JOHNNY MCINTOSH: Splitting up


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 […]


JOHNNY McINTOSH: Written in the stars


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 […]


Johnny McIntosh: The traditional route


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 […]


JOHNNY McINTOSH: Splitting up


WHILE I don’t want to come across as a grouch, I have to say I’m not particularly enamoured by the so-called ‘split season’. I’m not really sure what the GAA is actually doing with all those. At county level they want a rushed closed window, and I’m not at all convinced by it. The club […]


JOHN McINTOSH: Back to basics


THE Westmeath hurlers pulled off a stunning upset against Westmeath last weekend, and what caught my eye were comments made by victorious manager Joe Fortune on The Smaller Fish podcast. They came from 17 points down to claim a remarkable 4-18 to 2-22 victory, and their manager said something that I found really interesting, and […]


JOHNNY MCINTOSH: Road Trip


ANTRIM drew against Dublin last weekend in their first ever home outing in the Leinster Hurling Championship. It would’ve been an unbelievable start to the campaign if they’d won, but a draw is a really good yardstick of how far the Saffrons have come in the last number of years. A few years back, Dublin […]


JOHNNY McINTOSH: Money matters


IT already seems inevitable that the Limerick hurlers will go on to complete a historic five in-a-row, and for me the elephant in the room is money. JP McManus has pumped in serious money to Limerick, they’ve reaped the benefits, and it makes me think of the Saudis and Russians who have bought up Premiership […]


JOHNNY McINTOSH: Learning lessons


THE dust has settled on Dunloy’s All-Ireland final defeat to Ballyhale Shamrocks, and you can be certain that Gregory O’Kane won’t countenance any talk of ‘moral victories’. Dunloy’s game-plan worked to perfection for most of the contest but Gregory will be disappointed that they didn’t kick on and seize the initiative when the game was there […]