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Sean duffin played for Tyrone - dunno if he still does. Cj did for a bit too. A few players spreading their wings a bit.

Sean is away to Australia so not with Tyrone this year coming.

Big, big loss for TNN for the coming season in both codes.

Are LGFA and Camogie separate? So if a club has 4 codes they get 3 payments?

It must work like that as otherwise those figures would be suggesting there's 150 clubs in Antrim.

And 376 clubs in Cork!

Full list:

County    Per Club Antrim    €6,667.00 Armagh    €10,870.00 Carlow    €22,222.00 Cavan    €13,699.00 Clare    €7,874.00 Cork    €2,660.00 Derry    €10,753.00 Donegal    €10,765.00 Down    €8,065.00 Dublin    €4,444.00 Fermanagh    €17,857.00 Galway    €7,643.00 Kerry    €10,204.00 Kildare    €10,309.00 Kilkenny    €11,905.00 Laois    €16,667.00 Leitrim    €26,316.00 Limerick    €6,711.00 Longford    €29,412.00 Louth    €14,925.00 Mayo    €14,706.00 Meath    €9,615.00 Monaghan    €13,158.00 Offaly    €12,346.00 Roscommon    €21,739.00 Sligo    €30,303.00 Tipperary    €7,692.00 Tyrone    €11,364.00 Waterford    €11,494.00 Westmeath    €14,493.00 Wexford    €7,092.00 Wicklow    €13,699.00

So what are we spending our million on in Antrim ? 

How many clubs are in Antrim?

If there's 50 clubs say, then each club will get €20,000.


About 45-50 ?

Would some clubs get more? I see it is to be spent across all the codes so would clubs like say TNN or Glenravel who cover all codes be entitled to more than a purely football or hurling club? Either way, I'm sure it will be welcomed by each club.

Good point.

Hopefully the answer is yes but I would doubt it.

More likely is we will have to split it 4 ways whereas the likes of Portglenone get £10k per code.

I've a really novel idea, might be a bit crazy but it also might work.

Why not develop a centre of excellence somewhere near the middle of the county, that would have great facilities including a gym and changing facilities flood lights etc and have all the county teams meeting there!

A lot of the Belfast lads get head staggers when they get north of Glengormley 

[Sticking you on a minibus as a kid for however many hours is a totally different level of commitment required from parents]

I'd say there's a lot of people can't be arsed with the travel involved. It's a long journey a couple of times a week from some of the clubs. I've heard of a few people who just wouldn't attend county trials due to the commitment needed.

At the local club I'd say there's a few might be good enough but a load of them play Camogie for the county instead but there's one girl who doesn't play Camogie and she's an outstanding footballer but only one parent drives so she has never been to any trials.

Back in the day, we made our way to Casement, the south Antrim minibus picked us up and we went to Dunloy or Loughgiel and vice versa the county lads got in a bus and headed to Belfast for training

Kids are soft or their parents are nowadays.. probably both

If you were able to put kids on a minibus then it might see more people willing to do it.

If my daughter made it to that level, you're talking a 70 mile round trip to Belfast however many times a week and I've got two other kids who do stuff too. Not only is that expensive but there's nights it just wouldn't be possible when they all have stuff on.

Sticking you on a minibus as a kid for however many hours is a totally different level of commitment required from parents and it doesn't make anyone soft.

Why though? not having a go but parents let their kids that age go on a bus to school on their own, go on a bus for school trips why would this be any different? if anything it would make life a lot easier for parents, if you've a couple of kids you're not worrying about just running 1 here there and everywhere. drop them off and lift them from the bus. Parents really dont need to be standing watching training and tbh if I was a coach id hate a load of parents watching all the time.

I would say there would be a huge onus on the driver with regards to safeguarding for one.

And GAA safeguarding is separate to what you would need for say an Ulsterbus driver.

Same goes for Access NI clearance.

