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Lady Luck? Lamhs scored 3-14 - that's a lot of luck!   .....sour grapes?

the u16 situation oultined above needs to be widely publicised to get some attenton/support for the clubs, new fixtures plans etc. No doubt in each of those teams that are not fielding there are 9/10 lads who want to play and now won't be playing for the forseeable and may be lost altogether. Its a shame that the press won't spend time highlighting this and chose to get excited about who the next Antrim manager will be when the reality is that the Antrim manager needs u16 / minor to be developing well if Antrim are ever to progress
Any word of this regeneration plan? 

Balance is important however the situation at u16 and minor in Belfast is dire in terms of numbers of teams competing and failures to field. There needs to be some urgent action taken at this level or our senior manager, whoever they are, will be fighting an uphill battle

That list of matches not happening at u16 is really bad given what a crucial age group that is.
Does the county board pay an oversight role in monitoring these issues does anyone know or is it just left to congress every year for the south antrim chairperson to tell everyone that everything in the garden is rosy?

Here's a thought I put on another thread but perhaps this is the thread of it:
Belfast GAA had Casement as a jewel in the crown for over 50 years. Due to an Ulster Council run project we have not had Casement for 5 years and likely to be out of commission for another 3 to5 years. Antrim/Belfast GAA doesn't have many things going for it but the honour of playing in Casement was one of them - Should the Ulster Council be paying Antrim GAA for the loss of our historic and iconic venue for a 8 to10 year period? Money we could use to make a new Belfast GAA home in Woodlands or Boucher Road pitches...

Here's a thought:
Belfast GAA had Casement as a jewel in the crown for over 50 years. Due to an Ulster Council run project we have not had Casement for 5 years and likely to be out of commission for another 3 to5 years. Antrim/Belfast GAA doesn't have many things going for it but the honour of playing in Casement was one of them - Should the Ulster Council be paying Antrim GAA for the loss of our historic and iconic venue for a 8 to10 year period? Money we could use to make a new Belfast GAA home in Woodlands or Boucher Road pitches...

What have Antrim Vision County board achieved? They were highly criticial of the last county board but I'm struggling to see what difference they have made 15 months in......

I didn't know there was an Ulster council coach for Belfast? do you know their remit?

That sounds like a innovative and practical solution to the lack of fixtures at that age group . The natural inclination is to think of all county leagues but the travel involved in that would be much more than playing County Down Belfast teams - Carryduff & Bredagh spring to mind. I suppose the issue would be getting the 2 boards to work togther and one of them to take the lead

Perhaps its time for a Belfast Board?

There has been a lot of deserved PR for a u14 girls winter football league recently with 29 teams competing over 10 weeks at the 3-G in North Belfast. This was run by a group called the Belfast Community Network

Wouldn't it be great to have this type of innovation for the boys hurling and football?

Seems the South Antrim board are just going through the motions rather than moving with the times and innovating.......

What a great plan that was to revive the GAA in Belfast ! Not many of the actions appear to have been completed which makes me think it has been put in the bin. When a new county board takes over perhaps they want their own plan but that's a real shame given the work that clearly went into this.

I wonder if the Antrim Vision county board have a plan to revive the GAA in Belfast?

It's clear there are a lot of people with Antrim GAA at heart and loads of good suggestions for making steps forward. The one issue that stands out for me that could be improved fairly quickly is that of fixtures at u14 and u16 as that seems to be the problem age group. The divisional boards all seem to work independently i.e SA / SW / NA. Surely the County board could bring them together in Jan/Feb and ask them to co-operate in ages/codes that one of them is struggling in and they could share best practices? That way we would have a better chance of every juvenile getting a good amount of games. Maybe the county should set a mandatory number of games for each team at juvenile level and when a divisional board can't make that number of games they have to approach the County for support?

Since a started this debate last night there have been a number of quality contributions

- A 5 team Div 1 league in SA giving only 8 matches is shocking! The SA board can't control who enters the competition but when they saw the entrants surely they must have thought we better do something here ...hook up with SW, All county etc - anyone know if they tried to find a solution?
- Belfast clubs lack off facilities - St Johns,St Pauls, Sarsfields, Rossa are all land locked with no room to expand and with no land its harder to get a plan together. Having another pitch at another venue isn't ideal but that is the road these clubs have to go down unless at county level some council pitches can be acquired for solely GAA use thinking of Boucher / Falls Park / Woodlands but these type of proposal need county board involvement and leadership

There is no one solution for the worrying signs in Belfast / SA (SW won the minor, u21, junior, intermediate, senior football championship last year) but the county board seem to be focused on Casement and the count Hurling scene in all public statements....

The point is that the overall player numbers/clubs is down over the last decade and no new clubs are emerging - Colin Gaels is in a highly populated area and it's disappointing not to see a new strong club emerge
St Enda's, a North Belfast club, moved to North Antrim for hurling and South West Antrim for football some years ago due to a lack of games in Belfast
My own take is that we as an organisation are spending, and I know this is heresy to say, too much money & time on coaching and not enough time on proper fixturing. Teams are training for 7/8 months and only getting 10 or 12 games and hence players walk away....

Anyone worried at the state of the GAA Belfast?

- Colin Gaels field no boys team in hurling and football
- McDermotts has folded 3 or4 years ago
- Dwyers has no teams
- St Agnes/Eire Og/ Lisburn are amalgamated at juvenile level to field
- St Teresas & Davitts aren't fielding at u16 and minor

Many clubs are also struggling with only one pitch unlike many south west clubs who have 2 pitches....