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Antrim Post front page all about a huge Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council new pitch development at Moneyglass GAC. Talk of £3 million expenditure. Great news if true. Anyone from MG confirm. (HOOF where are you).

We (Casements) just beginning the ground works for our own second pitch development - should finish up similar to Ahoghill when finished.

Glenravel, Dunloy, Creggan, All Saints all got their grounds recently refurbished. There's going to be some great grounds in the SW in the next few years.

Bannside the Moneyglass Project is a Vision for the future which hopes to be completed in phases but eventuallt the intention would be to have superb facilities that match or surpass what is currently around the county.

Alot of people working very hard to obtain it a Dream we are determined to make a reality

Ultimately as I suppose we already knew it but Cargin won the championship the night they beat St Galls, yesterday they didn't appear to get out of 2nd or 3rd gear. The big difference in the last few years that I can see is their discipline in the tackle I though they were superb defensively yesterday and did enough up front to win. Getting 3 penalties and scoring 2 obviously did no harm as well.

There is an ongoing debate in my own club regarding injuries, operations and fees.

Currently the club pays all fees (scan, consultancy, operation etc) and then claim backs off the GAA normally at a deficit to what has been paid out.

Generally that may have been a deficit of a few hundred pounds however with increased fees and the poor exchange rate at the minute it can run into thousands.

How do other clubs work this situation, do they cover all costs, expects players to pay and then re numerate them with the amout they are able to recover or let the player row his own boat?

There is always a massive amount of talk about 'match ups' before big games these day and on last nights viewing I feel Cargin got theirs spot on. Kevin O'Boyle did a great job on Micky Pollock, you only have to look back at last years final and Pollock running Justin Croizer (albeit half fit) ragged for an hour. Justin on Niblock was massive as well although Niblock picked up an injury and looked laboured up to that he had been very much on the periphery. Bar a great score in the opening salvo CJ was kept pretty quiet by Donagh Mc Keever.

Midfield was important as well, St Galls have shown for years the importance of strong running, hard tackling no frills midfielders and I feel Cargin replicated that last night in their set up with both John Carron (who kicked a great score) and Gerard McCann going through a mountain of work and breaking a glut of ball, it takes that kind of unglamorous work to win big games. That in turn allowed Mick McCann to play a role with more freedom and took the onus of being the primary ball winner round the middle off his shoulders, a move that can no one can deny had a huge bearing on the game. Was suprised St Galls left Anto Healy on him as long.

For me the biggest difference and it outlined Cargins approach to the game was Tomas McCann, its probably fair to say that Sean Kelly has got the better of Tomas over the last number of games and in turn carried St Galls forward with his ability to get the ball from back to front, however every time Tomas got the ball last night he drove at Kelly putting him on the back foot and drawing frees or setting up scores. Like the Cargin team he never took a backward step all night.

A great win for Cargin and far from the demise of St Galls.

Some excellent score taking as well, sets up a real classic between the parish rivals in the semi final

James Loughrey? Cork via Antrim. I know he took to GAA quite late but maybe someone can correct me whether he played minor level.

James played both minor and u21 for Antrim unsurprisingly one of the stronger players they had.

Cork Hurlers

Speaking to a few members of other clubs last night and all showed a large amount of apathy towards the referees in their particular games, is the standard of refereeing in the county at the minute a problem or is it simply a case of an easy target for blame?

I'm sure there are rules tests that must be passed before officiating at all levels but are there regular assessments or refresher courses to ensure all refs are up to speed.

Its a thankless task and our games wouldn't go on without them but there seems to be a worrying trend that some of these volunteers are being asked to take charge of games that are currently beyond their level.

So who's this ex Derry Cargin manager? Paddy Crozier? McGuckian? Damien Barton? Damien Cassidy? Brian Mullins? None of the above?

None of the above!!

3 good games yesterday by all accounts, great to see them being officiated by 3 good up and coming referees as well, its a thankless task at times but their appears to be a good number of young referees coming through in the county at the minute. Hopefully this trend continues

How did Moneyglass get themselves into this position beats me. They were six points up against Glenavy at half time, playing at home, and managed to lose. Apparently the Glenavy manager resigned at half time too in bizarre circumstances. Whatever then happened Glenavy changed their style of play and came back to win the game. Its all in a game.

Was told by a mglass man they didn't want to go up as they felt a year of heavy defeats in div 1 would do them no good.

Didn't portglenone do something similar last year or the year before?

Not the case at all Moneyglass wanted to go up but unfortunately made a balls of it on the last day, if Gort na Mona were to beat St Tereseas that would see Moneyglass up in second place

Any predictions for the man of the match award? Suppose the only newspaper that will definitely give that title is the Antrim Post, so we may as well use that as the definitive answer. One answer only.

My guess is....Kobo the great.

If Cargin are to win Kobo will have to have a great game so every chance he will obtain man of the match, however I would not use the Antrim Post as a barometer to measure anything against, whilst it is great to see them covering a wide range of Gaelic Games in Antrim I feel their coverage can be often contradictory and condescending and very rarely on them money but then again that is only my opinion and others may disagree.

From a selfish point of view as a spectator, I love Saturday evening matches. A few pints after without worrying about work the next day.

+1

Id hazard a guess that players thoughts would be similar for the same reason

Bannside, whats the thoughts in Portglenone around playing a Championship semi final on a thursday night? The venue obviously suits you more than Aghagallon but surely a saturday fixture would have been preferred or is it simply a case of just getting on with it?

I don't see the problems with this unless it's got issues with lights. Senior football games went ahead last night in Antrim, us against Rossa and the Johnnies v St Pauls. Will a player be better prepared at the weekend or after a day at work be too tired to play a Championship match? as that will be the same for everybody. Less people come and watch their club mid week than weekends possibly? It would be one complaint but again if it's championship.....

Its the logistics in terms of travel I would see as the problem, I take on board that games were played last night but in those instance the away teams had a short commute. Aghagallon are looking at a 50 minute to 1 hour journey which will most likely rushing home from work leaving preparation not ideal, Portglenone obviously have a maller distance to travel hence why I was interested in their view of it.

I know if I was involved in the game I would prefer a Saturday or Sunday fixture, but in the grand scheme of things I think venue, time and date wont matter as Portglenone should win regardless

Bannside, whats the thoughts in Portglenone around playing a Championship semi final on a thursday night? The venue obviously suits you more than Aghagallon but surely a saturday fixture would have been preferred or is it simply a case of just getting on with it?

Harsh to call people who give of their time to help as the "wrong men", i would agree that you need strong lead coaches within youth structures with relevant know how to help achieve success but to call volunteers "wrong men" is unfair.

Successful underage structures and results can vary greatly as well, success should not be measured against trophies and medals won but improvement on a year to year basis within both players and teams, realistically a small rural or city club with strong numbers are not going to compete for major honours however if they can year by year close the gap between themselves an the so called bigger clubs the success has been achieved. In turn if you are consistently providing players from underage teams that do or will backbone your senior team even without winning at underage level that is success as well