After attending all the championship games to date i have to say i despair for the state of antrim hurling.Cushendall who are our current county champions and have the majority of players on the panel are a very average side and are county champions due to the fact Loughgiel and Dunloy are even worse. Dunloy to their credit had avery good side and really should have won an all-ireland title but mother time has caught up wit that side. We as a county had campaigned to get into a lenister championship but surley with the talent at our disposal its maybe time to get out. Kilkenny v Antrim in the 1st round next year , the prospect is scary. I apologise for my negativity but on the evidence seen this year there's not alot to make me any happier about the state of antrim hurling

bmenashamrock (Antrim) - Posts: 14 - 13/09/2009 23:41:22    424836

I think your being a bit harsh on Cushendall, I think the way they played against De La Salle last year shows how good Cushendall are, its not their fault they usually don't need to hit top form to get out of Antrim. I also think that Glenariffe, Rossa and Ballycastle are on the way back, add to this Loughgiel and Dunloy who are always strong then I think the standard isn't too bad in Antrim allow I still think Cushendall are the pick of the bunch

jesusjones (Antrim) - Posts: 385 - 14/09/2009 11:41:01    425074

I take your point jesusjones you don't need to be very good to win Antrim at the minute,but Cushendall could'nt beat a side that were
absolutely hammered in the final plus the fact Cushendall have won the title around 10 or 11 times now and still have'nt made an
appearance in the final,co-instance or bad luck.Maybe they are suffering from the same disease in all ireland semi-finals as Loughgiel
suffer in county finals.

bmenashamrock (Antrim) - Posts: 14 - 14/09/2009 15:04:43    425351

Bmenashamrock- 20 Years and counting and your last one doesn't count cause an Armoy man won it for you. Enuf said! C'dall can only beat whats put in front of them

Dunloy had one of the best teams in Ireland for years and didn't win it out.

TheGlensman (Antrim) - Posts: 123 - 14/09/2009 20:42:04    425767

Thats right, that Armoy man is the only person to hold 15 medals in Antrim.lol.

BostonMA (USA) - Posts: 85 - 14/09/2009 21:35:48    425830

boston ma brilliant comment

mc81 (Antrim) - Posts: 21 - 14/09/2009 23:48:23    425999

In 1989, The Armoy man, Klute, was one of the best forwards in Ireland. The Shamrocks were fortunate to 'avail' of his services. Yes and he single handedly won the championship for them that year. You have to look back to 1982 to find the last 'home grown' Shamrocks team to lift big ears. But who is counting?

TheGlensman (Antrim) - Posts: 123 - 15/09/2009 11:22:37    426209

Have to agree with bmenashamrock its not that cushendall are a good team the opposition is so bad. They are lucky that they have good players in sean delargy, arron graffin ,karl mc keegan neil mc manus and shane mc naughton to carry them through as for the rest of the team they are very average hence the failure to advance in the all ireland club c'ship. People talk about the performance of the county team and the managment, perhaps we should be more concerned about quality of the players that we producing at club level I doubt any manager would make much difference at the moment from what talent I have seen in the championship to date

upperdeck (Antrim) - Posts: 5 - 15/09/2009 13:09:47    426426

total agree with shamrock the hurling served up is very poor there on sunday 5 players would make it on to a poor county team people do not go to matches now when i was young we would travel any where to watch top class matches you would travel to belfast to watch rossa st johns big fegan v wee cut you got your money worth plus u had collins barr hamill for rossa tommy cut wee andy mccallin and pearse mc fall great games great battles then you had the great ballycastle teams eddie seamus hippy dessie donnelly porky stephen boyle the dall had danny sean and james mc naughton the delargys liam mc killop and lenard mg keegan sarsfields you had the wards canice and sean and jimmy and the mckernan's jingo gerard then you had loughgie l big pattersons in goal sean paul mckillop aiden mc carry mick oconnell brendan laverty people payed money and traveled many miles to see these games and would you do it to day sorry but no would have to be the answer

shambo (Antrim) - Posts: 67 - 16/09/2009 11:27:20    427540

i think its unfair to say that antrim club hurling is bad. to be fair the Dunloy team we had for 15 off years was something special. a one off team that comes along. other clubs have that era to enjoy...look at st galls footballers. all the other teams arnt that bad, rather Dunloy and St galls were that good that no one could beat them.

at the min Cushendall are slightly better than us in terms of overall balance, which im happy to say as their defence in particluar is very impressive. That being said i think there will be nothing at all between the 2 sides next weekend.

