Antrim Hurling

[imtommygunn]

That just appears to be the going rate davinci which was unfortunate.

We had a programme today which was a step up from the last day.

The standard of refereeing in ulslter hurling, based on what I have witnessed this year, is abysmal and I hate saying that given they are volunteers but it is sad but true. He was a step up from that Magee guy though.

Cushendall play a dangerous game and had they been beat they'd only have themselves to blame. To play one forward inside the 45 for almost an entire half is a bizarre ploy. I'd agree that McManus was superb in the forwards but he also was in defense. Karl, to me, has been a bit off his game this year and McManus on this form is a better influence.

Credit to Conor McCambridge - he had a stinker the last day but definitely made up for it today. Also Shane McNaughton has some pace about him. He terrifies the life out of defenders. However Cushendall just look to be short on their forwards to be challenging for honours.

Fair play to Ballygalget. Coulter hit frees from everywhere which obviously boosted them and deflated Cushendall at times. That aside I thought they were second best a lot of the game. Paddy Magill should have went for goal and killed the game. Had Ballygalget not had their goal disallowed they could have ended up winning it.

[davincicode]

Itommygunn, i agree i think on what Ive seen this year, the best referees are in antrim, unfortunately they can,t referee their own clubs at Ulster. Duffy had a good county final, Elliott from what i hear went for broke and let them at it in the semi, and matthews although we have,nt seen much and  his semi was poor in comparison to the other 2 lads, but still these 3 lads seem to be Ulsters hopes going forward.

If leinster becomes a reality and they get games, antrim will only benefit, magee is a spent force, Devlin(Armagh) to old, who else is there. Hassen from Derry, the old guard are killing these games, time to move them on i say after today. hate to focus on ref,s but for £12 i expect and demand more value for my admission fee!

[Minder]

Cushendall fans are not very nice people.

What were they at today?

[Minder]

Ballygalget scored a goal. Ballygalget fans cheered. The goal was disallowed. I don't know why. Cushendall fans jumped up, cheering and gave w**ker signs to the Ballygalget fans.

They had some group of wankers at the Antrim final, pissed out of their skulls shouting crap throughout the match. There werent as many last week as it wasnt a final

[johnneycool]

Official match report

Ballygalget started shite.
Shane McNaughton had a stormer.
Martin Og Coulter should take the Og out of his name but had a good game.
Ballygalget came into it well.
Ref was a dungbag. Some baffling decisions.
Cushendall won. Fair play, Cushendall.
Loads of pints. Fair play, hardstation.

WE WUZ ROBBED  

The start ultimately cost us the game this time around. IMO we started with the wrong man on Shane McNaughton as it was going to be a big ask of Chrissy Branniff to hold him as he's quite raw at this level and was caught the wrong site far too often. I'd have started wee Liam on him and Chrissy on Aidan Delary as Aidan isn't the same player he was a few years ago. This seemed to panic a few of the other defenders as big Aaron was particularly jittery, dropping balls, missing lifts etc gifted the Dall forwards a good few scores, including the goal in the opening spell. Chrissy was extremely lucky to stay on the field after his shoving the hurley into McNaughtons head. Seamy Roddy had his hands full with shane but knew how to sheperd him better into wider angles. Apart from shane McNaughton and the odd forray from McManus, Sean Delargy and McGill, the Dall forwards didn't pose that much of a threat. Our problems were getting the ball low into Dingy and stevie Clarke who looked fairly dangerous when in possession, as some of our lads were intent on trying to run the ball, Darren Flynn being the worst culprit for running down blind alleys and losing the ball rather than letting fly into the spaces.
Big Magic's arrival had only one desired effect in that it made Cushendall put another defender in front of him giving dingy more space now in the half forward line. Magic himself didn't touch leather although he may have got a touch to the goal which wasn't given for a square ball which was a harsh decision as the only man who may have possibly been in the square was Paddy rat and he was in the other corner from where the ball came in and no way near the keeper who missed it completely. The umpire and referee totally coped out on that one, home town decision or what! It's always been said that if you want to beat Antrim or an Antrim team in Casement you'll need to win it well as any close decisions will go against you and that proved the case yesterday. Even after we got the goal and with time running out one of our lads was blatantly bundled over in our own half back line, yet no free as it would have been either dropped in or within Grahams range. That aside there were some strange decisions against both teams, two hand passes which looked clean enough to me, plus one overcarrying by a Cushendall defender not that long after big Aaron had been correctly adjudged to overcarry. Even the double sending off could have been avoided as both lads were only slapping each other and apart from a bit needly was harmless enough. Poor refereeing is one thing but poor umpiring is in excusable, Yet again this Sunday we had umpires who didn't seem to know how to position themselves and scratching their heads when scores were disputed. The cushendall farwards complained about one wide which did look be over, from the sam gobshites who gave the square ball.

