Antrim Hurling

[sail_in]

Re: Division 2/3 this year.

Personally speaking I enjoyed this year.  My own club (Clooney Gaels) set a target at the start of the year to finish in the top half of it.  That looks to be more or less a certainty at this point and we've still 3 games to play (re-fixtures from different stages in the year).  I don't know if we'll end up playing them or not.

This year marked a few "firsts" for our club - we got the chance to play a few teams we've never played before which can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned.  From the teams who were in Division 1 last year, we beat Rossa & Sarsfields and were reasonably close to St Gall's and Ballycran, and we would have beaten Lamh Dhearg only we effed it up big style!

As someone, I think it was theSkull said earlier, it would be great if there was more help available to help clubs bridge the gap, as I don't see how anybody could seriously argue that there's not a massive gap between Division 1 (certainly the upper end of it) and Division 2.  I think a starting point may be to bring the likes of Loughgiel's reserves into the leagues and/or the Intermediate Championship.  I know there are serious problems with the like of this, and I also know that some competitions exist to give us the chance to play teams like this - the Countess of Antrim and the various Feis competitions.  We were actually meant to play Loughgiel in the CoA this year, but the game was fixed for a time in May when there were a lot of football and hurling games and we ended-up conceding the game.  I know that's nobody's fault only our own but at the same time you can't please everybody - especially with the football league being a very high priority for Ahoghill this year!

I don't really go in for all this chat about certain clubs "deserving" to be in Division 1.  Ballycran knew the situation from the start of the year and set out to win all their matches.  They've done that, they'll go up - fair play to them.  In my opinion they're the only team who deserve to be in Division 1 next year. 

Regarding the leagues next year, as I understand it, the plan was always to move to a 2-way league after the first year or "playing for places".

[NAG]

Good to see Clooney making such a push on the Hurling front. I like the idea of the reserve teams from Loughgiel, Dunloy, Cushendall, should be pushed into this league but the only way that it will work for the other clubs is if the big three make a serious committment to the league and not to treat it like a joke.

This way it would have benefits for all the teams concerned, competitive games for reserve players and hopefully an insight to see the top clubs at work.

[sail_in]

Bringing something like this in would certainly not be without issues ...

I'm nearly sure they did something like this a few years ago where they split Division 2 into North and South Antrim and from what I could gather you ended up with the same situation as is very common in football where how you did against the bigger teams was largely dependent on whether or not they had a Senior game that day!

I'm not sure what the solution is, I'm not even sure how seriously the reserve league is taken by the teams that are in it!

[NAG]

Thats part of the problem the reserve leagues are treated like a joke except for championship so realistically a guy who older than 21 and not making the senior team could get one competitive game all year.

If a system was in place then the same player could be getting 5 6 7 competitive games in a season which is surely what we are looking to provide.

These games should be allocated a time slot of their own away from senior fixtures which should also have a set time slot/slots. Therefore avoiding clashes and weakened teams playing at the wrong time of the year, but the main thing is that the senior clubs put some emphasis on this and drive it forward.

[PlayWithTheWind]

I dont agree with bringing reserves into championships.
This will only benefit the stronger clubs and not the development of the county as a whole. This will only produce more problems, with senior players playing on the reserve team, players not being graded etc etc.
To improve are standard of hurling we need to now work with the league tables to produce competitive games week in week out.
Clooney Gaels are a great example for other clubs to show, that if the hard work is put in teams can compete and progress up the table and up the divisions.

[NAG]

I didnt mention championships I was talking solely about league structures, I believe championship to be a different entity completely!

[theskull1]

Playing reserve teams in the lower league structures can be difficult to work with NAG and has been tried before witjhout success. One team going to Belfast and the other to Cushendall can be hard to achieve as there are many occassions where overlap is needed to get both games played, but it is compounded by the fact that young players who play well in the reserves don't get to show their potential to the senior management, which can actually become a demotivating factor for the very boys you want to push on. I do agree that it would help the development of the game though if say the likes of Clooney Gaels, had the opertunity to play senior reserve teams in some other side league orginised between clubs for instance. As long as they were keenly contested meaningful matches then they would definitely help the game IMO

[NAG]

Skull

Yeah that is my point, there has to be incentive for the play in the reserve to show his best which isnt the case at present so gettin a seperate time slot for the games is essential so that senior managers could go to watch the games.

Secondly we are only talking at present of dunloy loughgiel and cushendall being in the category so it would be a start to get these 3 going strong.

I know it has been tried before but it was a half hearted effort before as usual, if the benefits are pointed out and exactly why it is being structured in that way then most clubs would agree that it is a good enough idea. Clooney would be more than a match for any of the three's reserves but it is a better standard of hurling which will improve them and because clooney are coming with a good attitude and wanting to improve this should bring the best out of reserve hurlers who dont normally have to push themselves.

[Lecale2]

Who plays in the North Antrim Junior League?  Would that be Clooney IIs and Loughgeil IIIs?

http://www.northantrimgaa.com/leagues.asp?id=11

[clootfromthe21]

Lecale, i was playin yesterday against Gort, they were awesome but to be fair to the gort manager he came in and said it was the best they had ever played.

Just been traipsing through the last few pages of threads. Does any one know if the Sean Kelly who scored 6 points for GNM used to play in London for Robert Emmets?

Reason I ask is that the day that Clooney lost the all-ireland junior there was a Sean Kelly from Antrim playing for Robert Emmets who won the intermediate who took some serious scores from right half forward. Same guy?

[milltown row]

same guy clootfromthe21, ex Rossa player and county player

all good lads, good positives about restructuring leagues, time now to go back and talk to your club members put it into a motion and get the committee to bring it to the county board for discussion. otherwise nothing will be done. would be great if some topics debated/formed here actually came to light.

but we also need relegation and promotion battles. does not happen unless we have two up and two down. that will stop teams from 'doing enough to stay up lets concentrate on championship' attitude. I'd go further and the third place teams in div2 play a one off game with the third from bottom team from div 1. no complacency at all. and again the leagues to be played off before the championship.

So off to the committee lads and let them know what we want. some committees are too detached from what players feel is best for them.

[Two Hands FFS]

We got Dublin in the draw. Dublin drew out first so i'd imagine it'll be in parnell??

[milltown row]

was under the impression that it was a neutral venue, i see that Kilkenny are to be put in against the winners of the Dublin antrim game

so it was not surprising that Galway were called out first. or is it the other way, Christ Marty must have hit every branch when he fell out of the ugly tree

[Two Hands FFS]

Maybe it is a neutral venue....hopefully

Are you sure the winners of Antrim Dublin are to play Kilkenny..I thought that the draw for the semi final will be done after the quarter finals matches

[clootfromthe21]

was under the impression that it was a neutral venue, i see that Kilkenny are to be put in against the winners of the Dublin antrim game

so it was not surprising that Galway were called out first. or is it the other way, Christ Marty must have hit every branch when he fell out of the ugly tree

Didn't take that up Milltown - Cha seemed to suggest that Kilkenny wouldn't know who they were playing until after the first round of games. Could be wrong though.

Think Dublin isn't a bad draw - not saying we will beat them, but at least we'll not fear them!