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OK, so this is how I see it

McClean comes from an Irish city, which seen 13 of its citizens murdered by the British Army, to play football in Britain

Lad refuses to wear poppy while playing for Sunderland

Sunderland refuse to let the lad issue a letter to explain his actions

Player transferred to Wigan, and refuses to wear poppy while playing for them

Wigan allow McClean to issue a letter, which quite logically states that he supports what the British army did in WWI and WWII, but as it also represents the Northern conflict where 13 of its people were murdered by the army without anyone held accountable, then he can't support wearing it (understandable position)

Mclean plays against Sunderland, is taunted through the entire match by supporters using racial hate filled (anti Irish) chants

McClean reacts with a fist pump in the air

Two Sunderland players physically confront McClean......

And people on here think that McClean is in the wrong!!!!!!!

In my opinion, Sunderland should be walking on eggshells, as they have failed to control both supporters and two players, and McClean didn't physically confront any Sunderland players

County board should wise up and play this game on Sunday. Common sense is not something they excel at.

Agreed, but they won't change it now, shouldn't have been fixed for sat in the 1st place. they won't change it so doesn't look like they are facilitating soccer, which is unfortunate.

This has nothing to do with the facilitation or non facilitation of soccer.

It's  to do with the Senior County Final being fixed for a Sunday, plain and simple, and the county not wanting other county finals to clash with the senior final, i.e the marquee football game all year is the senior football final, so the playing of other finals as a double header is OK, but not splitting them, as it will distract from both finals. This is common throughout the land

BTW, the county has been doing this for years, I have played in two Int finals, one on a Sunday, one on a Saturday. We just got on with it. The Sat one was fixed because the senior final was on the next day. No problem for us, players got time off work, made the normal sacrifices and got on with the game.

Every player has the right to play whatever sport they want to, and the county has whatever right to fix their games how the want to.

The players playing soccer have options, so the decision of what game to play is absolutely theirs to make. Maybe you should be talking to them, and not pointing fingers elsewhere.

BTW, this argument sums up why Antrim football is at the bottom of the rung in Antrim. This would not be tolerated in other counties.

For example Baker, playing for Coleraine, got it written into his contract that if a game clashed with his club, he would play for the club.

wouldn't be tolerated in other counties? did you see the link i posted from the hoganstand about so many counties moving their county finals so that it didn't clash with rugby which was on tv.... this was for supporters not even players, so that kind of blows that out of the water.

People keep saying they have options when in reality they don't, they would be hung out to dry if they played a club gaa game before a soccer game they are contracted to play.

At no stage did i say it should be played at the same time as the senior final, you're right it is the biggest game in the club county calendar but the junior final could have been played before it. My point is that t senior and intermediate level clubs tend to have bigger squads and could deal with the problem better but at junior level it is more difficult.

I'm sorry, some counties moved the timing of their senior final to suit the rugby, not move the dates at a late stage.

Playing two county finals on the same date as the senior, would take away from both finals as most gaels like going to the senior final

County board should wise up and play this game on Sunday. Common sense is not something they excel at.

Agreed, but they won't change it now, shouldn't have been fixed for sat in the 1st place. they won't change it so doesn't look like they are facilitating soccer, which is unfortunate.

This has nothing to do with the facilitation or non facilitation of soccer.

It's  to do with the Senior County Final being fixed for a Sunday, plain and simple, and the county not wanting other county finals to clash with the senior final, i.e the marquee football game all year is the senior football final, so the playing of other finals as a double header is OK, but not splitting them, as it will distract from both finals. This is common throughout the land

BTW, the county has been doing this for years, I have played in two Int finals, one on a Sunday, one on a Saturday. We just got on with it. The Sat one was fixed because the senior final was on the next day. No problem for us, players got time off work, made the normal sacrifices and got on with the game.

Every player has the right to play whatever sport they want to, and the county has whatever right to fix their games how the want to.

The players playing soccer have options, so the decision of what game to play is absolutely theirs to make. Maybe you should be talking to them, and not pointing fingers elsewhere.

BTW, this argument sums up why Antrim football is at the bottom of the rung in Antrim. This would not be tolerated in other counties.

For example Baker, playing for Coleraine, got it written into his contract that if a game clashed with his club, he would play for the club.

They'd be in quare nick to play a county championship final after playing 90 minutes the day before

I don't think thats the point though they should have the chance. Heres an example Sean O'Neill in my opinion is one of the best players in the county at what he does. it just so happens he's also one of the best soccer goalkeepers in the country and makes a few quid in doing so. I feel for players like this who would give anything to play for their club in a county final but their job comes first. Also its unfair on their team mates who have worked hard to get there and will be without some of their best players for the biggest game of the season. Some times i wonder do the county board do these things on purpose, i know we say not to accommodate other sports but esp at junior level i think we should try and help clubs not hinder them, these players are GAA members and at the end of the day the co board are there to facilitate the GAA clubs and their members so sometimes maybe common sense should prevail, i don't mean now changing the game but not fixing it at that time in the first place and do the clubs a favour discreetly.

