Antrim Football Thread

[Walter Cronc]

We need the people more than investment.  We do not have enough good football men in the county to make anything happen at the minute. 
When it comes to time and volunteering, who will make the sacrifices to do the hard yards when it doesn't involve their own child or club.
The best counties have these people, currently we don't.

Get Ulster GAA to pay their wages! There cannot be any stone left unturned and yes I include 11+ grades in that. Omagh CBS and St Pats Armagh/Downpatrick became non selective. Ballymena could follow.

[Spike]

People living along the loughshore naturally look west rather than east.  it will take something unnatural to change that. 

Add in that magherafelt is only 5 or 6 miles away then simple geography is going to rule.

South Derry and Tyrone schools also don't have to worry about hurling too much and can concentrate on the football.

maybe a better option would be to target st louis and st benedicts.    then have st killians and cross and passion in the glens.    im sure someone better placed in belfast could suggest more than a few rivalries in north, south and west belfast.

Parents are sending their kids to magherafelt because they are good schools and it is closer than ballymena. 

There is zero chance the board of governors at st louis are going to change to non-selective just for the good of antrim football!

Parents in ardboe cookstown and moortown also send their kids to magherafelt and they seem to be quite secure in their tyroneness. 

[NAG1]

We need the people more than investment.  We do not have enough good football men in the county to make anything happen at the minute. 
When it comes to time and volunteering, who will make the sacrifices to do the hard yards when it doesn't involve their own child or club.
The best counties have these people, currently we don't.

Get Ulster GAA to pay their wages! There cannot be any stone left unturned and yes I include 11+ grades in that. Omagh CBS and St Pats Armagh/Downpatrick became non selective. Ballymena could follow.

Never happening.

But that doesn't mean the premise of the idea is flawed. It needs investment though and needs to backed up to support clubs too.

[EOC1923]

After falling into Div 4 in 2020 Louth GAA implemented a strategic overhaul involving elite coaching, administrative reform and major infrastructure investment. One of the items focused on was strategic planning, with a review to streamline player pathways, improve retention in Urban clubs and enhance commercial self sufficiency through initiatives like An Lu.
Instead of all the money spent on big name managers like Davy Fitz (im sure Doran quite expensive also) could we not focus on the above?

Sounds great. So how do we streamline player pathways and retain players at club level using methods that havent been tried to date?

Whatever being done to date clearly not working. Pay an expert who knows more than me or you to figure out a plan, pay a hurling manager a quarter of what Day Fitz allegedly gets paid and use the other 3/4 towards our future. No idea what Davy gets paid by the way buy you get my point

[brokencrossbar1]

Have a slight interest in this now being an Antrim blow-in. Surely a lot of this would fall Kearney's remit to start looking towards developing. There's enough 'resources' (players etc) to do much better than currently the case but the overall infrastructure within the city in particular needs looked at. No grass pitch in North Belfast to facilitate any of the clubs based there. Schools with limited facilities. Within a 15 minute walk for my house there are 4 primary schools with no grass facilities. How are they accommodated?  Without fields there's limited that anyone can do and it all starts in P3-4

[NAG1]

Have a slight interest in this now being an Antrim blow-in. Surely a lot of this would fall Kearney's remit to start looking towards developing. There's enough 'resources' (players etc) to do much better than currently the case but the overall infrastructure within the city in particular needs looked at. No grass pitch in North Belfast to facilitate any of the clubs based there. Schools with limited facilities. Within a 15 minute walk for my house there are 4 primary schools with no grass facilities. How are they accommodated?  Without fields there's limited that anyone can do and it all starts in P3-4

It totally does fall into his remit, he is supposed to be the strategic lead for the county. This means getting out of the day to day stuff and making change happen.

He is only into the role, but I am pretty confident that the role shouldn't be taken up by arguments over fixtures or venues for games and should be at a completely different level strategically.

[brokencrossbar1]

Have a slight interest in this now being an Antrim blow-in. Surely a lot of this would fall Kearney's remit to start looking towards developing. There's enough 'resources' (players etc) to do much better than currently the case but the overall infrastructure within the city in particular needs looked at. No grass pitch in North Belfast to facilitate any of the clubs based there. Schools with limited facilities. Within a 15 minute walk for my house there are 4 primary schools with no grass facilities. How are they accommodated?  Without fields there's limited that anyone can do and it all starts in P3-4

It totally does fall into his remit, he is supposed to be the strategic lead for the county. This means getting out of the day to day stuff and making change happen.