Gone are the days when we used to all jump in the back of our u12/u14 managers Transit van and head up to the Glens for a days hurling, leaving in the morning and not home until late that evening with no mobile phones so parent had no idea where you were for most of the day and the manager the only adult with us!!

The other aspect is of course financial.

Unless a club owns a minibus then you are looking at hiring something and they don't come cheap these days.

I have no idea of the personnel involved but given that it is an Under 14 team for 2024, would that mean their best players of 2023 are now 15 and therefore ineligible? Is the 2024 crop expected to take the title?  should the Under 16s therefore have more representation?

Yes, my point was that the u15 squad won the All Ireland Feile so across u14 and u16 you would think they would have had a better selection of players.

Coaches/Selectors were all Belfast bar 1 at u16 with none at the u14 age.

I know there would be the argument that people from SW should step up and be part of those management teams but it shouldn't matter where they are from, the best players should be the ones who are picked, not just those that they are more familiar with.

And it would be hard to argue that such a dominant set of players would only have 4 players who could make the grade.

Or maybe they weren't interested in attending and giving it a good go, as they saw how last years selections went, which were of a similar spread.

It isn't just lgfa either, the boys selections wouldn't have been too dissimilar from what I have seen in the past.

A panel of 60 lads at u14 would have been 3/4 Belfast and 1/4 SW with the majority of the coaches/selectors being Belfast based.....and obviously the trials were all held in Belfast.

I have no idea of the personnel involved but given that it is an Under 14 team for 2024, would that mean their best players of 2023 are now 15 and therefore ineligible? Is the 2024 crop expected to take the title?  should the Under 16s therefore have more representation?

Yes, my point was that the u15 squad won the All Ireland Feile so across u14 and u16 you would think they would have had a better selection of players.

Coaches/Selectors were all Belfast bar 1 at u16 with none at the u14 age.

I know there would be the argument that people from SW should step up and be part of those management teams but it shouldn't matter where they are from, the best players should be the ones who are picked, not just those that they are more familiar with.

And it would be hard to argue that such a dominant set of players would only have 4 players who could make the grade.

Or maybe they weren't interested in attending and giving it a good go, as they saw how last years selections went, which were of a similar spread.

Is 'Gaelfast' a body only interested in Belfast based schools for their awards?
South West clubs with huge attendance at St Pats, St Mary's, St Pius x, and St Ronans not mentioned.

The competition is for Antrim schools, not Derry schools.

A great effort by those involved to promote the games in Antrim, although I would say that generally the football and LGFA awards do favour the Belfast schools, probably due to familiarity.

Those in charge know a lot of the Belfast based players by first name which gives them an advantage I would say.

Same as the development squads in both football and LGFA.

I had a good laugh at the recent LGFA u14 and u16 panels that were selected.

Moneyglass ladies won u14 championship, u15 all ireland feile and u16 championship.

They have 4 players on those 2 squads.

I think on the u14 squad, 25 out of 30 are Belfast based.

I get that they need to push hard to keep the Belfast players involved in the game and to maybe push them a bit more to challenge the SW teams, but it looks a bit daft when you consider how successful one team was this year and their players are deemed not good enough to make county.

And I am not from Moneyglass so no bias is being shown.

So age groups reverting to even and no decision on minors playing senior until new year

Down are going even as well with the 18yo's eligible to play adult

Yeah and National Feile staying at u15, you literally couldnt write it.

It's a difficult situation as the Feile had to be moved from U-14 as there was a group of kids who missed it due to covid and now to move it back would mean another year would end up missing out. I guess possible solutions would be for one year to do both an U-15 and an U-14 one so every group gets their turn or to move it up to U-16 at some stage. For most clubs, it probably wouldn't be an issue but for big clubs who aren't relying on younger ones playing up, they'd miss out.

Feile as it once was won't be coming back, it will be in it's current form, run off in a day somewhere in the Greater Dublin area, Meath or Kildare.

The staying in peoples houses left the association badly exposed, not to mention the families themselves.

