Antrim Hurling

[Milltown Row2]

These young fellas from the town should soon be moving into the senior panel. A future force to be reckoned with by the look of it.

Its all about the transition and if they don't leave and so on, staying at home isn't always an option, young lads go off to college and are lost to the club, harder in the country due to employment chances

Not sure about that MR2.
Plenty of people leaving Belfast seeking employment you must be recession proof!
And they leave to study abroad from Belfast too u know!
And "other" distractions!
Players lost in the crucial say 17-21 bracket as big a problem for clubs regardless if rural or urban.

Yes, teaching peopel who are unemployed lol

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

have to agree with you there skull. our lads didnt believe they could win that. added to that with 7 frees missed and then those goals just kills a team. some decent performaces from some of our lads. young saul from the town is unreal, that lad will just get better all the time! seen him play soccer there a few weeks ago for ballycastle v kilrea down at the coleraine showgrounds and he was brillaint there as well. he has tallent to burn!

DR just out of curiosity who would you have said put in you better performances?

Oran Quinn played well after a shakey start, hes came on leaps and bounds this year and is now looking like a permant fixture on our senior team at corner back. Also Karl O'Kane (son of Gary) played a good game and considering hes still a minor that bodes well for the future.
A worry for me is the lack of forwards that we have, Nigel Elliott was left with too much to do and had to drop out to try and get the ball more, but most of them are back again next year.
Ballycastle look to be a serious contender over the next few years at senior level. the youth they have coming through is great to see.
i also noticed our U16 teams have another ding dong game with each other recently from the same too teams from U14 last year. i cant wait to see these groups of players at senior level.

[BlackandAmber]

Heard that it would have been very close if Dunloy had taken half there chances. Missed a lot of good point scoring chances and a clear goal chance too.  Ciaran Clarke scored 2 goals from 20m frees I heard too.  Think that about 8/9 of that team played U21 last year and they were missing 2 more from injury. A lot of those boys have senior experience too so hopefully they can make a good go of defnding the title.

[north_antrim_hound]

Just reading here on sambos section of Antrim post. No minor manager and not fielding WTF

[btdtgtt]

Just reading here on sambos section of Antrim post. No minor manager and not fielding WTF

I think this is made even worse when it's combined with the advances made in other counties.
The fact the people are being paid good full-time salaries during tough economic times.
Why?
Well those other counties made proper appointments!
They also see the bigger picture and go about things in a more professional manner - we have some sub-standard paid officials who for too long have not been held to account becasue our clubs have ensure we will remain the best at senior in Ulster.

[north_antrim_hound]

Just reading here on sambos section of Antrim post. No minor manager and not fielding WTF

I think this is made even worse when it's combined with the advances made in other counties.
The fact the people are being paid good full-time salaries during tough economic times.
Why?
Well those other counties made proper appointments!
They also see the bigger picture and go about things in a more professional manner - we have some sub-standard paid officials who for too long have not been held to account becasue our clubs have ensure we will remain the best at senior in Ulster.

Is it me or are all clubs feeling more disenfranchised with the county board than usual.  Us the clubs have to take some responsibility to as there seems to be a lack of interest for the county scene. This is going to rub of on young players and possible managers. Pity we didn't have a strong character at county level to maybe approach the clubs, Ask them what can be done to improve relations. Or maybe that's not the problem at all. Just not enough good will there ( clubs and county )for under age development. I think we have some smashing young hurlers but if they are going to compete we need annual programme every year like Sambo And woody done with shorty, graffin hippy etc at minor level. This is all very sad

[johnneycool]

Just reading here on sambos section of Antrim post. No minor manager and not fielding WTF

Both Derry and Antrim failed to field at minor this weekend I heard from a lad involved with the Down minors.

How did Antrim county board allow that to happen?

Will it be a case of 'it'll be alright on the night' come Ulster minor championship time?

From what I can remember full time coaches are forbidden from taking managerial roles with counties they are coaching in, not sure about the logic, but there might be a good reason for it I'm not aware of it.

Down seems to be getting its structures for underage hurling in place with Gerard McGrattan minor manager and Paul Flynn taking the U-21's along with Stevie McAree from Ballycran. As both Flynn and McAree are involved with the seniors and it being a young panel it makes a bit of sense for a change.

[north_antrim_hound]

Heard that it would have been very close if Dunloy had taken half there chances. Missed a lot of good point scoring chances and a clear goal chance too.  Ciaran Clarke scored 2 goals from 20m frees I heard too.  Think that about 8/9 of that team played U21 last year and they were missing 2 more from injury. A lot of those boys have senior experience too so hopefully they can make a good go of defnding the title.

