Antrim Hurling

[theskull1]

Forever the optimist groundlie ... I'll give you that

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

Hopefully the lads can produce a strong performance on Sunday. We have so much quality but it's just about it clicking in a new system. Hopefully James McNaughton, Kealan Molloy, the Elliots and a solid defensive performance will make us competitive in Carlow. There's absolutely no doubt that this squad has it in them. Carlow will be clear favourites so hopefully that takes some pressure off Antrim and they express themselves as the good hurlers we know they are.

I'm not sure what you are basing that on but there are levels to it, I suppose.
I remember making a comment around the time of Davy Fitz's appointment that we are investing heavily at the wrong end.
It's not that I don't appreciate the effort and commitment that our senior county teams are making but if you haven't been anywhere near the races at any level of inter county hurling, it's not going to get fixed at senior, regardless what you throw at it.
It might be worth a shot investing the 6 figure sums at U12 and see if you can get a minor team capable of competing at the top level.

It might not work...

Or we can stick to the tried and trusted that we currently have.....

[Milltown Row2]

Who invests in the long term? It's like putting half your wages into a pension pot when you start out.

I fully believe investing in our youth

Setting up Structures,  elite academies, detailed training, strengthen conditioning, training weekends, plus your media and promotion...

It's hard to work though, as people want immediate results

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

Who invests in the long term? It's like putting half your wages into a pension pot when you start out.

I fully believe investing in our youth

Setting up Structures,  elite academies, detailed training, strengthen conditioning, training weekends, plus your media and promotion...

It's hard to work though, as people want immediate results

Offaly. And that's a ridiculous analogy about pensions. It doesn't correlate at all to what we are talking about.
Fundamentally, 10 years is the difference between a 12 year old and a 22 year old. If that's what we are calling "long term", we are very short sighted. It's a blink of an eye to many of our supporters.


There is a hope, after all this time, that people might learn.
We haven't put together 2 worthwhile results in a row since before my granda was born.
It may be an indicator that we need an entirely different approach.
Alternatively, pay a lot of money to manage players who were miles away at intercounty U14, 16, minor.

And I'm not running them down. They were dealt the hand they were. The focus should be on dealing the next lot a much better hand.

[Milltown Row2]

It's not the ten year investment though, what about the next ten year set of kids and the ones after that, Offaly are in a unique part of the world were exposure to top class hurling is available they have history also.. they probably took their eye off the ball which left them in the doldrums for a bit.

My point is we in Antrim (being short sighted) don't or haven't really invested in the grades up from well before under 12.. you gotta be hitting lads from the ages of 6 upwards, investing in 12 year olds is great but I think we could be better.

Walk the streets of Belfast and you'd do well to see kids dandering about with hurls, striking the ball against gable walls and the like.

More needs done, plenty have the passion for it but their really needs ( there probably is one ) a fully laid out 30 year plan that brings about better players..

Clubs have to look at how they can improve the pool of players and training, I still think there are too many clubs in Belfast, a condensed set of hurling teams at senior level will produce more competitive teams

 

[imtommygunn]

I was walking up to corrigan to watch the Westmeath game and walked past three or four boys in their twenties all wearing Antrim gear going nowhere near the Antrim game. Not a big thing but I thought it kind of showed the local interest there is.

[Milltown Row2]

I was walking up to corrigan to watch the Westmeath game and walked past three or four boys in their twenties all wearing Antrim gear going nowhere near the Antrim game. Not a big thing but I thought it kind of showed the local interest there is.

I see that plenty, probably a soccer match on at the Rock

[Upandover]

It's not the ten year investment though, what about the next ten year set of kids and the ones after that, Offaly are in a unique part of the world were exposure to top class hurling is available they have history also.. they probably took their eye off the ball which left them in the doldrums for a bit.

My point is we in Antrim (being short sighted) don't or haven't really invested in the grades up from well before under 12.. you gotta be hitting lads from the ages of 6 upwards, investing in 12 year olds is great but I think we could be better.

Walk the streets of Belfast and you'd do well to see kids dandering about with hurls, striking the ball against gable walls and the like.

More needs done, plenty have the passion for it but their really needs ( there probably is one ) a fully laid out 30 year plan that brings about better players..

Clubs have to look at how they can improve the pool of players and training, I still think there are too many clubs in Belfast, a condensed set of hurling teams at senior level will produce more competitive teams

 

Gaelfast is a disaster tbh, and also no trophies below u13 now? It happens at all other sports why not gaa?
Ive seen kids leave for soccer because they want to play for trophies, they all keep the score anyway and kids need to know what its like to lose and also win well before 13/14 years of age.

More often than not its left upto mentors at clubs to sort games out which isnt good enough.

[Gael-in-exile]

It's not the ten year investment though, what about the next ten year set of kids and the ones after that, Offaly are in a unique part of the world were exposure to top class hurling is available they have history also.. they probably took their eye off the ball which left them in the doldrums for a bit.

My point is we in Antrim (being short sighted) don't or haven't really invested in the grades up from well before under 12.. you gotta be hitting lads from the ages of 6 upwards, investing in 12 year olds is great but I think we could be better.

Walk the streets of Belfast and you'd do well to see kids dandering about with hurls, striking the ball against gable walls and the like.

More needs done, plenty have the passion for it but their really needs ( there probably is one ) a fully laid out 30 year plan that brings about better players..

