Antrim Football Thread

[BigGreenField]

Pop at ref's all day but the standard of football was crap for what is the top 8 teams in the county.

Cargin turned in a half decent performance with one or two players making the entrance fee worthwhile.

Outside of that it was dross.

Complaints would be better directed in-house to club coaches as to what they are teaching players over 20 years.

Incidentally if a referee reports excessive abuse at a match both clubs should forfeit home advantage for next number of scheduled games, mistakes are made but the abuse has to stop and manners need applied. Paying a couple of quid at the gate gives no licence to act the maggot.

[AllStar15]

The Rossa result (and last weekends matches) makes me itch for a straight knockout again from the get-go.

It's hard to beat the do or die of proper championship.

[PólAointroim]

Pop at ref's all day but the standard of football was crap for what is the top 8 teams in the county.

Cargin turned in a half decent performance with one or two players making the entrance fee worthwhile.

Outside of that it was dross.

Complaints would be better directed in-house to club coaches as to what they are teaching players over 20 years.

Incidentally if a referee reports excessive abuse at a match both clubs should forfeit home advantage for next number of scheduled games, mistakes are made but the abuse has to stop and manners need applied. Paying a couple of quid at the gate gives no licence to act the maggot.

I thought Dunloy were more impressive but the opposition was well below decent SFC standard I suppose.

Will Dunsilly be open for the semis?

Outside of Dunsilly there is only 1 SW venue up to taking a semi final and thats Cargin. In the city there is only Corrigan.

The powers that be will probably send 1 of the games to the mountain and the other to somewhere like Glenavy.

[Sportacus]

The Rossa result (and last weekends matches) makes me itch for a straight knockout again from the get-go.

It's hard to beat the do or die of proper championship.

Now we're getting somewhere.

[Christmas Lights]

Division 1

Kickhams GAC Creggan
St Galls, Belfast
St Bridgets, Belfast
Roger Casements Portglenone   
Clann na hÉireann Carraigin   
St. Mary's Aghagallon   
Lamh Dhearg, Belfast
St John's Belfast       
All Saints GAC, Ballymena   
Cuchullains Dunloy
O`Donovan Rossa, Belfast

Division 2

St Pauls, Belfast
Con Magee's Glenravel
Sarfields, Belfast    
Tír na nÓg Randalstown   
Naomh Eargnait, Muine Glás
St Endas, Belfast
Naomh Séamas, Aldergrove
Ahoghill
Glenavy
St Teresa's GAC, Belfast
Gort Na Mona,  Belfast

Division 3A

Lisburn   
Naomh Comhghall CLG, Antrim
Davitts, Belfast   
St Agnes' GAC, Belfast
Rasharkin   
Cardinal O' Donnell's GAC, Belfast

Division 3B

Ardoyne, Belfast
Éire Óg,  Belfast    
Pearses Belfast    
Laochra Loch Lao, Belfast    
Cloughmills    
St Malachy's,  Belfast

There's your leagues for next year, all should be competitive.
D1 play senior champ
D2 play intermediate champ
3A and 3B play junior champ.

D1 and D2 play through and then split
D3 Leagues play home and away.

16 teams in D1 as they would say in the city, is absolute ballix.

[SaffronSports]

Division 1

Kickhams GAC Creggan
St Galls, Belfast
St Bridgets, Belfast
Roger Casements Portglenone   
Clann na hÉireann Carraigin   
St. Mary's Aghagallon   
Lamh Dhearg, Belfast
St John's Belfast       
All Saints GAC, Ballymena   
Cuchullains Dunloy
O`Donovan Rossa, Belfast

Division 2

St Pauls, Belfast
Con Magee's Glenravel
Sarfields, Belfast    
Tír na nÓg Randalstown   
Naomh Eargnait, Muine Glás
St Endas, Belfast
Naomh Séamas, Aldergrove
Ahoghill
Glenavy
St Teresa's GAC, Belfast
Gort Na Mona,  Belfast

Division 3A

Lisburn   
Naomh Comhghall CLG, Antrim
Davitts, Belfast   
St Agnes' GAC, Belfast
Rasharkin   
Cardinal O' Donnell's GAC, Belfast

Division 3B

Ardoyne, Belfast
Éire Óg,  Belfast    
Pearses Belfast    
Laochra Loch Lao, Belfast    
Cloughmills    
St Malachy's,  Belfast

There's your leagues for next year, all should be competitive.
D1 play senior champ
D2 play intermediate champ
3A and 3B play junior champ.