Yeah, all great at the time.  The times thst were in it. When you look back on it, crazy stuff altogether.

Regarding the age groups, even ages, then od ages at inter-county.  It's a bit of a mess.

Big step up after primary school now in north.  Are all counties sticking with U7.5, U9.5 and U11.5 at primary school level?

Then up to U13's at secondary school?

Down go U12 but that's still Go Games with U14 being "two-touch" and not full rules

So age groups reverting to even and no decision on minors playing senior until new year

Down are going even as well with the 18yo's eligible to play adult

Yeah and National Feile staying at u15, you literally couldnt write it.

It's a difficult situation as the Feile had to be moved from U-14 as there was a group of kids who missed it due to covid and now to move it back would mean another year would end up missing out. I guess possible solutions would be for one year to do both an U-15 and an U-14 one so every group gets their turn or to move it up to U-16 at some stage. For most clubs, it probably wouldn't be an issue but for big clubs who aren't relying on younger ones playing up, they'd miss out.

Feile as it once was won't be coming back, it will be in it's current form, run off in a day somewhere in the Greater Dublin area, Meath or Kildare.

The staying in peoples houses left the association badly exposed, not to mention the families themselves.

Yeah, all great at the time.  The times thst were in it. When you look back on it, crazy stuff altogether.

Regarding the age groups, even ages, then od ages at inter-county.  It's a bit of a mess.

Big step up after primary school now in north.  Are all counties sticking with U7.5, U9.5 and U11.5 at primary school level?

Then up to U13's at secondary school?

Down go U12 but that's still Go Games with U14 being "two-touch" and not full rules

What's below U12 JC.

I understand the logic behind 2 touch but it penalises the stronger/better/more skillful players.

I think they should play full rules at U 14.

Below U12 is still to be decided, either P6, P4 or U10, U8. I'd prefer primary school ages for the simple reason it keeps class mates together for that bit longer. We pull from the one primary school so assists us more than some other clubs where it's probably not big of a deal.

As for two touch penalising stronger players, I don't really buy that as the only thing they can't do is solo run, you'd want to coaching lads at that age "heads up" hurling rather than the bigger lads putting the ball on the end of their hurl, running 20 or 30 metres and sticking the ball in the net.

Yes, Primary School should be kept as that.

P2/P3, P4/P5, P6/P7 all together.

Not fair on some P7s having to step up to playing against Secondary school children and half their class mates are still with their classmates.
 

Would Cassidy not have fancied a go in Div 1 with Glenravel ? Can't imagine it's went down great in Glenravel. I suppose when it's a hired gun that's what can happen

I was told he informed the Glenravel lads recently he couldn't continue next season due to work commitments......he neglected to say it was because he would be working for another club!

So Creggan have their man an intermediate specialist
Them and Con Magees will be tasty if the leagues aren't restructured to suit the yo-yo teams.

Would love to see it.

Although would love to see him take creggan to intermediate even more 

Think some cushendall lads could fill the gaps. Should be ok cover wise. You arent replacing Molloy or McManus. Seaan and Maskey are replacable imo. Not guaranteed starters and ONeill the same. Youd hope Boyle nails a starting spot with Conor McCann back and hopefully Clarke we should be ok. Young Joe McCormick cert for county colours at some stage

Joe McLaughlin??

Joe McCormick plays for TNN so I am guessing you mean the Cushendall lad!

[Belfast]

Is a lot of that not what Gaelfast do for clubs in Antrim Belfast?

Fixed that for you 

I can't speak for everyone but I know Woody regularly runs programs in the local primary school and also ran multiple courses for the local clubs and I live nowhere near Belfast.

Ach it was only joke based on a long running topic here that they do nothing outside of Belfast, nothing serious.

I know they go round a few schools here from time to time and organise the post primary competitions, which are great for the kids.

Any insider info on the latest Casement debacle?

Were Heron Bros asked to build it for the same price they tendered it at all those years ago and they told them to go and jump?