He is only into the role, but I am pretty confident that the role shouldn't be taken up by arguments over fixtures or venues for games and should be at a completely different level strategically.

That's my feeling on it too. There needs to be a proper strategy put in place,  and you're looking at 20 year stuff here. He should not be involved in petty squabbling around a field. I see there are various roles being advertised at the minute so maybe stuff is starting to roll out but a key thing would be to get a group of stakeholders together and bang their f**king heads together to make them see that they need to look beyond their parish!

[gallsman]

We need the people more than investment.  We do not have enough good football men in the county to make anything happen at the minute. 
When it comes to time and volunteering, who will make the sacrifices to do the hard yards when it doesn't involve their own child or club.
The best counties have these people, currently we don't.

Get Ulster GAA to pay their wages! There cannot be any stone left unturned and yes I include 11+ grades in that. Omagh CBS and St Pats Armagh/Downpatrick became non selective. Ballymena could follow.

Whatever about the debate over academic selection, "so we can hopefully get better at football" absolutely shouldn't be a part of it.

[johnnycool]

We need the people more than investment.  We do not have enough good football men in the county to make anything happen at the minute. 
When it comes to time and volunteering, who will make the sacrifices to do the hard yards when it doesn't involve their own child or club.
The best counties have these people, currently we don't.

Get Ulster GAA to pay their wages! There cannot be any stone left unturned and yes I include 11+ grades in that. Omagh CBS and St Pats Armagh/Downpatrick became non selective. Ballymena could follow.

There are quite a few paid coaches/GDO's in Antrim already, so what are they doing if you need more of them?

[bannside]

What we do not have is a County Games & Development Officer in place since Paddy Kellys 5 year tenure ran out a few months ago.

So who then is pulling these vital strands together in football and hurling? That's what I'd like to know.

[Sportacus]

After falling into Div 4 in 2020 Louth GAA implemented a strategic overhaul involving elite coaching, administrative reform and major infrastructure investment. One of the items focused on was strategic planning, with a review to streamline player pathways, improve retention in Urban clubs and enhance commercial self sufficiency through initiatives like An Lu.
Instead of all the money spent on big name managers like Davy Fitz (im sure Doran quite expensive also) could we not focus on the above?

As Sambo said, a big fancy roof on top of a house with no foundations.

[Scallionpicker09]

I don't know boys, can't see many parents sitting down and deciding their child's future based on churning out a good schools cup run in 5-7 years. The culture simply isn't there in Antrim sadly.

The year st.endas went on their intermediate all-ireland tear the spine of the team were all in the within 1-2 years in St Malachys group, again coached by a st. Endas coach. Healy, McAuley, Eastwood etc.   I haven't seen this replicated since but in trying to be optimistic it does show with effort it's doable.

[marty34]

Personally I thought we were a shoe in for promotion, so the -21 point score average after just three games is nothing short of alarming.

I never thought I would see the day we were rock bottom of the pile. Its just not acceptable under any circumstances.

People are turning from disappoinment after Carlow, frustration after Tipp...to downright angry after yesterday.

And make no mistake, the double jobbing of the manager hasnt made him any friends.

Im giving it till Leitrim in my own head, if we dont come back up the road with two good points, its bye bye blackbird.

No ifs or buts!

With all due respect BS, I mentioned a few weeks ago on here that Antrim people (football and hurling) think they should be doing better and I was basically told to f"^k off.

Not that statement aboves proves a lot of what I said to be correct. Why should Antrim be a shoe in for promotion? Poor club scene, poor underage scene and poor school scene when compared to the rest.

People need to be less arrogant and be honest. Not thinking we're better than X, W or Z. 

[Walter Cronc]

We need the people more than investment.  We do not have enough good football men in the county to make anything happen at the minute. 
When it comes to time and volunteering, who will make the sacrifices to do the hard yards when it doesn't involve their own child or club.
The best counties have these people, currently we don't.

Get Ulster GAA to pay their wages! There cannot be any stone left unturned and yes I include 11+ grades in that. Omagh CBS and St Pats Armagh/Downpatrick became non selective. Ballymena could follow.

Whatever about the debate over academic selection, "so we can hopefully get better at football" absolutely shouldn't be a part of it.

Spoken like a true product of the 11+ system

[gallsman]

So I thought you were being a bit hyperbolic (I gather you don't have your 11+ so feel free to Google it) but you're actually serious?

Never mind education reform, accessibility, rising tides lifting all boats etc, you genuinely think a school board should be looking at "how can we have a better football team?" when considering this?!