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Dr Crawford has come out fighting and accusing department officials of deliberately misleading Arlene on what was the best scheme.

I wonder did he tell this to his relations as well!

I think the management team might have been made aware prior to the first game, but perhaps decided to go ahead anyway.  Maybe go caught up in the possibility of "bright lights of success" and the chance to win. 

The whole concept behind the Celtic Challenge is to give all players - particularly on the fringes of minor squads the opportunity to compete at inter county level.  With the 2 year gap between the then U16 and U18 (minor) competitions a significant amount of players were getting lost.  However, with minor now at U17 this has changed the situation.

I was giving the lad the benefit of the doubt, but you could be right as some of the coaches involved would have know right enough. Whether that feel on deaf ears is another story.
I don't know the lad in question personally.

If they were told then yes that wouldn't be on.

I don't think it was intentional, I just think the young lad in the job this year didn't understand the rules properly. Probably should have been explained to him better by someone on the payroll if you know what I mean.

TBH even if they do get kept in the Celtic Challenge they're now far too highly graded for the team that they'll have to put in it as all the Celtic Challenge games are on the same days as they're playing in Leinster.
Even better, it will make Down have to take in a bigger expanse of players who otherwise would be cast aside as not suitable and proper development can be done.

I thought there was something amiss 

Yes I had heard Down were playing Minors even though they too are graded.  Could be an interesting situation they find themselves in with regard to the regulations.

Yip,
Down management first year in the job made a balls allegedly and will do well to not get booted out.

[Don't see any issue with Bredagh's fees at all]

In Dublin I believe the county board assigns the schools to each club and then that clubs GPO can only attend those schools......

co board needs to take over inter club bickering and work out a system that will maximise the numbers playing irrespective of what club.

Don't see any issue with Bredagh's fees at all

Carryduff you mean!

Compared to some South Dublin clubs I'm sure it does seem reasonable but then again hurling isn't seen as a working class sport in a lot of those areas.

I know we couldn't ask for such memberships and hope to have any youngsters come through the gates.

What's the story with Antrim U17's in the Celtic Challenge?

Is this a development squad with the bigger effort going into the Leinster championship at U18?

yes. Antrim are playing their u16 hurlers in celtic challenge. u17 playing in leinster

That makes more sense, although what Pjoe is saying mustn't be strictly true as I know of a few of our U17 lads who play on that Celtic challenge team are also part of the U17 minor team in the lower level Grade 3 in Leinster.

Down just wouldn't have the playing pool to not play without the U17's in the Celtic Challenge and even then I think the lad doing goals for the U17's was playing U14 last year if facebook is anything to go by.

What's the story with Antrim U17's in the Celtic Challenge?

Is this a development squad with the bigger effort going into the Leinster championship at U18?

Very hard to get our best U17 players to take it seriously, when they will be on the u18 team anyway. Not sure why it appears to be more of a problem in Antrim but going by own young fellas experience at this grade albeit a couple of years ago, it would be fairly negative.

Are they two separate management structures for the two teams?

In Down it's the one and the same with quite a large overlap anyway in terms of players.

Belfast has too many clubs, and a lot of kids are not being directed into gaa clubs the way they used too at primary level.. schools have more options, I didnt go to a school that had soccer, both Primary and secondary were all Gaa, teachers seemed to have more time to coach and I can remember coaches coming in from other clubs to help out (or poach  )

Now you have soccer in all schools, parents arent bothered anymore also, as long as they are doing something they seem happy enough.. Can't blame soccer for that, its wall to wall coverage on TV so it will have an impact, plus their fixtures are run a lot better TBH..

Drink was always there but drugs now is big factor, mental health issues are another thing on the rise, not sure what the clubs do now for awareness on these areas, but that needs to be tackled..

The troubles actually helped with Gaa numbers I believe, mainly because of identity, identifying yourself with Ireland and or national sport, the family side of it increased numbers, brothers all playing for the one club and so on, that's still there of course but getting less and less.. once the troubles had stopped kids started to get their kicks elswhere, Belfast opened up and the club wasnt a place where you hung out, the city centre was..

How do we get it back? back to basics for me, get the planning right in the clubs for starters... I know we have taken our eye of the ball lately and as a club we are going through that down turn that all clubs go through, we need to sort ourselves out and no amount of money from headquarters will fix that unless we create the right mix of coaching, encouragement, attitudes and targets to inspire children to stay at the club through to senior...

Its not that long ago we had 2 senior hurling teams, 3 senior football teams, 2 south antrim (beer belly teams ) all getting games.. we are back to one in each code, feeder teams are important but kids just want to play for the first team and walk away now if they are not getting a chance.. The numbers are there and the facilities/pitches are better than what I played on so hopefully the planning that Antrim will put in place with the investment will sort things out long term.. oh and get Casemnet built!

how the GPOs tie in with the schools and get the kids that they coach midweek to attend a saturday morning GAA club nursery / academy will dictate if this initiative fails or succeeds. the Dublin model is a GPO is club assigned and schools are assigned to that club / GPO

I get the impression there's very few natural boundaries existing between the clubs and schools in Belfast, especially primary schools.