Yeah match was closer than scoreboard suggest. As said earlier we lost our main free taker to injury, he would have popped over the seven misses easy. We where on top for the first 15 but kept shooting wides. Our boys to Lippy about frees and the ref used every opportunity to massage his ego and moved to ball in for a Clarke special. Ballycastle where more composed and clinical on there build up to scores in the forward lines so well deserved.

[NAG1]

Putting structures in place is exactly what our paid Development/ Officials are in place to do. Their job is not to be out coaching 24/7 but putting in place things to actually help the coaches who are on the ground, improve them and recognise the work that they put in.

Development of correct competitions structures and development squads is a key part of this which is being neglected but that takes leadership and it is sadly lacking in this respect, from both Antrim and Ulster level.

[theskull1]

We have difficulty getting our young lads to go to development squads ..... if their mates aren't going then then dont want to go .... bottom line is that it requires the parents of these talented kids to back it up and be prepared to get their lad to training and commit to the dev squad system

The biggest problem in Antrim is we don't have enough bodies who are prepared to put the shoulder to the wheel. Criticism of poor leadership may very well be warranted but its the boys who decide to leave others to flounder rather than choose to get involved who are the real problem. The club/county has become a badge of allegiance/convenience for a lot of bluffers. Wear the jersey down the pub but do feck all to help it thrive

[north_antrim_hound]

Putting structures in place is exactly what are paid Development/ Officials are in place to do. Their job is not to be out coaching 24/7 but putting in place things to actually help the coaches who are on the ground, improve them and recognise the work that they put in.

Development of correct competitions structures and development squads is a key part of this which is being neglected but that takes leadership and it is sadly lacking in this respect, from both Antrim and Ulster level.

Yes that's all true but what I would like to know is. If we ever got a CB that was more proactive with the clubs about sorting the problem. Would the clubs respond as club attitude towards county teams are not as positive as better counties. I do t think we can draw direct comparisons with say Kilkenny as there minors can participate in all club activities and county because they half an our away max from training, challenge and matches. Our lads spend more time on buses than they do hurling. So we need different structures. We can moan about the CB presently because they are not doing a good job but what if they came with a good plan, is there enough good will to implement it at club and college activities expense

[NAG1]

We have difficulty getting our young lads to go to development squads ..... if their mates aren't going then then dont want to go .... bottom line is that it requires the parents of these talented kids to back it up and be prepared to get their lad to training and commit to the dev squad system

The biggest problem in Antrim is we don't have enough bodies who are prepared to put the shoulder to the wheel. Criticism of poor leadership may very well be warranted but its the boys who decide to leave others to flounder rather than choose to get involved who are the real problem. The club/county has become a badge of allegiance/convenience for a lot of bluffers. Wear the jersey down the pub but do feck all to help it thrive

Would agree Skull but the fact that these squads aren't valued partly is to do with the leadership, making them worthwhile places to go to and be involved in. Obviously we need parents/ volunteers to help in this process but there is a distinct lack of investment as well.

[btdtgtt]

Putting structures in place is exactly what our paid Development/ Officials are in place to do. Their job is not to be out coaching 24/7 but putting in place things to actually help the coaches who are on the ground, improve them and recognise the work that they put in.

Development of correct competitions structures and development squads is a key part of this which is being neglected but that takes leadership and it is sadly lacking in this respect, from both Antrim and Ulster level.

+1

[Milltown Row2]

Heard that it would have been very close if Dunloy had taken half there chances. Missed a lot of good point scoring chances and a clear goal chance too.  Ciaran Clarke scored 2 goals from 20m frees I heard too.  Think that about 8/9 of that team played U21 last year and they were missing 2 more from injury. A lot of those boys have senior experience too so hopefully they can make a good go of defnding the title.

Yeah match was closer than scoreboard suggest. As said earlier we lost our main free taker to injury, he would have popped over the seven misses easy. We where on top for the first 15 but kept shooting wides. Our boys to Lippy about frees and the ref used every opportunity to massage his ego and moved to ball in for a Clarke special. Ballycastle where more composed and clinical on there build up to scores in the forward lines so well deserved.

You have answered the reason as to why the frees where moved forward, had they have kept quite then this would have resulted in a 3-12 to 0-10 scoreline. So when the referee applies the rules he's massaging his ego? Don't make me laugh it's a hurling game and if someone wanted to massage his ego he'd be doing something completely different than running around the pitch taking abuse.

Answer me this, when a player is lippy to you when you referee a game what would your actions be? The referee committee wanted the ball moved forward 30 yards this year

[theskull1]