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by thesaffrongael

All the talking is over, time for action!

Ulster SFC Quarter-final

Antrim v Armagh

Saturday 12-30 Corrigan Park

All the talking’s over, hail, rain or shine Antrim will meet All Ireland champions Armagh in the quarter-final of the Ulster Senior Football Championship at Corrigan Park on Saturday.

The Saffron footballers and their management showed great resolve and strength of character to ensure the game would go ahead at the West Belfast venue after Ulster Council’s attempt to switch it to Newry.

Enough has been said about that but Antrim’s resolve and strength of character faces as great, or maybe even greater challenge when they face one of the top teams in the country in Saturday’s clash.

Team captain, Dermot McAleese
Andy McEntee, looking for a big performance from Antrim on Sunday

In a game that will carry a David v Goliath tag the Saffron are likely to be pushed to their limits but they must have no inhibitions about the size of the task and give it a real lash.

Andy McEntee’s side go into Saturday’s clash, having suffered relegation from division 3 this year but will feel that fate conspired against them in a number of those games.

Antrim had three home games in their league campaign and four away ties and could make an argument that they should have won more than the two that they did win.

They led Fermanagh, Laois and Kildare at periods against those sides and were well in it in their game away to Offaly at half time before losing two players to Red cards early in the second half.

Its history but that Offaly side went on to claim the division 3 title while Antrim will play their football in division 4 next season.

A closer look at nearly all of their games will show that Antrim were in charge in most of them for a period of time but their inability to maintain their best form for the full 70 minutes would ultimately prove their downfall.

There has been an opportunity to address those short comings since their last league outing and the mood coming out of the camp is positive and has been further boosted this week by the news that Marc Jordan could start or at least play a part in Saturday’s game.

Antrim training at Jordanstown mid-week

The last meeting between these sides was back in 2023 when Armagh had too much for Antrim at the Athletic Grounds and in that encounter too many players looked to be overawed by the occasion.

I don’t expect that to be the case on Saturday. Under Andy McEntee Antrim have a group of players capable of giving a lot more than their league form would suggest.

Paddy McBride and Conor Hand will relish the opportunity to face the reigning All Ireland champions on their own ground while Michael Byrne, Dominic McEnhill, Eoghan McCabe, Niall Burns and the Finnegans all play their football within a stone’s throw of Corrigan.

The South West contingent including captain, Dermot McAleese are all familiar with the Whiterock Road ground and the return of Marc Jordan could provide a massive boost for the underdogs.

At the time of writing no teams had been announced but whoever Armagh select for the encounter will be household names.

A big and vociferous home crowd could be just the tonic as David faces Goliath on the Whiterock and the Saffrons look set to give it a lash and while Antrim will start as long odds outsiders, remember who won that battle between David and Goliath!

by thesaffrongael

Brendan & Aoibheann Walk The Portuguese Way

The Saffron Gaels Brendan McTaggart and daughter, Aoibheann, have their passports ready for the summer as they look to raise funds for ALPS Charity.  Brendan tells us a little about the charity and how they took up the challenge…

ALPs are a wonderful charity.  From the outskirts looking in, anyone that helps in their line of work are to be commended.  After a brief chat with Ronan Gilchrist (ALPs founder) at their brilliant Santa’s Grotto in Portglenone, it edged me a step closer to what I wanted to do.  If I was going to do any form of charity work or fundraising, this would be the charity.

For anyone who doesn’t know of ALPs – it stands for All Lives are Precious.  They have bases in Downpatrick and Portglenone and have grown incredibly since 2014.  They provide services to improve health and wellbeing in the north and south of Ireland.  They offer counselling, training and other services to individuals, families and communities.

This July, me and my second eldest, Aoibheann, are taking on a camino walk in Portugal – The Portuguese Way.  It’s a trek between Porto and Valencia that takes in over 100km which we will be doing over six days.

It’s both a wonderful opportunity and what we hope will be a fascinating experience.  How Aoibheann will cope with seven solid days and no respite from her mum of me and my bad jokes will possibly be her biggest task. 

The walk itself is described as both physically and spiritually challenging but incredibly fulfilling.  It’s one step into a journey that we both want to continue after July.  I have a feeling that when we get a taste for this type of experience, it may become intoxicating and we won’t be long in signing up for our next challenge.  For the moment, that’s the plan.