For example at the Shaws Road area, you've St Pauls, Rossa and Sarsfields pitches right beside each other. The old Rossa club house on the Falls road was a stones throw from St Galls and their pitches. O'D's are right beside St Johns with the Gorts further on up the hill. Davitts are in the mix there somewhere as well as well as a few others. It seems to be family orientated, i.e. you ma or da played for such and such a club, so you play for them. That's OK, but new young blood needs to be brought into the fold.

A friend of mine was telling me of a GDO who was in the school he teaches at and the GDO was informing the kids of when the training was at the club he was affiliated to and the next day the school took a call from the chairman of another club giving out about the GDO showing favouritism to his own club. I'd say whoever looks after the GDO's in Antrim got a similar call if not quicker.

As MR suggests probably too many small clubs and none willing to yield an inch to the other.

On the South Belfast side of things, Carryduff do indeed charge £100 per child membership and from all accounts there's very little leeway on that.  I can't say for sure whether Bredagh are in the same ballpark or not, but they both have really big numbers at underage as the likes of the attendances at their Cúl Camps shows.
Problems I have with that are that if a youngster then decides to pick up a hurl, they've to get a helmet at almost £40 if they chose to buy a subsidised one from the club and then a hurl itself at anything from £15 up you're well out of pocket before you even think about boots and playing gear. That's a big ask for any parent.

In terms of how are they doing on the field, hurling wise Bredagh and Carryduff have picked up quite a few underage championships but really haven't kicked on at adult level. I gather that the same may be true at the football, but can't say for sure.
I'd know a few of their coaches quite well and was asking one last year or the year before as to why their minors were so weak after they'd won the U14 Feile at that age group with a very large panel and he was pretty forthright in that a lot of the hurlers just quit when winning started to get harder, "just another middle class sport" were his words, where they pick and choose. Most still lived in the area. He'd an U16 team down in our place a few weeks back and I happened to be complimenting their fullback who I thought was outstanding and one of the other coaches shrugged his shoulders and "sure he plays schools cup rugby for Methody, not sure how long we'll have him for". That can happen anywhere but there doesn't seem to be the connection to adult hurling/football teams there as yet whereas it's a given in some other places. Must be soul destroying for the coaches at times.
I can only think of one lad currently on the Down senior hurling panel from South Belfast at the minute, if even that and its not as if its a strong panel.

On the county development squads I'm in total agreement with Joe as they are getting in the way of clubs developing youngsters due to the asks put on those picked to go on them. The clubs are having to put training and games on hold far too much.
They are meant to supplement clubs and not replace them as per the Kilkenny model.

Someone touched on the recreational aspect and back in my day that was what we called the thirds team or turds, aka junior team where the lads didn't train, were either shite but loved the game, were retired from serious stuff and in it for the craic or the young lads cutting their teeth (literally) at the adult game as well as play underage.
It wasn't for everybody 

What's the story with Antrim U17's in the Celtic Challenge?

Is this a development squad with the bigger effort going into the Leinster championship at U18?

Thanks Owen. We're going to test drive a few in the next week or so. I do like the look of the Ateca though.

One of the best looking compact SUVs. If you need more than 5 seats the Kodiaq from Skoda is the big brother of the Karoq and also highly rated.  Q7 size and near quality for a Skoda price.

Was in one of those Kodiaq's the other day, spacy enough inside without looking like a bus on the outside, was impressed by it.
Didn't get a drive at it though, but I think they're 2 litre diesel engines.

Joint US, UK and French air attacks last night it seems, Syria already saying a lot of the missiles shot down.

What happens next, who knows!!!!

NI win their first medal on the track since 1986 (and first athletics medal since 1990) with Leon Reid's bronze in the 200m.  English favourite Zharnel Hughes was disqualified from 1st place moving Reid up from 4th.

Is he Northern Irish though?

Careful now, he might be Irish at the next Olympics!

How blatant was the 'winner' nudging the guy in the next lane? totally put him off and in a photo finish the other runner would have won!

Thought that myself, although the panel on the BBC were trying to say it was an accident. FFS it was like something you'd see on a GAA field, arm across the man running beside you.
Right decision all day long.

Press reporting some form of "strikes" in Syria this weekend.

With the Russians intermingled with the Syrians and allegedly Syria having a "first world" aerial defence shield in place this could all kick off.

Thankfully Trump is too embroiled in allegations of paying off porn stars to give it his full attention................

To tell you the truth it looks like massive incompetence in the higher echelons of the civil service was a huge factor in RHI.

+1

Incompetence is a strong theme within the managerial levels of NICS.  Public servants only interested in their next move to another department and/or a promotion regardless of previous record.

There's more to this than incompetence but that will be enough to get Arlene off the hook unless holy Joe Jonathan Bell can bring forth manna from heaven in the form of something tangible that ties Arlene into this a bit deeper than she's currently letting on.

So if that gets Nick Cotton off the hook will the shinners go back into Gov?

I don't think Arlene stepping aside was part of the botched deal a few weeks back, so I can't see this making a button of difference if Arlene isn't prepared to sign off on the ILA.

To tell you the truth it looks like massive incompetence in the higher echelons of the civil service was a huge factor in RHI.

+1

Incompetence is a strong theme within the managerial levels of NICS.  Public servants only interested in their next move to another department and/or a promotion regardless of previous record.

There's more to this than incompetence but that will be enough to get Arlene off the hook unless holy Joe Jonathan Bell can bring forth manna from heaven in the form of something tangible that ties Arlene into this a bit deeper than she's currently letting on.