D1 and D2 play through and then split
D3 Leagues play home and away.

16 teams in D1 as they would say in the city, is absolute ballix.

Your first mistake is 11 teams in Division 1 and Division 2. Make them 10 and 12 even would be better as the odd number and a team on a bye week would be a pain in the arse.

[Hoof Hearted]

Can't do it next year but looks reasonable for 2028
Use next year league to decide those places, rather than hand pick them
But I'd say you wouldn't be far away

[Hectic]

Still need to decouple leagues and championships.

Has the last month taught us nothing in terms of how teams league performances align to championship performances? 

They don't.

There are reasons for this and they persist.

So league and championship need to be separate entities.

And whoever posted the usual bullshit line about taking up the whistle yourself. 

Not much wonder we have the officials we do if 'how some punter would get on in comparison' is the bar we use to measure them.

[SoloAndGo]

Can't do it next year but looks reasonable for 2028
Use next year league to decide those places, rather than hand pick them
But I'd say you wouldn't be far away

Why can't it be done next year? We've been talking about restructuring the leagues for well over a year now.

How is it being hand picked? Those are the teams that are at the bottom.

[inabsentia]

Can't do it next year but looks reasonable for 2028
Use next year league to decide those places, rather than hand pick them
But I'd say you wouldn't be far away

Keep saying this. Forget about it and just get the finger out. Who cares what the eternal yaps will say about being put down a division

[Hectic]

Don't see the value in waiting either.

If teams have fallen to the wrong side they will quickly get to where they should be.

It's pretty simple, quarter finalists are next years senior championship and top 8 in league are next years division 1 and go from there.

Broken record - decouple leagues and championships as a lot of teams play them with different squads anyway so by aligning you would just end up continuing with a weaker senior championship.  And alignment also means you would be punishing clubs that contribute heavier to county squads across both codes.

The second division and Intermediate championship would then be pretty competitive and of a decent enough standard too for anyone worrying about not being called a Div 1/Senior team.

Maybe even be able to reduce fixtures giving the regional competitions a boost. They used to be well looked forward to occasions before we started murdering players.

[Hoof Hearted]

Can't do it next year but looks reasonable for 2028
Use next year league to decide those places, rather than hand pick them
But I'd say you wouldn't be far away

Why can't it be done next year? We've been talking about restructuring the leagues for well over a year now.

How is it being hand picked? Those are the teams that are at the bottom.

my reasoning is that teams have been aware this season what they had to do re relegation
Dont think its right for the teams who are still training for this and busting a gut to stay up end up being put down anyway

At least next year they will know and if they are bottom half they are down.
As i said, high chance that the 3 teams involved will be bottom half anyway but.......

[inabsentia]

Can't do it next year but looks reasonable for 2028
Use next year league to decide those places, rather than hand pick them
But I'd say you wouldn't be far away

Why can't it be done next year? We've been talking about restructuring the leagues for well over a year now.

How is it being hand picked? Those are the teams that are at the bottom.

my reasoning is that teams have been aware this season what they had to do re relegation
Dont think its right for the teams who are still training for this and busting a gut to stay up end up being put down anyway

At least next year they will know and if they are bottom half they are down.
As i said, high chance that the 3 teams involved will be bottom half anyway but.......

They've done it many a year to change things willy nilly to allow teams to stay up or stop teams from coming up at the expense of others.

Ego fluffing at this stage

[Spike]

Exactly this.  They have changed both league playoffs and championship draws MIDSEASON before.  No reason why they cant change this during the break.  If they don't it is because they want to avoid the aggro of the relegated clubs who want someone to blame other than themselves

[BigGreenField]

Exactly this.  They have changed both league playoffs and championship draws MIDSEASON before.  No reason why they cant change this during the break.  If they don't it is because they want to avoid the aggro of the relegated clubs who want someone to blame other than themselves

Who is they?