Antrim Football Thread

[Ciallmhar]

guys, how many times has the same point t be made on this forum.... go right back to the posts about Dawson, Lenny, Fitzsimons, McGinley and every other manager we have had. We blamed everyone of them....

The county for years have made investments in senior managers and negated the grassroots of our sport. Arse about face. Our minors got another terrible drubbing v Derry last week, our 20s will face the same fate with whoever they face whether thats the A or B c'ship.

The whole focus and our set up is wrong. If you dont sew the seeds, i.e. this next generation now, how the f**k can we expect anything other at senior level than to be in the pits of county football.

I cant wait to see the fruits of what Gaelfast is doing, because at the minute, the reports i am hearing, the personnel involved in it are stealing a wage

I hear similar that gaelfast are doing very little and getting paid big money , the only club in Belfast which really seems to be progressing is Naomh Brid and they are majorly helped with selection of players from an abundance of locations but ill say no more on that matter. The quality begins at development squads , the treatment of players , standards and a lot more have a huge role to play. I have said this before on the forum a huge issue is the lack of exposure to high level football when young. Take a look at cargin just as an example how many of these lads went to secondary school in Derry and represneted St Pats or St Marys i think this is crucial in development of players compared to schools in antrim where football is almost saw as a secondary sport. The culture is another issue which will be a hard one to shift but until players are given the same treatment as even for example Antrim hurlers (the coverage of games etc in previous years) the buy in will be limited.

24k-26k a year is big money?
Think the problem here is that many don't actually know what they're talking about when it comes to developing participation and performance in our games, or what Gaelfast may or may not do for that matter.
Id mentioned it before, the Gaelfast money is gone lads, Croker stripped us off that in Covid and we never fought enough to get it back. Instead what we have is a small group of lads trying to keep an awful lot of plates spinning because Croke have their requirements for annual funding (that every county gets).

But if you've ever got the stones... go actually ask someone that's involved in in the project of the different areas they cover and what they do.

But we all agree on one thing, the county don't invest nearly enough in development of the youth. I'd argue that we need more of a focus on Primary schools and underage in clubs to get them ready for Development squads. Once a week/fortnight is all the squads can get with the young lads due to their busy schedules of club, school, dual codes and other sports. So the buck starts and stops at school & club for me. That's where the help is needed most to begin with and we can get a more well rounded player coming to development squads to work with then.

[Lár na páirce 1]

Predictions

St James v PG1-postponed

St Galls v Rossa-Galls by 8

LD v TNN-TNN by 2

St Paul's v Creggan-Creggan by 7

Dunloy v Aghagallon-Aghagallon by 5

Ahoghill v Cargin-Cargin by 2

[erinsboy]

This 16 team division one is a complete farce! We shouldn't be seeing results like this from teams in the "same division"
Creggan 6-25
St Paul's 0-01

And I think there could be plenty more results like this with the stronger clubs out early this year with lots of challenge games already under their belt getting used to the new rules.

[imtommygunn]

That's an awful hammering. Also the top teams don't have many county players and some of the lesser teams do so that will contribute to some very one sided matches. Yep it does seem silly we have so many teams in one. I am not sure it benefits anyone.

[Around the glens]

Dunloy beat by 3.
Missing 20+ players.

Cathal mcdermott reffed it well and explained his decisions.

[BigGreenField]

This 16 team division one is a complete farce! We shouldn't be seeing results like this from teams in the "same division"
Creggan 6-25
St Paul's 0-01

And I think there could be plenty more results like this with the stronger clubs out early this year with lots of challenge games already under their belt getting used to the new rules.

The Ahoghill score line reinforcing this, it's not good for either club and the new rules are going to open games up for stronger teams. The county needs to move to 4 divisions for football, introduce junior B and allow credible reserve teams into the league structure.

A separate issue is players not being available for county and this distorting structure but not sure what if anything can be done about that

[FactCheck]

This 16 team division one is a complete farce! We shouldn't be seeing results like this from teams in the "same division"
Creggan 6-25
St Paul's 0-01

And I think there could be plenty more results like this with the stronger clubs out early this year with lots of challenge games already under their belt getting used to the new rules.

The Ahoghill score line reinforcing this, it's not good for either club and the new rules are going to open games up for stronger teams. The county needs to move to 4 divisions for football, introduce junior B and allow credible reserve teams into the league structure.

A separate issue is players not being available for county and this distorting structure but not sure what if anything can be done about that

great post bar the last bit "not available for county"

Andy's gone after this year!

[Three leaf clover]

Shame on Antrim GAA for choosing to play a player knowing he has been charged with a hit and run in Martinstown end of October last year. Where is the integrity and what example are they setting to the youth coming behind. 

[Milltown Row2]

Shame on Antrim GAA for choosing to play a player knowing he has been charged with a hit and run in Martinstown end of October last year. Where is the integrity and what example are they setting to the youth coming behind. 

Have you a list of all the criminal convictions of past/current players of your club?

[Belfast GAA man]

Was that St Paul's creggan match a no show ? That score can't be rite

[Hectic]

Ridiculous result - what went on there?

The move from 12 to 16 teams last year brought 4 teams out of Division 2 that would possibly have stopped St Paul's seeing division 1 this year.

But even allowing for that, new rules, county players and all other early season caveats there is still something off there.

[erinsboy]

Ridiculous result - what went on there?

The move from 12 to 16 teams last year brought 4 teams out of Division 2 that would possibly have stopped St Paul's seeing division 1 this year.

But even allowing for that, new rules, county players and all other early season caveats there is still something off there.

8 teams per division is where Antrim needs to go IMO.
We have many many problems with our games in Antrim but right from u8 up we seem to get the grading issue wrong.
If a team is playing in a one sided game they'd be better of training instead.

[Gold]

Div 4 for 2026

[Saffrongael]

Div 4 for 2026

Abysmal

[Sportacus]

Div 4 for 2026

Abysmal

I've backed Andy all through, but if we're relegated then it's probably the end of the road.
And then we'll appoint a new manager and the cycle will probably repeat because we're rubbish at underage and have maybe only half a dozen clubs putting in the necessary effort.
If we're throwing money at outside senior managers from whatever source, I'd much rather it was spent on the U14's, but I'm old fashioned.