Is that his full time job?? Or is it a part time extra job were he makes a few quid?? We all have to make sacrifices in life and if I worked for the fire service and was on call I'd have to make that decision... But if it wasn't my main job, I know where id be... Lining out with my club/family/friends.... Its a very easy choice for me.

Totally agree,

i disagree, i don't think you can compare playing soccer in the irish league to any other part time job as they are getting paid to do something they enjoy and would probably be doing at a lower level if they weren't IL standard anyway. The thing being this is a small country and could you imagine the uproar if one of these players said they were injured and couldn't play soccer on saturday then lined out for their club? the lads would be hung out to dry, not fair on them.

Also not fair on other clubs with teams who are fully committed to GAA.
The GAA has a responsibility to the GAA.

It is hard enough for Antrim GAA to factor in hurling and football and Ulster GAA commitments when arranging fixtures, not you want them to factor in Saturday soccer!!!!

The players have a choice, and no one is demonizing them for playing soccer, but you can expect them to be given preference for fixture dates because of clashes.

Would NI soccer consider rearranging the fixture?? Answer No. Why do you expect Antrim GAA to?

[Preferably not Owenbeg as it is not really a Neutral venue since Derry teams are competing.]

Would it not be wise for the powers that be, to have a double header of the camogie and hurling for Slaughtneil's supporters sake? Preferably not Owenbeg as it is not really a Neutral venue since Derry teams are competing.

A double header in the Armagh Athletic Grounds or Newry would be perfect.

JC ... do you want to deal with that point? 

Taking it to Armagh would kill any chance of neutrals attending Id say

Are we as Antrim men seriously taking about Neutral venues??? I don't think that would go down well in other counties considering Casement Park's complete domination of Ulster finals for years.

This organisation has at its basis an anti catholic agenda. Why would a protestant who sees his catholic co-worker/neighbour as an equal want to be a member of such a blatantly sectarian orginisation?

While cross-community relations across NI/The North/OWC/Six Counties etc. vary wildly from place to place, I think it's worth giving an example of Fintona. Back in July it was the "turn" here to host the 12th demonstration for the West Tyrone area. The local LOL lodge responsible for organising the event did not put up any bunting or flags until they started at around 5am on Monday 13th, in an aftermath of anti-social behaviour that seen a local pub's front door getting rammed. The Catholic owners of the pub, whom were ready for a busy day of custom, managed to contact a local Protestant joinery business whose owners are members of the local LOL early that morning to fix them up with temporary double-doors in a couple of hours while a mixture of Catholics & Protestants helped clean up the mess done by the joyriders knocking over floral displays. The day passed, and the local lodge took down the flags, banners & bunting and cleaned up all the streets and roads used for demonstrations before sunset. In prior preparations, the local Parish Priest and PE opened up car parking space at the parish hall in the centre of Fintona and also at the pastoral centre on the edge of town on the day. While marching bands are not much my scene and I didn't go out to watch any of them, the day went well for all involved despite what happened before sunrise. A bit of mutual sense & respect that goes both ways works here.

Now, places like Portydown on the other hand...

But is this not the argument about country 'v' town

In the country, relationships between communities is much stronger because historically they relied on each other, eg. farmers helping each other out etc.

Where I come from, a relation of mine (republican background) has a  farm that runs onto a unionist farm (of DUP background)

When the catholic farmer went away to the All Ireland etc, the protestant farmer milked the cattle and visa versa.

The part I loved, was that the Catholic farmer bought green white and gold rock back as a gift and the Protestant farmer usually brought red white and blue
rock, and the both had a good laugh about it.

They always marched down the road on the twelfth, and never met any hassle.

I'm sorry, but why is it Teddy's fault??

This seems to be a clear case of incompetent staff, an incompetent/ arrogant manager, and a frustrated guest!!!

He turns up with the right tickets, and the paid staff, not only were not able to help him get in, but were hindering him to get in.

If he loses his temper, the paid security security staff should have acted professionally, cooled the situation and got him to where he was meant to be. It's called good service.
But to be told to come back in an hour, by that time he would have missed a major part of the get together is a disgrace.

The head of security should get fired for this, and CP owe Teddy a hugh apology. (The silence from CP is also a disgrace)

Also, to people who are criticizing his "thick" personality trait, it was this same personality trait of not taking any BS during games that lead him to be a duel All Ireland winner....

Just moved to the UK after living in the states for 10 years.

Sky's coverage was excellent, 100 times better than RTE. Intelligent analysis, great footballing debate, and analysts who were spot on in their analysis (who tried to predict how the teams were going to win)

Very positive even though the game was a dog fight. The GAA should award all coverage of GAA to Sky for 1  year, then tell RTE to get their finger out and do a professional job if they want the contract back

country bumpkin

Out of interest, what is the JB factor? He definitely seems to have the midis touch at getting teams over the line, Lavey, Moortown, Cargin, Slaughneil, prob left a couple out, so serious question, what does he do differently?

Is there a safety issue here that needs to be managed?