We have to raise a minimum of £3000 between us for the trip and we’re asking for the help of the gaels throughout Antrim and beyond.

I have created a Just Giving page, here is the link that will take you directly to the page:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/brendan-mctaggart?utm_term=wM2rnV7KJ

Any help would be greatly appreciated, no matter how big or small. 

Six days, over 100 km, a couple of batteries in the camera, what can possibly go wrong?

Right?

Six months to prepare, I’ll probably have to start getting ready and preparing for it in some way.  That will keep to between covering matches, work and coaching.

A piece of cake, really.

It’s something that I have been wanting to do for some time and it’s something that I’ve been keen to get my daughters involved in.  It’s not quite ‘New Year, New Challenge’.  I signed us up for this before Christmas but what better way to start 2025 than to have my mind set on a challenge like this?

That’s the positive mentality trying to stay prominent.  If you see me at the side of the pitch between now and then, that positive mentality may not be as prevalent.

Thank you in advance for any donations!

Brendan & Aoibheann McTaggart

by thesaffrongael

Paddy McBride back on home turf for Saturday’s showdown with All Ireland champions Armagh

Ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Armagh the Saffron Gael spoke with Antrim ‘veteran’ Paddy McBride who wears the Saffron jersey for the 125th time, this time on his home ground, Corrigan Park

SG- How are you feeling in the lead up to Saturday Paddy?

PMcB – “I’m feeling excited to be honest with you. I would be excited coming into any championship game, be it club or county to be honest with you, especially an Ulster Championship game, no matter who it is against. If you were to say to me who would you like to meet coming into a big game I would always say “the best there is” and it so happens this weekend Armagh are the best there is.”

SG – The whole controversy of whether the game was going to be played in Corrigan or moved somewhere else, when did that really start?

PMB – “Whenever the draws were made we just said “happy days we have got a home draw and thought nothing more about it to be honest until rumours stated to circulate about the match being fixed for Pairc Esler, but they were just rumours at training. We were always of the opinion that the game was going to be in Corrigan and when it was announced we just said, no matter what the rumours are Corrigan is where we expect to be playing this game!”

SG – The thing about it is Paddy this all seemed to come from the Ulster Council, Armagh never really seemed to have a problem with it.

PMB – “The thing is every GAA person in Ireland would feel the same way. If any other county in Ireland was faced with this scenario I would feel they had the right to have the game at home, when that was the way it was drawn. The GPA actually released a statement supporting our claim which was signed by all the team captains in Ulster so that had to include Armagh, and would have had to present that to his team before signing it. If the team that we are playing thinks the same as us it was a no brainer.”

SG – There had to be the danger of the whole thing becoming a distraction in the lead up to the game, do you think that has been the case Paddy? There was something similar when you faced Cavan a few years ago.

PMB – “Yes that is true and to be honest we let ourselves down against Cavan. Looking back at that game it was not the defeat that let us down, it was the manner of it. Looking forward to this weekend we can’t have that level of performance again. There has to be excitement in the way we play, there has to be intensity, and pace, and we need to give 100%, nothing else will be good enough.”

SG – Has everything gone well in training in the build up to the game?

PMB – “Well the big disappointment overall was getting relegated from Division 3 to be honest. Our aim coming into the season was to win promotion and when that did not happen we were gutted. We took a short break at the end of the league, just one night, before we got back to training and the first training session back was really flat. However 20 minutes into that thing suddenly began to pick up and it ended up being one of the best sessions we ever had! Since then it has been really good.”

SG –  I know that nearing the end of the league you reached 100 league game milestone, do you know how  many this will be overall on Sunday. 

PMB – I think this going to be 125.

SG – Have you any thoughts of retirement?

PMB – “No to be honest. If my legs still carry me I hope to go on as long as I can.  Anyone I have spoken to who has retired all tell me they wish they had played on for a bit longer. At the minute I feel as fast, as fit, as sharp as I have ever felt. I am 31, so Im still in my prime years”

SG – So what about Saturday’s opponents Armagh? You will have seen them play a lot over the past year. Were you in Croke Park for their final in over Galway?

