saffron,

id imagine 2 would be joint managers, the obvious 2, with o'kane and peden as selectors, rather than 4 managers

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 07/04/2016 15:19:12    1843083

Will Liam Watson come back? Or are those bridges well and truly burned?

Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 07/04/2016 16:22:23    1843118

Terence and Dominic are great coaches. Neal I have no experience of but if I was looking for a manager out of the three guys I do know it would be Gary O'Kane. He knows what a real hurler looks like, he will not tolerate those guys that are pulling the county down, he will have no favourites and he will let guys know what intensity is. Our County needs the players that exist within that give intensity in the same way as Karl Stewart did or years, he was ruthless/intense/after the ball all the time and 360 degree vision. In recent years we have had guys who give away frees you just have to look at Clare with their small men, their intensity and eye for the ball, we need to learn from teams who have similar sized players. My advice to the four guys would be to beg back PJ O'Connell, bring in Shay Casey of Loughgiel, David Kearney & Paddy Burke of Cushendall, Liam Kearns of Cloughmills,, keep men like Jackson McGreevy of St Galls, Niall McKenna, the two McKernan's of Sarsfields, Ciaran & Conor Johnston of St Johns, Neal McAuley & Stephen McAfee of Ballycastle, Tony & Eddie McCluskey Loughgiel, James Black of Carey who have all shown fight in the league. Apologies there are more guys in our county that have the same attributes as the aforementioned but I don't see too many senior club matches to name the 33 I would have in the Antrim Hurling Squad. Antrim Hurling Supporters are fed up with the lack of effort shown but we are also fed up with the way the County Board has treated the hurlers different to the footballers. Development Squads in hurling travel to Tipp/Waterford etc. and aren't back home to 11pm and there is no food laid on for them on the way home. Development footballers travel to Derry or Tyrone and are taken to the Elk for a meal after their blitzes each time. Need equal treatment! hopefully the new County Board will treat both codes equally.

Brian_Coyote (Antrim) - Posts: 346 - 07/04/2016 17:17:39    1843155

yea I suppose, but they usually only name the managers when announcing a new appointment. Its almost as though they are presenting the four of them them as equals in some sort of peace treaty. In my own experience managers don't tend to listen to other managers very often as they all have their own ideas of how things are done.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2558 - 07/04/2016 17:26:49    1843161

Will Liam Watson come back? Or are those bridges well and truly burned?

Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts:1382 - 07/04/2016 16:22:23 1843118

I would highly doubt it Marlon and that's the good news. Tell me, in your own proud county would you tolerate a player who walks on and off squads when it pleases him, get sent off in every major county game he's involved in, run to the papers and bad mouth players, management and chairmen at every opportunity? and I could go on...

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2558 - 07/04/2016 17:32:25    1843166

Brian_Coyote are you serious???? The hurlers have a bigger budget than the footballers also the hurlers got an OVERNIGHT stay for their controversial game in London whilst the footballers were up at 3 am for a 6 am flight on the Day of their pivotal division 4 game against london. So stop posting erroneos messages on a national forum.

spy_in_the_sky (Antrim) - Posts: 273 - 07/04/2016 17:37:21    1843171

I think Watson's best days are behind him. He seems to be more trouble than he's worth anyway. Isn't that why Kevin Ryan forged ahead without him? And here the Antrim hurlers are, no further on halfway through the season...

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 07/04/2016 17:44:59    1843176

sorry I annoyed you mr saffron don, or should it be prawn, but I knew about these "things" that have been going on for a long time but kept getting censored with the things that I said so tried to keep it plain and simple for people like you to understand. as for liam Watson, yes he was a great player once but they need to look at the youth coming through, unite the clubs and get the hunger back not greed. sambo and woody are both good coaches that are well respected and good selectors picked as well. considering I live on the mainland I still keep up to date with all the going ons in my county but don't always need to give my opinion, just read someones drivel.

exref (Antrim) - Posts: 72 - 07/04/2016 18:48:16    1843207

ah wind your neck in ex ref I was just having a laugh. you obviously weren't keeping track of recent events on here because your news was far from horses mouth stuff, that's all.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2558 - 07/04/2016 19:36:13    1843225

SaffronDon (Antrim)
I would highly doubt it Marlon and that's the good news. Tell me, in your own proud county would you tolerate a player who walks on and off squads when it pleases him, get sent off in every major county game he's involved in, run to the papers and bad mouth players, management and chairmen at every opportunity? and I could go on...

