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Cargin reserve champions for another year. Anyone waiting on the Cargin 'pipeline' drying up will be waiting a long time.

The notion that Dunloy were a flash in the pan is well and truly put to bed. They are no bad team when they have their best 15 on the pitch. They have a few county-level quality players but I suspect we will never see them in Saffron colours

The frustration at the Celtic board is fully justified given the lack of ambition over the last decade, but the blame for this result falls entirely to Brendan Rodgers. Yes a few signings would be nice but Celtic should be winning that game with their eyes closed with the players already in the dressing room.

To be fair, the level of commitment expected from a modern-day player has never been higher. There's been a noticeable shift even compared to just a few years ago, especially at the top clubs. The days of a couple of training sessions and a game at the weekend are long gone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure most players are more than willing to do whatever is asked of them but lets not underestimate the demands managers put on our amateur players which won't always be easy.

Best of luck to Ciaran in the new role. Never had any dealings with him but he has the reputation as a good enough operator. Hopefully he is afforded the scope to really drive things forward

Good win for Bannside and the Masters. Not too often Antrim beat Kerry at any grade

A huge challenge is coming from St Brigids, they have the quality to win it and seem very focused. Creggan will also pose a formidable threat, however looking through their team from the weekend its not as strong as I thought but they have men to come back. Dunloy, I don't see as contenders. St Brigids dealt with them handily enough last year and them or Cargin would do the same again. I still don't see it in Portglenone, the forward power is just not there. So its St Brigids or Cargin winning it come October for me but I have been wrong many times before.

This sums it up pretty well. Cargin are deservedly slight favourites with serious challenges coming from Creggan and St Brigids. Portglenone are strong but possibly missing the firepower. None of the rest will count.

Apologies if this is a naive question, but why are so many city teams are struggling at underage? I appreciate there's more distractions in urban areas, but hasn't that always been the case? And surely many city clubs would have the benefit of larger populations? You'd think there'd be enough players to get a team on the pitch anyway.

One could argue that an open-draw, straight-knockout championship would increase the level of jeopardy for the bigger teams over a longer period. As it stands, the top teams can afford a poor performance early in the championship without facing serious consequences as long as they get out of the group. They've all have suffered meaningless defeats in the group stages in recent years.

Raising the stakes and introducing the possibility of big teams clashing early on could shake things up which can only be a good thing. It might also raise overall standards and ambition, especially if lower-ranked teams had the chance of knocking out one of the big guns with a big performance on the day.

I really can't stand the whole "players not committing to the county" argument, it's total nonsense. The reality is, there are very few players who aren't available, and honestly, are they any better than the lads who are showing up.

What bothers me most about that argument is that it shifts the blame onto the players, as if they're somehow letting the county down. It completely ignores the bigger picture, decades of poor leadership from county boards, no real youth development structures, very little GAA presence in schools, and in truth, a general lack of interest in the GAA across big parts of the county.

If we're serious about the future of Antrim football, the appointment of a good Operations Manager matters way more than whoever the next senior manager is going to be.

Ref and linesmen were not an issue at all.

I wasn't at the game but everyone knows a large pinch of salt is required when the Cargin contingent are complaining about referees.

St Galls were a truly outstanding team but the club didn't have the "conveyor belt" of young talent coming through to keep them at the top. The interesting thing about Cargin at the moment is the amount of youth already being blooded into their senior team.

As I've said before, this is a Cargin team supposedly in transition and even if St Brigids or Creeggan get over the line this year, I'd expect Cargin to remain the team to beat for a long time yet.

Genuine question, where is that assumption coming from?
I might have missed it but I don't see Cargin competing strongly at any of the juvenile ages groups. So when that group of experienced players eventually go, there just doesn't seem to be the quality to replace.

Or maybe I have missed something?

I'm looking more at the group currently breaking into senior level, and you'd probably expect to be about for the next 10 years or so. The point I'm making is that they appear to be blooding this new talent well already and that stands them in good stead for the future.

That said, it will be near impossible to replace some of their more experienced players and I certainly don't expect them to remain as dominant ever year, but I do expect them to be one of the top sides for the foreseeable

St Galls were a truly outstanding team but the club didn't have the "conveyor belt" of young talent coming through to keep them at the top. The interesting thing about Cargin at the moment is the amount of youth already being blooded into their senior team.

As I've said before, this is a Cargin team supposedly in transition and even if St Brigids or Creeggan get over the line this year, I'd expect Cargin to remain the team to beat for a long time yet.

In fairness that's a lot better than an amalgamation being able to field two teams

Disagree with that one. Nothing embarrassing about a club having to amalgamate at underage. It's obviously not ideal and I'm sure it's not St Galls preference, but given the choice between that and potentially not being able to field a team, the choice is pretty clear.

In the meantime, I'm sure St Galls are doing all they can to address the low playing numbers.

They got to the U16 county final last year. That's this current team plus their last year minors.

In the final they had 14 subs. Try to square that circle

So they've plenty of numbers and aren't playing at a higher level? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me