PMB – “I was, and I was really happy for a lot of the boys on the team. I played with a good few of them at University and it was great to see them winning an All Ireland. I know a lot of them really well and it was great to see them achieve what they had, but at the same time there was bitter-sweet element to it all. We will friends again on Saturday before the game, and again afterwards but for the seventy odd minute in between, that won’t be the case.”

by thesaffrongael

St. Brigid’s on target to retain their title

O’Neill’s ACFL Division 1

St Brigid’s 2-13 Glenravel 1-8

Last year’s division 1 winners, St. Brigid’s have made an excellent start to this year’s campaign and on Wednesday night they recorded their third win from three starts when they entertained Con Magee’s at Musgrave Park.

They looked well on their way to victory at the halfway stage when they led the visitors by 10 points although the men from the Glens improved after the break, they could never get to within striking distance.

St Brigid’s Ryan Tweedy fires the ball high into the Glenravel net for the first of his two goals in Wednesday evening’s win over at Musgrave Park.

St Brigid’s opened brightly with Paul Bradley fisting over in their first attack and while Conan McNicholl doubled their advantage as they took the game to Glenravel. 

A superb kick-out by goalkeeper Declan Heery then found Bradley who placed Cathal Conway who split the posts before the visitors got off the mark through Aidan O’Donnell.

The reigning league champions responded with Bradley on target and Enda Downey converted a free before Shea Downey made a break through the middle, and placed Ryan Tweedy who had the easiest task of finishing to the empty net.

Glenravel hit back with a goal of their own just three minutes later as an excellent long ball was fetched by O’Donnell who put Declan Traynor in to finish low to the net.

Once again, St Brigid’s found a reply as Bradley kicked his third of the half and Tweedy grabbed his second goal in the space of seven minutes and this time, Dara Quinn was the provider as he cut in on the right and found his team-mate who made no mistake.

Quinn got a score of his own before Tweedy was denied a hat-trick of goals as Jonathan Fyfe made an excellent blocking save before Conor King added a point for the home side.

A St Brigid’s sub looks set to fire home a goal but Glenravel goalkeeper Johnny Fyfe makes a great save to turn the ball over the bar.

Glenravel ended a scoreless 17 minute spell from an O’Donnell free, but the hosts would have the final say of the opening period from a Heery 45 as they went in at the break with a very healthy 2-9 to 1-2 lead.

St. Brigid’s increased their lead to 11 early in the second half with Reuben Carleton firing over, but Glenravel enjoyed a decent spell with three brilliantly-taken points on the bounce as O’Donnell curled one either side of efforts from half-time substitute Rian Lennon.

The hosts steadied however as Tweedy and Conor McAleer added points to leave 10 between them heading into the final stages.

Glenravel were still battling hard and hit the next three points, Daniel McQuillan and Fergus Donnelly assisting O’Donnell, but Paul Bradley had the final score of the evening for the Musgrave Park side to leave them joint top with St. Gall’s, Cargin and O’Donnell’s who all have maximum points. 

St Brigid’s: D Heery (0-1, 1×45); N Finnegan, C King (0-1), J McCarney; S Campbell, S Downey, R Carleton (0-1); C Conway (0-1), M Cummings; D Quinn (0-1), E Downey (0-1f), P Bradley (0-4); B Doherty, C McNicholl (0-1), R Tweedy (2-1).

Subs: E Sherry for S Campbell (12), C McAleer (0-1) for E Downey (26), F Meenan for S Downey (33), S O’Hare for C Conway (52), D Magee for D Quinn (56).

Glenravel: J Fyfe; D McAuley, E McCusker, R McCormick; E Ward, D McQuillan (0-1), C Henry; D Higgins, S Higgins; C Higgins, F Donnelly (0-1), J Martin; A O’Donnell (0-4, 2f), S McKay, D Traynor (1-0).

Sub: F Lennon (0-2) for D Higgins (HT).

Referee: Colin Thompson (St John’s) 

Aodhan O’Donnell sends over a Glenravel point from a free

TO SEE MORE OF DYLAN’S PHOTOS FROM THE GAME CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

https://myalbum.com/album/pLsp2Nj2NqxsdY/?invite=4be01310-3d7d-4c64-b7ff-c45fe09dacdc