Messages

Yes Antrim GAA man...sin ó bhfuil!

We're you at the game Brendan?!? What were your thoughts?!?
What about yourself Minder?!! What trends are you seeing?!!  Constructive feedback from regular attenders is always part of a valuable  learning experience for everyone!

Thanks Old Timers...hopefully I have 🤞. You're right about Players not attending or making themselves available. I believe the county needs to market themselves better and, perhaps, go above and beyond what other counties are doing in order to attract the top players. It's an honour/privilege to play for Dubs/Tyrone/Kerry etc, but that isn't the case here yet, I believe. That being the case, we need to be more proactive in making it an attractive proposition...unfortunately, that'll take money! 🙈

100% Belfast GAA man...it was one of a number of things that I learned from this experience! It has been a massive learning curve for me and I will defo take that from the season.

Milltown Row...completely agree with you! The post was filled on 27/28th January, with no one beating the door down looking to give a hand. We have tried our best under the circumstances and those within and close to the Squad are fully aware of that and appreciate what we have tried to do. There are many little things that need addressed and a long term approach to the county minor team would, I agree, be an excellent first step!

Peileadoir...this isn't really an issue for social media as I believe there are issues there that I am not really privy to, however, suffice to say, the lad in question warranted his place within the team and has been a consistent performer throughout.

BigBallWeeBall...you are misinformed re the amount of coaches and club reps at the meeting!!! How else are we meant to effectively communicate? Perhaps we should phone each person individually?!? The problem I had was that those who were there agreed with me, I assume, as they didn't once question or correct anything I said. We did speak to a few club coaches directly throughout our time and sometimes we agreed and sometimes we didn't! That's the nature of debate!!! At all times, however, I can honestly say that the best interest of each player was at the centre of our arguments! The county minor season is most of the way through at this stage and the club minor season is 2 games old. Which of the two had the more urgent need of training Players and sorting systems? Clubs preparing their teams for championship in February, which was the line that came back to us a number of times, is just laughable! Perhaps you disagree?!? I would love to hear your rationale for it though? Just to reiterate my point about us not wanting to overtrain players, no player involved with McRory/Hogan Cups trained with Antrim until they were out of that competition...they were at latter stages and therefore more urgent a requirementnship  than ours! All we asked was for similar favours! Would club coaches be happy if we called county training sessions in the 2/3 weeks leading up to the championship later in the year?!? I doubt it!!!

Youngsters are being overtrained at this time of the year and then end up with months without football. At the beginning of the season, I asked for a meeting with parents and club coaches, where I set out a timetable of the season, right through to minor club championship final. I set out what I thought was in the best interests of the lads, ourselves with the county and the clubs. 4 clubs turned up to that meeting along with a number of parents. At the meeting not one person disagreed with what I proposed, despite being given numerous opportunities to do so. Did it happen...no it didn't, resulting in a number of lads picking up overuse injuries because they were being overtrained. We ended up calling sessions short when it came to our attention as we preferred to look after the lads' wel being rather than anything else. Communication between county, clubs and parents is the key, along with coaching egos being left to the side. We tried our best as a management team, but the effort from club coaches was reciprocated by a very small number of people. Until this issue is addressed l, then there is no point in speaking about anything else. I am involved with my own club's under 12 team, which is proving much more rewarding an experience than county minor football, which should not be the case!!!

A few things...I'm part of the mgt team! St. Brigid's has 3 members in the panel...2 were injured and 1 left to concentrate on their studies...St. Paul's has 2 lads in the squad, 1 started...no one else from those clubs was available for selection! Before criticising the players, perhaps you should ask them individually what they thought of the set up, rather than speculating...and before you criticise mgt, perhaps you could put yourself forward to do the job yourself.