Antrim Hurling

[Milltown Row2]

Hear a rough enough event down the Ards yesterday.. Tut tut!!

And the ref delayed the start of the second half as he left his pencil in the changing room. Amateur hour 

It nearly ran out of lead by the end of the game!

[Tony Baloney]

  Seems like a busy second half!

[Gall the way]

I certainly don't share that optimism, County seniors struggled in both Div 1B and the Joe McDonagh, the key players are over 30 and no obvious replacements lined up.  U21's beat by Kildare and minors thumped by Dublin.

Senior club fixtures are a shambles, nowhere near enough games on a regular enough basis to really engage the local community.  Club players are training circa 140 times now for 14 league matches and maybe 4 games between feis and championship! Barring Rossa's fully deserved championship victory in 2004 we've seen the title shared by just 3 clubs over nearly 3 decades and we've now witnessed the Ulster Club Championship reside outside Antrim for 2 consecutive years.

If we are looking to our under safe structures for inspiration we are going to be sadly lacking, apathy has seen the collapse of the excellent North Antrim festival of hurling, under age players in Antrim can expect circa 12 games a year! Soccer teams get triple this, they can almost virtually guarantee the schedule despite it being a winter sport.

Every club has good men working in isolation but we need to admit we have problems, I am convinced participation levels are dropping or at best have hit a plateau.

How would I solve the problems
1. Paid development officer should as a priority focus on fixtures and support for clubs. 
2. Guarantee each team 25 games, switch the balance from 80/20 training games to 50/50
3. Structured, promoted adult leagues
4. Divisional boards to have a unified approach to age grading and fixture schedules to addresss the ludicrious situation where players have to choose football or hurling at u8's!!!
5. These underage blitzes to be reviewed, all of them, football, hurling and camogie are on Sun resulting in clashes
6. Astronomical amount of games called off due to waterlogged pitches, with the amount of money washing through the GAA now it would be a massive investment in infrastructure if they built a number of 3G pitches around the county available for games
7. Clubs to take responsibility for the improvement in skill standards and to be given the opportunity to do this.
8. Schools to be supported but only with the  involvement of the local clubs

I agree with some of the stuff you say, but not all;
1. Fixtures are a focus for CCC, not a Development Officer. We don't have a full
Time Development Officer in our schools introducing the sport and strengthening school and club links in North or south west Antrim, and certainly not enough in Belfast; even with 5 new "dual" coaches coming in (whenever that may be). I think a Dev Officer should focus on introducing the sport to kids as young as 4/5/6, and getting them to our clubs. Then helping Clubs and giving them advice/resources as to how to coach, providing coach education and also helping grow the volunteer base.
2. Guarantee teams 25 games, yes I agree, but don't then ask county players to play that, before sending them back to their county training the next night knackered. I think starred games are something we could look at again. The 50:50 ratio isn't enough IMO, what about the player who plays 5 mins, or doesn't play at all? How can he develop once a week in a 60-80 min session? 2:1 ratio of training to games is fine, providing we are actually given the game!

6. 4G pitches are def something we need more of in North and South West Antrim, whilst I agree with you, the whole of Ireland suffer bad weather, so for the GAA to fire a load of money up to us without doing it all over Ireland is a bit far-fetched. I think It's something our saffron business forums should be looking to fundraise toward. Although 4G pitches aren't great of players bodies either!

7. I think your 7th point contradicts your 50:50 proposal. How can they have the opportunity to develop skill if they only get 1 session a week. The biggest difference for me is the fact that hurling is a way of life in the likes of Kilkenny. The hurl goes everywhere with them, primary schools promote it themselves too with in house ball wall competitions etc. We can't rely on hoping some paid Officer will do it for us, because they likely won't! I feel MOST Clubs don't do enough with their schools. Teachers being from outside the county doesn't lend its hand and the amount of work they have to do now means they have little time to help GAA teams.

I agree with your other points, there is a lot of work needs done to help Antrim grow, but I think far too many people still see Antrim as a top level team. We are not at that standard, we, as Clubs, have not produced the players to be at the top level.

[johnnycool]

Hear a rough enough event down the Ards yesterday.. Tut tut!!

And the ref delayed the start of the second half as he left his pencil in the changing room. Amateur hour 

It nearly ran out of lead by the end of the game!

In the Ballygalget Column it seems......... 

How the Loughgeil column didn't feature a few reds as well we'll never know.

[paddyjohn]

Hear a rough enough event down the Ards yesterday.. Tut tut!!

And the ref delayed the start of the second half as he left his pencil in the changing room. Amateur hour 

It nearly ran out of lead by the end of the game!

In the Ballygalget Column it seems......... 

How the Loughgeil column didn't feature a few reds as well we'll never know.

It was all one way, them ards boys couldn't take the beating.. 

[johnnycool]

Hear a rough enough event down the Ards yesterday.. Tut tut!!

And the ref delayed the start of the second half as he left his pencil in the changing room. Amateur hour 

It nearly ran out of lead by the end of the game!

In the Ballygalget Column it seems......... 

How the Loughgeil column didn't feature a few reds as well we'll never know.

It was all one way, them ards boys couldn't take the beating.. 

We're well used to it at this stage.

[paddyjohn]

Hopefully you aren't doubting our refs.. 

[maxpower]

Fall all the way the focus of my suggestions was on underage's as opposed to senior, though I would concede a starred type format would be better than no senior games.

At juvenile level I strongly believe the need 1 session 1 game for development, however the games should vary in rules, numbers a side etc.  Underage players will learn different facets of the game playing 7 a side v 15 a side (and all the variations in between). 

However organising a structured season the offers kids these opportunities is a difficult job, but it's a crucial job and requires an appreciation of the developmental value of games/blitzes with everyone playing.  Development officers are there for the development of the game, otherwise they would be coaches.  In my experience each club has good coaches but they need the opportunities and these are limited.

[paddyjohn]

Antrim V Kildare in the Athletic grounds on Saturday at 12.45 before the Armagh V Clare football qualifier.

[NAG1]

Will we have a team to go?

[paddyjohn]

Will we have a team to go?

Why wouldn't we? Have there been fall outs since the Kerry game?

[NAG1]

Don't think any fall outs just know a few of the lads have gone traveling or are about too.
I am sure we will have a team though 

[ciaran1988]

Only 16 lads at training last week

[paddyjohn]

The hurlers getting in on the act according the GPA statement.

Earlier this evening the Kildare and Antrim Senior Hurling Teams issued a statement expressing their unhappiness at the scheduling of the Joe McDonagh promotion/regelation play-off scheduled for Saturday the 30th of June 2018.
While this particular fixture was agreed as part of the wider GAA Master Fixture Plan released late in 2017, we understand the players frustration at the short turnaround time for Kildare in particular, having just won the Christy Ring cup, before Sunday's final and that it places too much strain on the players involved. Lessons must be learned from this for next year's competition.

The GAA must now review the competitions in the context of an overall review of the new competitions structure at the end of the year.

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

i seen this last night on twitter.

fair play to both camps for taking a joint stand on this. Its probably too late to do anything about it as this should of been highlighted at the start of the season but its good to see both camps standing together on this.

Total farce that the CR winners have to win another game to get into the JMcD cup