Maguire01

It's not a ridiculous importance on flegs and emblems, it's about having the freedom to express one's cultural identity without fear of reprisals, which we have never experienced.

Just say that we have a united ireland in the morning. I would love that the Shinners et al will have the courage to afford the unionists the same, i.e. reconise their british culture and engrain it into the fabric for a 32 county Ireland -allow the UJ to fly over councils which have a unionist population etc etc

The unionists f$%Ked this up all those years ago with their zero tolerance, and still haven't got it yet, and they don't realize that they are actually aiding SF with their antics

This is silly and irrelevant Cargin have been an outstanding team that have just happened to come up against another outstanding team, had these teams came along at different generations they would have won a lot of championships .. such being we have managed to come out on top the most during this period... the sad thing is that having such good teams that could compete on the Ulster stage (club football) that we haven't managed to have a decent county team (bar team that got to Ulster final) that could live with the likes of Armagh Tyrone and Donegal

My only gripe is traveling down for a match on a Friday night and it will be fecking freezing !!!!!!!!!!! Summer my ass

IGood points MR2 about the club standard, but if you take a longer look at the county in terms of good teams I believe we can see the worrying trend. In the past 20 years Antrim have been able to produce 3 teams that were good / competitive.

1995 - We had a team of great potential, did really well against Cavan, but fell apart after the Morrison / county board ruction.

2000-2001? - The team that went to the Ulster semi and had Derry beat except for some last minute heroics from big Antony, but fell apart after the manager resigned due to legit personal reasons

And the Ulster final team, which n fairness had a good 2-3 year period

The issue I have is that it looks like we produce a strong team every 10 years, and that each team lasts for about 1 year. We need more staying power and a speeding up of the frequency of good teams being produced.

Regarding Cargin / St Gall's rivalry , the margin of this rivalry is so small that it would have taken very little for Cargin to had dominated the past 10 years. St Gall's got on top, and have been so impressive with their endless obsession of winning Antrim, Ulster's and All Irelands, which has lead to an upper hand in Antrim that they have ruthlessly held onto.

One solution
Regional development Schools (for all player standards, not just elite)

I'm now living in the US, my son plays the ground ball. New York Red Bulls have set up a structure where the have about 20 RDS operating in the NJ area. The kids go, are placed according to ability, and then go through a 12 week development program.

This actually helps the local clubs, (e.g a number of your team goes to a RDS, where they receive superior technical training along with kids of other local clubs)

I believe that one way to improve the standard of hurling across clubs is to set this kind of development structure, so instead of county development teams, we should set up a club development program focusing on player development of both county and non county standard hurlers, develop everybody, give all clubs the opportunity to participate and within ten years, the standard should improve

Anybody who has a background in leadership structures etc, will tell you that the first golden rule in good organizational leadership, is that leadership starts from the top.

In all my time playing for and supporting Antrim, we have never had a good leader, who set out a vision on how Antrim can get to the top, in both hurling and football.

Antrim need a couple of things
1- A clear development structure for our youth. In my mind, this should not be solely focused on development squads but a system where we elevate the standards of all clubs. (Living in the US at the moment, and the NY Redbulls soccer structure is really interesting)
2- As previous posters have identified, a football leadership group, with a clear objectives and budget
3- Stop pandering / discussing players who don't want, or who have demonstrated an inability to give the necessary commitment
4- Schools schools schools, we should be setting an objective that Antrim has top teams in A, B, C,D college grade competitions
5- We need a marketing push to drive pride into Antrim Gaa. How many counties have the following

1- Had repersentatives  in the All Ireland, hurling, football and camogie finals. With 6 senior all Ireland titles
2- Had provided winners of All Ireland club titles in Hurling, football and camogie (all in the last ten years)
3- Won All Ireland U21 football, and beaten finalists a number of years later
4 - Continuously produce All Ireland handball champions
5 - Had players leading Co Derry school teams
etc etc

We have so much to be proud of, but the negative vibes are always allowed to prosper
Nearly all counties have a school system leading the development

This is really easy, just follow NCAA basketball system

Each team gets ranked at the start of the year
Play the early season competitions , league, and provincial championships as is, and reassess the rankings every week.

Then play an All Ireland championship, with four equal brackets, knockout football, with the games based on on ranking, i.e 1 rank plays rank 8

Positives -
Every game counts as it affects ranking. So in effect, each team will have between 12 and 20 championship games each year instead of 2-10. Stop everybody complaining about the amount of training being done for 2 games.

Stop intercounty managers treating secondary competitions as experiments. Every game counts

Weaker counties get to play teams of their own standard in the league, but also get to play against the big teams in knockout football. This leads to a proper development structure and the potential of upsets (e.g. Longford - Derry 2014, Antrim Donegal 2009)

The traditional competitions which drive local rivalries are maintained, (e.g. Ulster Championship)

The provincial championship importance is elevated as major shift in rankings would occur depending on championship results

Have championship weekends, to condense the season, start the season later, play right through all the competitions until All Ireland. This would stop over training.