In all fairness Cushendall do have the better hurlers yesterday, shear heart and determination kept us in the game and we could and should have won it but for poor decisons from some of our own players as well as the referee.
I think they'll need to rethink some of their tactics as the better teams won't play aimless balls into their sweeper plus the likes of whoever comes out of Connaught (most likely Portunma) will be able to cope with Shanes pace a lot better. Fighting a rear guard action won't get you enough scores on the board in February.


Also I really do begrudge paying those f**kers on the ulster council £12 into a game when as someone rightly said, they made no effort to make the final into a spectacle, no band or f**k all. I'd also say they screw both clubs when it comes to diivving up the money by not declaring the full takings plus subtracting some petty fines for a hurley carrier being on the pitch with one sock down or the likes. Shower of useless c***ts if you ask me.

[imtommygunn]

While I also didn't see a reason for your goal to be disallowed johnney the ref gave you a few dubious frees to keep you in the game first half and you had a man who should have walked after about ten minutes...

[johnneycool]

While I also didn't see a reason for your goal to be disallowed johnney the ref gave you a few dubious frees to keep you in the game first half and you had a man who should have walked after about ten minutes...

Dubious free's at both ends of the field tommy. Agreed about our corner back though, he would have walked most other days. Maybe he was given the benefit of the fact that the game wasn't long started. It probably did look a lot worse than it actually was but a sending off nonetheless

[theskull1]

We've all got the super sunday brigade in fairness. How do you you discourage these dingleberry's from getting out for the day to attend big games like this? They really do drag their village/club through the gutter when you have large groups of these boys who look and feel perfectly comfortable acting like a complete tool in full view of the rest of their village. All self respect is gone. Our irish chavs

[Jack_Black]

While I also didn't see a reason for your goal to be disallowed johnney the ref gave you a few dubious frees to keep you in the game first half and you had a man who should have walked after about ten minutes...

Dubious free's at both ends of the field tommy. Agreed about our corner back though, he would have walked most other days. Maybe he was given the benefit of the fact that the game wasn't long started. It probably did look a lot worse than it actually was but a sending off nonetheless

meant nothing to me who won, although would prefer the Antrim team to win

i think you must be still wearing those green tinted glasses johnny. out of interest what did each team score from play, in the first half galget got at least 4 scores from frees which IMO wrent scores. as for the square ball, it was a square ball no questions asked.

imo the better team won, the ref had a poor day but from where i was looking galget got more decisions than the Dall.

[imtommygunn]

Yeah, well like I said earlier - the standard of refereeing in that ulster hurling series has been very poor. Over the course of the game yesterday I do think think it, at least, evened itself out but that's probably slightly blinkered antrim goggles...

Could maybe have been more time though - a lot of times cushendall had a free second half the man took a drink of water.

[theskull1]

Sorry lads....who was the ref yesterday....it wasn't Mr Devlin by any chance?

[johnneycool]

Sorry lads....who was the ref yesterday....it wasn't Mr Devlin by any chance?

No he's demoted to the line, it was some lad from Slaughneil, martin something or other.

[imtommygunn]

mulholland

[johnneycool]

While I also didn't see a reason for your goal to be disallowed johnney the ref gave you a few dubious frees to keep you in the game first half and you had a man who should have walked after about ten minutes...

Dubious free's at both ends of the field tommy. Agreed about our corner back though, he would have walked most other days. Maybe he was given the benefit of the fact that the game wasn't long started. It probably did look a lot worse than it actually was but a sending off nonetheless

meant nothing to me who won, although would prefer the Antrim team to win

i think you must be still wearing those green tinted glasses johnny. out of interest what did each team score from play, in the first half galget got at least 4 scores from frees which IMO wrent scores. as for the square ball, it was a square ball no questions asked.

imo the better team won, the ref had a poor day but from where i was looking galget got more decisions than the Dall.

The Ref generally had a poor day but when any crunch decisons came when the game was in the pot, he coped out of it. The square ball wasn't actually given by the ref but the umpire, so the report on the Antrim website: 'though it has to be said that referee Martin Mulholland had clearly blown before the ball entered the net.' is utter balls but that's for another day. If he'd thought it was a square ball why did he feel the need to consult with the umpire, no whistle was blown until the ball hit the net. I'll just need to swallow that pill with a nice spoonful of sugar

just because we scored from free's doesn't necessarily mean they weren't free's and I've already stated that two obvious frees were given against Dall defenders one for a handpass and another for over carrying were incorrect but we were on the receiving end of similar decisons which resulted in scores for the Dall.  The Dall missed more frees than us so that'll not show up on your stats. The dall however did muster more from play and that's not in dispute and although I'm dissappointed in the referee I've already stated that the Dall had the better hurlers and that we by poor decison making on the field contributed to our own defeat as much as the referee, its just easier to blame the outsider  

[imtommygunn]

I actually was pretty sure I heard him blow prior to the goal too...