I THOUGHT it was brilliantly refreshing that Offaly won the All-Ireland U-20 Championship. It was a brilliant occasion with some brilliant hurling, and they look like a team that have totally broken the mould. They’re a small, light, athletic team, they’re not full of lads who are all six foot plus. Adam Screeney is the […]
ANTRIM did well to beat Carlow and secure their Leinster Championship status but my concern is that it’s essentially a non-developmental championship. Neil McManus expressed misgivings about it last weekend and I couldn’t agree with him more. It’s a bit of a farce because it’s a yo-yo situation and will never change until Wexford or […]
IT’S been one of the saddest periods of my life with the loss of my nephew Jack McCoy. I’ve lost other people close to me but this has been something else entirely. He worked with me for the last four or five years and it’s been an emotional torment not just for me but the whole […]
I NOTED that more than 12,000 paying spectators attended the recent National Football League encounter between Armagh and Donegal, crowds that their hurling counterparts unfortunately can only dream of. Antrim will always get a core following of 500 or a thousand people, but on the whole crowds at hurling games involving Ulster teams are very […]
SUNDAY’S beating at the hands of Limerick was disappointing but I think the squad depth was the biggest concern for Antrim. There’s a lot of work going into the senior hurling team and I appreciate that, but ultimately as a county we aren’t putting enough effort into developing our underage teams and it all stems […]
I’LL cut to the chase – it’s going to be a really tough year for Antrim.The main reason I say that is the boys who have stepped away from the panel. Neil McManus has retired and it goes without saying that he won’t be replaced in a hurry, and then there’s the Dunloy quartet of Ryan […]
FROM early on in the year it was evident there was a good vibe around Cushendall so it’s no major surprise to see them follow up their Antrim title with the provincial crown. The Ruairi Ógs can be unpredictable in one sense, but coming from a neighbouring club like I do, you usually get a sense […]
A PART of me thinks the split-season isn’t a complete disaster for Gaelic football. The reason I say that is because Gaelic football can be played at this time of year with not too much detriment to the game really. Alright, the pitches are a good bit heavier but at the end of the day it […]
SO here we have it, Loughgiel and Cushendall will duke it out for the Volunteer Cup as the Antrim Senior Hurling Championship reaches its conclusion. First things first, for Loughgiel to overcome Dunloy in the semi-final was the big upset of the year, but for me, it’s almost written in the stars that Cushendall win […]
WHILE Antrim have had some great moments in recent years, the reality is they’re still about tenth in the county on an All-Ireland scale. If you were doing a ranking, we’d have been sixth or seventh in the country at our very peak in the late eighties, but generally we’ve been somewhere been nine and […]
