Antrim Football Thread

[paddyjohn]

Colin Toal a future county manager? Not being disrespectful genuinely asking what teams has he taking before u20s?

Lisburn and Sarsfields

[SlemishSoldier31]

Colin Toal a future county manager? Not being disrespectful genuinely asking what teams has he taking before u20s?

Lisburn and Sarsfields, however a good modern day coach with great attention to detail and player management skills.

Both clubs absolutely loved him as a manager and left a great affect on the players, he would be a breath of fresh air.

Why do we keep insisting on pursuing the manager with the biggest reputation or name sure that worked well with McEntee. It's worth trying something new and hiring a man within the county who knows it inside out.

Regards,
SS

[Take the Mark]

Your Da done his prospects no good this evening young Toal.

Regards
TTM

[Hectic]

Do we benefit from keeping these young lads from playing club football?

Surely a few senior matches wouldn't do any harm in preparation for U20 football?

[ck]

Antrim u20's as big as 9/1 tonight with the bookmakers at home to a Donegal side who wouldn't even be fancied to win Ulster at this age group.

From what I've gathered this is a decent u20 side with some real talent and under great management of Colin Toal who I see as the future senior county manager.

I believe this is disrespectful from the bookies and a great chance for punters to clip them and rinse the crookmakers tonight.

Regards,
SS

Disrespectful from the bookies? Mother of God.
Tell me this.. what has Toal done for you make a claim that he is a great manager?

[erinsboy]

The reality is this is where Antrim football is at and we are going to be in or around division 4 for a long time going by our underage results, nothing is changing for the foreseeable future.
Only when we get to the crux of our problems and do something to actually address the issues which some have already been highlighting on this board over the past few weeks.
I've always thought the grading system is a massive problem within the county with no grading until U16.
There is to many one sided games at underage  which help neither teams and also the retention of underage players.If the other sports that we are competing against can get this right why can't the GAA.
And now we have a senior league that isn't properly graded either....
We need to be playing competitive games regularly within the county to be able  to be competitive outside it.
We all realise the standards of coaching is well below our neighbouring counties and the what we are sending to the development squads is simply not coached to the correct standard for the development coaches to nurture.
The GAA culture that is needed for our games to thrive is missing in large areas of our county ,just look at the numbers that go to watch our games ,club or county and the large Villages/towns who struggle to get numbers for teams when in areas of Derry or Tyrone the same size of area can sustain 2-3 clubs.
We have lots of problems but we will just keep doing the same and we will actually get worse cause the enthusiasm will drain and drain.
Negative I know ,but it's hard to find or see anything to be positive around Antrim football ATM.

[ck]

Just in from Dunsilly. It was a horror show. 2 points in 65mins. No score in 2nd half after Donegal took off all their key men at half time.
I feel for the players as there clearly is some talent there and individually they are much better than what they showed tonight. There was no shape or structure to them but most disappointing there was no fight or spirit either on the pitch or on the line.

I don't want to be negative but tonight was abysmal.

[Spike]

Colin Toal still bookies favourite for the big job anyone? 

Not only was that one of the worst 20 squads threw together, it  was one of the worst tactical displays.    And in Antrim that is saying something

[Saffsof82]

Don't know how you can say that. With a man sent off half way through the first half all tactical plans surely went out the window. Put to the sword by a top class Donegal team.

[ck]

Don't know how you can say that. With a man sent off half way through the first half all tactical plans surely went out the window. Put to the sword by a top class Donegal team.

There was no tactical plan before the lad got sent off or after it. No plans around kickouts. No attacking structure and wide open in defence. It was a complete mess.
Even without any tactical nouce, surely you can put a team together who fight for one another? There wasn't an ounce of that either I'm afraid.

The only saving grace is that Fermanagh were annihilated tonight too so that gives some hope for Saturday.

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

I suppose the post bigging him up yesterday has left him open here but the suggestion that this lies at management's door is unfair I think.

Players on this team have largely been taking similar pastings in county underage football right the way up. Why would it be any different at U20? Why when they get to senior do we expect managers to get a tune out of them?

We've spoken at length as to why we have an endless conveyer belt of teams who are miles away from the standard and it's not individuals at fault.

[Christmas Lights]

Look,  it is what it is.  When Donegal play Tyrone it will be a tight competitive match,  when Antrim play Fermanagh,  you would expect it will be a tight competitive match, just at different levels.  In these competitions you aim to compete and win matches against teams you are on an even enough keel with and hope you give a good enough account of yourself against the Derry's, Tyrone's and Donegal's.  Thats all you can hope for.  These drubbings happen when you have 2 teams at completely different ends of the scales, Antrim seniors are staring down the barrell of a tanking against Armagh as well.  The deeper rooted issues are well established & have been discussed at length in here but until the thing is really built from the bottom up, there simply is no quick fix & the gap between the top and bottom counties will continue to only widen.     

[The_Saffron_serpent69]

Colin Toal still bookies favourite for the big job anyone? 

Not only was that one of the worst 20 squads threw together, it  was one of the worst tactical displays.    And in Antrim that is saying something

I agree yesterdays performance was far from brilliant but I feel it is abysmal and honestly quite rich labelling these young saffs as the worst 20s team through together when I fail to recall an Antrim developmental team compete at a high level since the minors in 2017 when they reaped the rewards down in ballybofey. That Donegal team were a well oiled machine yesterday and it was always going to be a tough match for the saffs never mind going a man down! Although I digress as I do agree that questions need to be asked at the heads of the table as to how and what they will do to try close this gap of standards between the counties of Ulster! 

[Hectic]

Was it not just a couple of years ago Donegal beat us on penalties in the same competition?

[Gaels1789]

Few men on this very quick to throw a team under the bus, look the got a good trimming by a team who could win Ulster.

That's just where Antrim football is at now, if they win on Saturday a few on here soon change their tone on the whole thing