Antrim Football Thread

[The Gs Man]

The Colleges GAA hotbed of Lurgan!

Yip, you're on (to) something alright.

There'll be a MaCrory Cup in Lurgan within 3 years!  Mark my words ye blurt!

[JimStynes]

The Colleges GAA hotbed of Lurgan!

Yip, you're on (to) something alright.

There'll be a MaCrory Cup in Lurgan within 3 years!  Mark my words ye blurt!

St. Ronan's have done well this past few years in the McCrory but the next few years don't look as promising. A lot of lurgan ones go to the Newry schools and St. Pats Armagh as well to be fair.

[The Gs Man]

When the St.Ronan's amalgamation properly beds in there'll be no stopping them!

Why do you think the next few years aren't as promising?

[Rasharkin Gael]

The Development squad players usually receive a training top, shorts and socks. These are funded by the players selling tickets, each player to raise around £60 if memory serves right.

[theskull1]

They receive a poor fitting training top, shorts and socks that I would say cost £30 tops bulk buy ... and they just about get them at the very end of the season.

£50 or £60 quid of tickets ...

[bannside]

Big shout out to the 7 strong Antrim contingent involved in tomorrow's Hogan Cup semi final. Not forgetting a valuable contribution from Antrim coaches RD (plays for Cargin) and Antrim legend Kevin Brady who as far as I know is team manager. Huge achievement getting this far hopefully it dosent end tomorrow.

[blindside]

Big shout out to the 7 strong Antrim contingent involved in tomorrow's Hogan Cup semi final. Not forgetting a valuable contribution from Antrim coaches RD (plays for Cargin) and Antrim legend Kevin Brady who as far as I know is team manager. Huge achievement getting this far hopefully it dosent end tomorrow.

Bannside think there are 9
6 creggan 3 starters 3 subs
3 moneyglass 2 starters 1 sub
Plus management

Major contribution to a well drilled team .....fully deserving of their success...hopefully more to come

[bannside]

Welcome Blindside.

That's a great stat from an Antrim perspective. Our games are  truly alive, stronger than ever in fact, in the South West.

My daughter is Upper Sixth there and heading down to Drogheda in one of the dozens of buses. Says the buzz round the school is unreal.

[SambaSaffron]

Big shout out to the 7 strong Antrim contingent involved in tomorrow's Hogan Cup semi final. Not forgetting a valuable contribution from Antrim coaches RD (plays for Cargin) and Antrim legend Kevin Brady who as far as I know is team manager. Huge achievement getting this far hopefully it dosent end tomorrow.

Ronan Devlin is from Ballinderry.

[paddyjohn]

Big shout out to the 7 strong Antrim contingent involved in tomorrow's Hogan Cup semi final. Not forgetting a valuable contribution from Antrim coaches RD (plays for Cargin) and Antrim legend Kevin Brady who as far as I know is team manager. Huge achievement getting this far hopefully it dosent end tomorrow.

Ronan Devlin is from Ballinderry.

We are worse than the Brits trying to claim people lol

[blindside]

Welcome Blindside.

That's a great stat from an Antrim perspective. Our games are  truly alive, stronger than ever in fact, in the South West.

My daughter is Upper Sixth there and heading down to Drogheda in one of the dozens of buses. Says the buzz round the school is unreal.

Agree from what I hear the place is buzzing ...It's a football hotbed living in the shadow of it's neighbour down the road.

It's hard to make the breakthrough against the traditional power houses.

Big ask today though with such a short turn around ...Know the management team were working hard over the weekend doing the analysis and prep   still very hard to bring the guys down to ground again and get in the zone for today's game.

They have been in tight corners and have shown great resilience and character so hopefully they can get over the line later today.

With the breakthrough made the South Derry and Lough Shore combination might kick on and become a regular feature at the business end of the colleges competitions.

From an Antrim perspective there are a few lads at St Pats as well who could be featuring at the business end in the next few years as well.

The big question from a SW side is can St Louis get it together. Don't want to knock them as there has been a lot of good things happening in the school in general but they did look very poor in the Mc Larnon Cup.

Should be doing better with some Dunloy Minors and Ballymena's strong U16 team plus a good smattering of other talented players. Looked very disjointed and poorly coached  ... appreciate it is not the schools primary job but I think they could do better

Perhaps the SW could show some initiative here and provide some coaching assistance/funding .....could be shared in other 2nd level schools   St Pats Ballymena, St Killian's, St Benedict's   ....might even be able to get some funding from Ulster Council ...... could be a call to the current president who I am  sure would be willing to assist if possible
 

[theskull1]

Geroid Adams is the head of PE at St Louis, so there at least is a county level coach already in the school. Not sure the scorelines in the competition warrant the 'very poor' comment but no doubt could do better. No different in regards to the hurling.

[Dreen]

Saint Louis fell to the very talented eventual winners in Ballygawley.  I saw them twice this year and was impressed.  In recent years ive saw better squads being probably to defensive with the quality they had but such is modern football.

To have a team competing well at rannafast this year was a big step forward for St Louis and the group backboned by many of the Ballymena feile winning team has performed well winning Colmcille in 2nd year.

Sean Leo McGoldrick now teaching in the school and that will hopefully add to the coaching pool.  Gearoid has probably not had it easy trying to cover every football team in some way. 

For me its just good to see St Louis away from the soccer bias that existed in the early 90's and before.

[blindside]

Might have been a little harsh on the "very poor"

Thought they were soundly beaten in the semi though. Score board  (2 goals , 1 very soft) paints a closer picture that it actually was. Don't know the full setup there but Sean Leo should be a positive step.

The general point would be that this is B level competition where with the school size and the talent that the feeder clubs are producing they could be more competitive.

Not knocking the school as it has made great strides in recent years in lots of areas and it takes time to build the foundations.

Just think a strong St Louis coupled with the guys that go to St Mary's, St Pat's and St Ronan's (starting to make progress) would really push things on in the SW area .....rising tide lifts all  etc........   Then get to work in the Belfast Schools,   

[Dreen]

The thing with Saint Louis size, definitely in my time there were many boys who did'nt play sport at all never mind GAA but that has certainly changed.  They are building a new gym set up in there at the moment and there is a lot of positive work been done but its also about the club provision of quality to the school, transfer test results and the general push for football in the county.

In the late 90's St Louis had few successful years and a good few county players came through there and as i said before it was still more of a soccer school.  In those teams at that time the coaching was down to 2 maths teachers and a history teacher.  Hopefully going forward when the quality groups come through the platform will be there to progress.