Dunloyrealist (Antrim) - Posts: 498 - 16/09/2009 13:44:33    427713

It could be worse lads...Ya could live in Armagh. lol

ItchyShuck (Armagh) - Posts: 12 - 17/09/2009 16:57:51    429020

Could the lack of hurling during the summer months have any part to play in the standard,no sen league games worth talkin about,surly you cant beat games for sharpness.

ianog (Down) - Posts: 416 - 22/09/2009 08:01:35    432806

Ianog- Definitely the Glens hurling followers have been short of competitive activity during the summer months. I know the County has to be considered and what with the small pool of county standard players Antrim have, the management wanted to avoid injuries and asked that the County players be excused from club games.

However the life blood of hurling is the clubs and club games. There has to be a better way of organising senior games. The most worrying aspect for me is the quite dramatic drop in standard of the Belfast teams. If present form continues Div 1 will have no Belfast team competing. This is not good for Hurling in the County. I know football and soccer are very popular in the City but this does not explain the very dramatic downward trend.

Is there any activity in under age, is there enough work being done in schools, is there something wrong with the facilities/ attraction etc?

TheGlensman (Antrim) - Posts: 123 - 22/09/2009 13:40:44    433112

I think the county should ask the clubs if they want to play in division one ,as the likes of st johns and rossa stay in div 2 there will be even less hurling in the city ,and with out the standard of senior hurling there might be little or no future for the youth of these clubs coming on and both teams as most people no have some fabulous hurlers at juvenile level .There is an other aspect of city hurling, with the decline of the birth rate the country teams are getting fewer players through and i think this has already shown in the standard of the county team as i think it has gone back terribly in the las 5 years .

magic (Antrim) - Posts: 37 - 22/09/2009 16:03:44    433266

The majority of county players play in div 1 so why are there no games for divs 2,3 and 4? This problem arises every year but there is never anything done about it. 2 or 3 games in as many months is just not on. Any momentum built up in the league is lost and boys fall away from training. The season really does seem to start in april and finish in june unless you get a run in the cship. Its soul destroying!

scamroc (Antrim) - Posts: 27 - 22/09/2009 17:29:06    433390

scamroc can your club not request a fixture? i know we do that and ask other clubs if they want the games, even if one hasnt been fixed or theres a free week

Dunloyrealist (Antrim) - Posts: 498 - 24/09/2009 09:30:56    434962

the pount about the lack of games is that they should not be cancelled due to a county game the next week,gone are the days when every sunday you would head up the road with 2 teams for a great days hurling the Antrim league has really gone to the dogs,i think this has more to do with th state of antrim hurling than the talent available.The antrim players are as good as any of the lower divsion one teams but if you are only playing flat out 2 months of the year u will be behind

ianog (Down) - Posts: 416 - 24/09/2009 12:32:23    435169

I can recall the days in the seventies and eighties when St Johns Rossa,Ballycastle,Dunloy,Loughgiel,Cushendall had all good side
and the championship was a toss up who won it,not the predictable three team competition we have now.But then we had a vibrant
all county league where games were played on a Sunday and were contested with the same passion as championship games.
During the summer we had hurling games every Sunday to go to and where players were playing consistently and not put into cold
storage for a good part of the summer.I can hear the argument that there is county games,yes but not to the detriment of the bread
and butter league and the clubs.I wonder what the league structure is in kilkenny,surley with their success and if it is implemented the
same way as Antrims they must play no league games at all.

bmenashamrock (Antrim) - Posts: 14 - 24/09/2009 20:52:40    435733

Eoin Kelly of Tipp scored 14 points in a north tipp final 10 days before playing against kilkenny in All Ireland final. Our county players are wrapped in cotton wool and not allowed to play

HongKongPhooey (Antrim) - Posts: 93 - 25/09/2009 17:20:26    436670

The distinct lack of league games I think does have a knock on effect on the standard in county hurling. The cancellation of league games really started when Dinny took over the management. Other top counties are continuing their league campaigns and championships through the All Ireland series. There is something to be said for regular competitive hurling.

silvertoungue (Antrim) - Posts: 101 - 28/09/2009 15:49:38    438746