Fair point. And leaving mid league (he left before the London game?) was poor, regardless of the reasons.

Realistically, even with everything that's going on, which teams would you see as the main threats to Antrim in the Christy Ring? The only team that really finished above Antrim in the league was London, but I'm not sure how much to read into that Antrim/London league game. None of the other Ring teams had a stellar league. Even Down lost out to Armagh in 2b, and Armagh are in the Nicky Rackard. So despite it all, would Antrim posters still be reasonably confident that Antrim have a good chance of Ring success with this interim management team? For example, does anyone realistically see Antrim losing to Kildare?

Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 07/04/2016 21:37:55    1843284

I think we'd have to still be confident of going all the way. The London game was a farce for many reasons and we are a bit from finding out the whole truth in that one. I would just hope that by the time the Christy Ring starts that we have got rid of the bad eggs and have a committed panel, whatever the ability of the players may be. I was in favour of withdrawing the squad for the remainder of this season due to all the controversy as I didn't think it was fair on a manager coming in to have to clean up someone else's mess but due to several major clubs having representatives in the new appointment it may not be as big a task. However, it could be a case of too many chefs in the kitchen with the new appointment but I hope I'm wrong. Whatever hand we are dealt I'd like to think we'd have enough quality left to go all the way and build some much needed confidence going forward.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2558 - 08/04/2016 09:09:12    1843318

Big Neil McManus is back in the fold, I see. He's been a terrific servant to club & county.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 08/04/2016 11:25:42    1843377

Great to have Neil back but what it does do is typifies the biggest problem we have to get over is still the club rivalry within the County - and you don't need to enlist Sherlock to come to this conclusion. We listened to how lads who were not going to be available for the County had these plans already made and was nothing to do with who the then County Manager was. Yet as soon as he steps down and is replaced, with a fellow clubman one of the Managers, then suddenly players become available again. Don't get me wrong I am delighted he has made himself available but for the sake of the argument let's say the interim manager was from the same club as the previous incumbent, would Neil have made himself available again? I am using Neil as he is the one in the news but this question could be asked of many over the years and until we have players who are in there, fully committed regardless of who is either managing or on the squad alongside them then we won't get to a place we would like to be at.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 08/04/2016 12:24:26    1843422

I agree Offside. it's a bit condescending to make silly excuses to the public when it was always pretty clear the real reason several weren't involved. there seems to be a complete failure by some to see the bigger picture in their hurling careers. this stuff just wouldn't happen in a winning county. But for what it's worth I wish them the best.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2558 - 08/04/2016 13:49:24    1843468

From what I'm hearing the problem may have been specifically the previous manager and not because of his club. Much more understandable imo.

Although no doubt club rivalries are still affecting us.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4516 - 08/04/2016 14:20:28    1843490

Neil is still going abroad for the year travelling on May 10th. He has made himself available until then, presumably having been asked by Sambo. Before that he was preparing for an All-Ireland Club Final so he wasn't going to commit to county til after that anyway. He's given plenty of service to his county by now so I wouldn't be too critical of him.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 08/04/2016 14:21:26    1843492

Its the scenario I am being critical of as opposed to Neil himself per se. I've been around long enough to see our teams in both codes suffer due to player unavailability - for whatever reasons. All I want to see is our best players playing for our County as a team and if that day comes it is the day that we could improve where we are.

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 08/04/2016 14:54:46    1843510

Keeper,

Certainly a lot more service than Watson did, I don't think offside's intention is to be critical of McManus.

tbh the more I read and hear about Liam Watson the more I can see why other players cant be bothered with him.

I remember speaking to a fella from a Belfast club who hurled in semi finals and finals against him almost every year from u14s right through to senior, telling me his head was so far stuck up his own whole then.
So its not really surprising its still stuck there now

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 08/04/2016 14:59:43    1843513

offside,

not a bad article in irish news about it by Brendan Crossan.

Out of curiosity lads why does Woody's son play for Dunloy? Did woody have a fall out with loughgiel?

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 08/04/2016 15:04:07    1843518

I saw Watson get stuck into someone's hurling banter page on Facebook last year for allegedly over-praising Cushendall & Dunloy clubs & players while under-praising Loughgiel. I just thought it lacked class from a supposedly classy hurler.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 08/04/2016 17:45:58    1843579