league?

I think last years league campaign was much more consistent, it is very hard to know where Antrim are this year. It has been the good, the bad and the ugly.

[JimStynes]

I think it's been a better league that last year considering the manager had a lot less of the top players in the county to pick from. One really bad game but Antrim have been very competitive for the most part.

[InnocentByStander]

I think it would be better if refs were ALLOWED to ref the games themselves. Every game I'm at now, juvenile or adult,  everyone wants to ref it. Players  coaches, fans, it's relentless
Toooooo long, after about 2 steps seems to be the popular one
Tell me this, can a ref tell a player to shut the f**k up move on

Yes, but then he's being disrespectful. Every tackle is not a foul is what I usually say, hand on the back is also not a foul (a push is)  . Not tackling the ball is a foul too, so the slaps open or closed (closed fist is a card if not connecting with ball)

A genuine question, like teams watch back and review their performance, would you ever request the footage and review yourself or know nay other refs that would?

Do you ever leave a game thinking you got a decision wrong?

[Milltown Row2]

I think it would be better if refs were ALLOWED to ref the games themselves. Every game I'm at now, juvenile or adult,  everyone wants to ref it. Players  coaches, fans, it's relentless
Toooooo long, after about 2 steps seems to be the popular one
Tell me this, can a ref tell a player to shut the f**k up move on

Yes, but then he's being disrespectful. Every tackle is not a foul is what I usually say, hand on the back is also not a foul (a push is)  . Not tackling the ball is a foul too, so the slaps open or closed (closed fist is a card if not connecting with ball)

A genuine question, like teams watch back and review their performance, would you ever request the footage and review yourself or know nay other refs that would?

Do you ever leave a game thinking you got a decision wrong?

All the time, would always question my 'game' could I have done better? could I have been better placed? The game, be it hurling or football is fast paced, I'd like to think I'm fitter than most but reality is I'm 51, no spring chicken so you can't always be on top of play the whole game, I'd cover generally over 4 miles a game.

As for review games I've watched plenty of games that have been recorded, the main problem is the camera is placed where it is and I'm not at that angle and don't have slow mo to help make the right call, the calls are immediate and that is how refereeing is done, championship you can be mic'd up and get help from other officials but on a wet Wed night in March you are on your own, and like it or lump it we have to make the calls as wee see it at that moment.

We don't have hoards of new applicants every year and using more and more ref's from other counties so its becoming a crisis at the minute, I don't know if its the same in every county but we do have in football and hurling 6 or 7 intercounty referee's, which is a sizeable amount

[bannside]

The league threw up a real mixed bag to be fair.  From terrific in Thurles to muck in Mullingar, and everything in between. Hard to believe we were circa 9 points up against the three top teams Cavan Fermanagh and Down. To do that we are doing something very well. The downside of that is we lost two of those games by the narrowest of margins.

Andy was badly hit by unavailability and injuries, in light if that I disagree with you EOC and suggest it was a fair/good league campaign. I'd be more confident about collecting 6 or 8 points next year when a more settled squad emerges from the transition.

Not too worried about the championship against Armagh, we won't win Ulster, just go out and have a good lash before knuckling down for a decent run in the Tailteean.

[realisticsaff]

The league threw up a real mixed bag to be fair.  From terrific in Thurles to muck in Mullingar, and everything in between. Hard to believe we were circa 9 points up against the three top teams Cavan Fermanagh and Down. To do that we are doing something very well. The downside of that is we lost two of those games by the narrowest of margins.

Andy was badly hit by unavailability and injuries, in light if that I disagree with you EOC and suggest it was a fair/good league campaign. I'd be more confident about collecting 6 or 8 points next year when a more settled squad emerges from the transition.

Not too worried about the championship against Armagh, we won't win Ulster, just go out and have a good lash before knuckling down for a decent run in the Tailteean.

Delusional but I'd expect nothing less from FD

[Milltown Row2]

Christ, you must be some craic in the bar!!

[NatSoSaff]

I fail to see any delusion in his assessment. Either you are just on here for the constant wind up and pop or you genuinely believe there is a crisis. If it's the latter then at least make some points

[Sportacus]

I think that's a totally reasonable assessment from BS. Certainly couldn't justify it being "delusional".

[imtommygunn]

There are a few here seem to be really against Andy McEntee. What's the deal here? If you are what were your expectations this year?

[NatSoSaff]

Look, at the risk of an " if your aunty had balls...." backlash, it's like this....

Westmeath was a complete freak performance and result. Surely even the most negative posters on here can see that now upon reflection. Our scoring return was decent, our defence, putting aside the Westmeath match, wasn't the worst. We should have beaten Down, Offaly and a quite impressive Fermanagh team that went on to top the division. And we did beat the best team in the division in Cavan. Ok, it wasn't make or break for them, but to put that performance in and get that result considering how low they all must have been after the mauling in Mullingar was impressive.

If you cant see any of that then you're beyond help here.

It was never going to be a year for making a big impression was it? Survival and a good showing into a few rounds of the Tailteann cup would have been taken by most would it not?

Being somewhat competitive against Armagh would be a bonus.

Lets just see how things go shall we. 

[bannside]

Indeed Natso, Offaly was another that got away. We were 8 down at HT and created three gilt edged goalscoring chances after that, but none found the net. Though some good football was played.

The highlight was taking on Down toe to toe in Pairc Esler. Saturday night under lights and we were superb at times. If nothing else we earned some respect from hardened Down supporters who knew they dodged a bullet that night with the way we went at them. That, and we really should have put more on Tipperary, we were excellent that night too, although Tipp football not in a good place atm.

[paddyjohn]

Look, at the risk of an " if your aunty had balls...." backlash, it's like this....

Westmeath was a complete freak performance and result. Surely even the most negative posters on here can see that now upon reflection. Our scoring return was decent, our defence, putting aside the Westmeath match, wasn't the worst. We should have beaten Down, Offaly and a quite impressive Fermanagh team that went on to top the division. And we did beat the best team in the division in Cavan. Ok, it wasn't make or break for them, but to put that performance in and get that result considering how low they all must have been after the mauling in Mullingar was impressive.

If you cant see any of that then you're beyond help here.

It was never going to be a year for making a big impression was it? Survival and a good showing into a few rounds of the Tailteann cup would have been taken by most would it not?

Being somewhat competitive against Armagh would be a bonus.

Lets just see how things go shall we. 

That's far too sensible of a post for this board.

Depends what agenda you are pushing and how much self promotion on certain platforms you want as to how you view Andy McEntee.

[Kidder81]

Indeed Natso, Offaly was another that got away. We were 8 down at HT and created three gilt edged goalscoring chances after that, but none found the net. Though some good football was played.

The highlight was taking on Down toe to toe in Pairc Esler. Saturday night under lights and we were superb at times. If nothing else we earned some respect from hardened Down supporters who knew they dodged a bullet that night with the way we went at them. That, and we really should have put more on Tipperary, we were excellent that night too, although Tipp football not in a good place atm.

It was Down, a team that will again be in Div 3 next year. This wasn't Down of 1991

[EOC1923]

There are a few here seem to be really against Andy McEntee. What's the deal here? If you are what were your expectations this year?

I like McEntee being our manager and expect more progress next season, just pointed out imo it was a poor enough league campaign when you look at the final table. We avoided relegation (not by much). I was at the Offaly and Cavan games but at none of the rest. Its all opinions and that's mine.