Clubs have to look at how they can improve the pool of players and training, I still think there are too many clubs in Belfast, a condensed set of hurling teams at senior level will produce more competitive teams

 

Gaelfast is a disaster tbh, and also no trophies below u13 now? It happens at all other sports why not gaa?
Ive seen kids leave for soccer because they want to play for trophies, they all keep the score anyway and kids need to know what its like to lose and also win well before 13/14 years of age.

More often than not its left upto mentors at clubs to sort games out which isnt good enough.

Why do you consider Gaelfast a disaster?

[Upandover]

It's not the ten year investment though, what about the next ten year set of kids and the ones after that, Offaly are in a unique part of the world were exposure to top class hurling is available they have history also.. they probably took their eye off the ball which left them in the doldrums for a bit.

My point is we in Antrim (being short sighted) don't or haven't really invested in the grades up from well before under 12.. you gotta be hitting lads from the ages of 6 upwards, investing in 12 year olds is great but I think we could be better.

Walk the streets of Belfast and you'd do well to see kids dandering about with hurls, striking the ball against gable walls and the like.

More needs done, plenty have the passion for it but their really needs ( there probably is one ) a fully laid out 30 year plan that brings about better players..

Clubs have to look at how they can improve the pool of players and training, I still think there are too many clubs in Belfast, a condensed set of hurling teams at senior level will produce more competitive teams

 

Gaelfast is a disaster tbh, and also no trophies below u13 now? It happens at all other sports why not gaa?
Ive seen kids leave for soccer because they want to play for trophies, they all keep the score anyway and kids need to know what its like to lose and also win well before 13/14 years of age.

More often than not its left upto mentors at clubs to sort games out which isnt good enough.

Why do you consider Gaelfast a disaster?

What exactly do they do?

Kids need into the game early, at schools etc yet i can count on one hand the amount of times gaelfast has been in my lads school who are p7 and p6.

More underage tournaments and exposure to games should be taking place, all my own opinion.

[groundlie]

I don't think Gaelfast is perfect, they'd probably admit that themselves, but by god it's better than anything we've had before.

From what I understand, they have limited resources in terms staffing. The onus needs the be on the GAA centrally. With Belfast being Irelands second city and with the legacy of the conflict, they should be investing generously but they aren't.

What Croke Park has invested in Gaelfast isn't even scratching the surface of what would be needed. I would imagine anyone employed by Gaelfast is doing their very best for games promotion.

[BigGreenField]

The Gaelfast budget is a fly's arse on the windscreen of what is needed, if you want Dublin style impact you need the same budget.

Dublin started from a higher base and got 5x the budget, they also had clubs funding  their own in school support.


Gaelfast can't get into every school every week, they are spread too thin although I must admit some transparency via an annual report on their time allocation would be welcome. From what I hear they are doing good work and supporting some clubs to run their own sessions supporting feeder schools.

There are oodles of games happening, u7 and up Winter Go Games are running for a number of weeks already, primary school games etc

The challenge remains quality of coaching in clubs and clubs willingness to monitor and address their own standards. What clubs have actually looked at this with a harsh light?

Clubs are spending money on all sorts of stuff including outside management, direct this towards coaching.

I've said before facilities remains a huge issue as well.

[Gael-in-exile]

It's not the ten year investment though, what about the next ten year set of kids and the ones after that, Offaly are in a unique part of the world were exposure to top class hurling is available they have history also.. they probably took their eye off the ball which left them in the doldrums for a bit.

My point is we in Antrim (being short sighted) don't or haven't really invested in the grades up from well before under 12.. you gotta be hitting lads from the ages of 6 upwards, investing in 12 year olds is great but I think we could be better.

Walk the streets of Belfast and you'd do well to see kids dandering about with hurls, striking the ball against gable walls and the like.

More needs done, plenty have the passion for it but their really needs ( there probably is one ) a fully laid out 30 year plan that brings about better players..

Clubs have to look at how they can improve the pool of players and training, I still think there are too many clubs in Belfast, a condensed set of hurling teams at senior level will produce more competitive teams

 

Gaelfast is a disaster tbh, and also no trophies below u13 now? It happens at all other sports why not gaa?
Ive seen kids leave for soccer because they want to play for trophies, they all keep the score anyway and kids need to know what its like to lose and also win well before 13/14 years of age.

More often than not its left upto mentors at clubs to sort games out which isnt good enough.

Why do you consider Gaelfast a disaster?

What exactly do they do?

Kids need into the game early, at schools etc yet i can count on one hand the amount of times gaelfast has been in my lads school who are p7 and p6.

More underage tournaments and exposure to games should be taking place, all my own opinion.

I'm not sure on the exact facts but the fly on the windscreen analogy is a good perspective.

In west Belfast alone there must be over 30 schools. I'd hazard a guess and say across the whole county there are 100 schools. Gaelfast have 10 staff or thereabouts.
Now I'm no mathematician but to say the spread of resources is thin would be an understatement.
The principle of what they are trying to do is correct but the gradient they are up against is near impossible.

Don't forget they spend a lot of time on coach education which is aimed at empowering those in clubs and schools to develop their own resources to improve coaching.

[Around the glens]

6 down half time playing 12 behind the ball.

No disrespect to carlow they have some clinker players but go man for man, let the forward be forwards.

[Milltown Row2]

Point in it