Antrim Hurling

[imtommygunn]

He would have ended up leaving anyway with ill health but regardless. I do think he'd have done big things at Laois but for the health issues.

Upwards unfortunately does not seem to be our current trajectory 

[bannside]

Sad to see the decline of hurling in the county tbh. Havent spoken to a single person who is looking forward to 2026 with any degree of confidence! There seems to be an air of inevitability that this is only going one way under DF.

The open nature of club hurling with about 5 clubs now right in the mix would probably lead to players on the fringes committing more to their club than the county, given that its one or the other these days.

[Saffrongael]

See St Pats Maghera won Mageean handy enough last night, they would have been the pre competition favourites

[bannside]

Antrim hurling cant win an argument atm...county club or school.

Never heard as much negativity either, something definitely not right!

[Northbelfastgael]

Antrim hurling cant win an argument atm...county club or school.

Never heard as much negativity either, something definitely not right!

Facts there. Everyone happy to side on the lines, talking nonsense, slabbering about the "State of Hurling", while doing f**k all but crying about it's decline.

Some crying about decline, some men fight the tide.

[bannside]

Talking nonsense. Who?

The evidence is right in front of you Pal.

Personally I take no delight in this, some of my greatest days out, ever, were supporting Antrim hurlers up and down the country with a team we were all rightly very proud of.

I'd love to see our hurlers back at the top, but it looks a long way from where we are now. Almost as much as I'd love our footballers too, but thats another story.

Unfortunately across the board our standards have slipped massively...dress that up whatever way you want.

[johnnycool]

Talking nonsense. Who?

The evidence is right in front of you Pal.

Personally I take no delight in this, some of my greatest days out, ever, were supporting Antrim hurlers up and down the country with a team we were all rightly very proud of.

I'd love to see our hurlers back at the top, but it looks a long way from where we are now. Almost as much as I'd love our footballers too, but thats another story.

Unfortunately across the board our standards have slipped massively...dress that up whatever way you want.

I think you are being hard on yourselves here TBH.

It's not that Antrims standards have slipped, it's that the levels of preparation etc in the very top counties has went to a serious level altogether, almost professional in their approach.

Even look at Galway, Waterford, Dublin, Wexford, they have fallen back a bit from the likes of Limerick, Cork, Clare, Tipp and Kilkenny.

[imtommygunn]

It takes basically maximum commitment from our players to be able to even compete with Dublins / WExfords etc and we don't have a massive pool of that level of player to choose from. What happens is we go through cycles of getting buy in and then the thing drops off. We are just at that cycle of drop off which Davy Fitz seems to have sped up greatly might I add...

[bannside]

Youll always get optimum player buy in when youre a top 6 county with genuine aspirations.

The further you fall down that ladder the harder it gets to give 7 days a week committment to an ideal that looks unrealistic. Even less so for a player in and out of the team, getting little or no game time. Where you have the club manager and your mates telling ypu to pitch your lot in with the club because this could be the year!

[johnnycool]

Youll always get optimum player buy in when youre a top 6 county with genuine aspirations.

The further you fall down that ladder the harder it gets to give 7 days a week committment to an ideal that looks unrealistic. Even less so for a player in and out of the team, getting little or no game time. Where you have the club manager and your mates telling ypu to pitch your lot in with the club because this could be the year!

You are Eoghan Campbell, you are James McNaughton, you are Keelan Molloy, what are your best chances of playing in an AI final, let alone win one?

It isn't running through shite with Davy Fitz gurning in your ear (if he's anything like he is on Fittest Family) for what?

[scamroc]

Any rumblings of a revamp to the intermediate championship? The 2 big groups taking nearly 2 months to complete before the knockout stages has left it a bit too drawn out and too many dead rubbers. Up until recently it's been the best championship in terms of competitiveness, but seems to have lost its way a bit and gone a bit stale. Championship should be do or die, mini leagues tend to kill that.

Would 4 groups of 3 sharpen it up?

4 x group winners - home venue for q/final knock out against the 4 x 2nd placed teams.
4 x 3rd placed teams - knocked out OR a relegation playoff for a drop to junior for added jeopardy. 

[Hectic]

Be interesting to see how Glenariff fare this year.

The gap between Intermediate and Senior has been huge for quite some time with teams going up and finding themselves completely out of their depth.

Glenariff might be best placed to be the exception given they have had some really good underage teams coming through in recent years.

[NorthAntrimSaff]

Any rumblings of a revamp to the intermediate championship? The 2 big groups taking nearly 2 months to complete before the knockout stages has left it a bit too drawn out and too many dead rubbers. Up until recently it's been the best championship in terms of competitiveness, but seems to have lost its way a bit and gone a bit stale. Championship should be do or die, mini leagues tend to kill that.

Would 4 groups of 3 sharpen it up?

4 x group winners - home venue for q/final knock out against the 4 x 2nd placed teams.
4 x 3rd placed teams - knocked out OR a relegation playoff for a drop to junior for added jeopardy. 

There were 11 teams last year. Carey down Glenariffe up. Guessing Rasharkin will drop possibly with Sarsfields and Glenravel up leaving 10.

[scamroc]

Any rumblings of a revamp to the intermediate championship? The 2 big groups taking nearly 2 months to complete before the knockout stages has left it a bit too drawn out and too many dead rubbers. Up until recently it's been the best championship in terms of competitiveness, but seems to have lost its way a bit and gone a bit stale. Championship should be do or die, mini leagues tend to kill that.

Would 4 groups of 3 sharpen it up?

4 x group winners - home venue for q/final knock out against the 4 x 2nd placed teams.
4 x 3rd placed teams - knocked out OR a relegation playoff for a drop to junior for added jeopardy. 

There were 11 teams last year. Carey down Glenariffe up. Guessing Rasharkin will drop possibly with Sarsfields and Glenravel up leaving 10.

If those 2 knew there was a new and cleaner format would it encourage them to stay and have 12 teams?

Less round robin games for all, but with every game meaningful and more competitive it could raise standards again at intermediate and help narrow the gap between that and senior. Admittedly the gap is huge but nothing changes if nothing changes!

[NAG1]

Any rumblings of a revamp to the intermediate championship? The 2 big groups taking nearly 2 months to complete before the knockout stages has left it a bit too drawn out and too many dead rubbers. Up until recently it's been the best championship in terms of competitiveness, but seems to have lost its way a bit and gone a bit stale. Championship should be do or die, mini leagues tend to kill that.

Would 4 groups of 3 sharpen it up?

4 x group winners - home venue for q/final knock out against the 4 x 2nd placed teams.
4 x 3rd placed teams - knocked out OR a relegation playoff for a drop to junior for added jeopardy. 

There were 11 teams last year. Carey down Glenariffe up. Guessing Rasharkin will drop possibly with Sarsfields and Glenravel up leaving 10.

If those 2 knew there was a new and cleaner format would it encourage them to stay and have 12 teams?

Less round robin games for all, but with every game meaningful and more competitive it could raise standards again at intermediate and help narrow the gap between that and senior. Admittedly the gap is huge but nothing changes if nothing changes!

Groups of 3 doesn't work