McKenna Cup 2024

[thejuice]

That goal for Down was great, although Im sure Downey was going for a point. McCloy gave yer man a right ol hit just before it.

[never kickt a ball]

Carr wants wheels to keep moving

Dr McKenna Cup final:  Down 1-12 Derry 1-6
From Brendan Crossan at Casement Park
28/01/08

ROSS Carr has challenged his players to build on last Saturday night's Dr McKenna Cup victory and aim for promotion from Division Three this season. The Down boss wasn't getting carried away with the county's first piece of silverware at senior level since their last Dr McKenna Cup success in 1998. "Time will tell how significant this is," Carr said afterwards. "The players have a decision to make now. People put too much emphasis on managers and trainers - it's really a mindset the players take on themselves. "If the players are satisfied and want to get to their Christmas parties in November and December of this year and celebrate a McKenna Cup win, then fair play to them. "If they have the right mindset, they'll try and build on it. They'll keep going in training and with the hard work we'll see where it takes them." Down routed Derry with six points to spare during Saturday night's absorbing McKenna decider with man-of-the-match Daniel Hughes top-scoring with four points. Substitute Conor Gribben grabbed a late goal for the Mournemen to cancel out Paddy Bradley's three-pointer earlier in the second period. Carr added: "The more we keep working, I think the more results like that we'll get. Whether that constitutes winning something at the end of the year. There's only a couple of competitions you can win, of course. You can win your National League, an Ulster title or the Sam Maguire."We're not at that level yet, but we have to look seriously at the National League and hopefully come out of Division Three."Down's emphatic six-point win over a disappointing Derry side also provided Oak Leaf boss Paddy Crozier with food for thought ahead of their NFL opener against Mayo next weekend. "We were hammered," said the Ballymaguigan man. "Maybe we're not as good as we thought we were."

http://www.irishnews.com/irishnews/2008/1/597/5776/578645_334830035026Carrwants.html

[never kickt a ball]

Dr McKenna Cup final: Down 1-12 Derry 1-6
From Brendan Crossan at Casement Park
28/01/08

Players are driving us forward: Carr

DAN Gordon walked through the well-wishers and press reporters underneath Casement Park's main stand with the Dr McKenna Cup down by his side. It was almost as if the Down skipper was trying to conceal the silverware he had just collected.
Its market value may be rising with each passing year, but it's still the McKenna Cup. We're not talking about a National League or
There were no clenched fists or mad celebratory cheers from the winners, but still you could tell Gordon was proud as punch; not so much with the modest piece of silverware, but the manner of his team's victory and the feeling that maybe this group of players can do the county proud this year.Manager Ross Carr re-emerged from the winners' enclosure showered, changed and business-like about Down's six-point win.
"We're still making silly mistakes and putting ourselves under pressure. But the mistakes we're making are through genuine endeavour rather than laziness," said Carr.The Clonduff clubman downplayed his and DJ's role in Down's mini-revival and instead pointed to a culture change within the panel. "When new players come in they can come into a team set-up where the work ethic is wrong, the culture is lazy and they get swallowed up by that. The new fellas that have come in are following a great example set by the older players, and it's easier to bed into that kind of culture, especially when they see hard work paying dividends."
Last season, Down went through the McKenna Cup and League without a win. Carr added: "Obviously last year we weren't put in the job until late October and we had to use parts of December, January and February to trial players, and some of those games happened to be in the McKenna Cup and National League."We were probably a wee bit naive thinking we could pick up enough points and stay in Division Two. We set our stall out at the start of this year to get the boys as fit as we could because our season starts in February - not in the summer."If we have a good spring, then we can go to Omagh [to face Tyrone in the Ulster Championship] hoping to put up a good show. If we've a bad spring, there's no point in us going."
At the other end of the corridor, Derry boss Paddy Crozier pulled no punches."We were completely over-run," said Crozier. "Down showed more hunger than us, they're really flying and peaking at the minute. We looked very, very lethargic. A six-point win doesn't do Down justice. It feels more like a 12-point hammering. You don't get a hammering like that and not learn from it."
While Crozier was delighted to see Enda Muldoon, Kevin McCloy and Paul Murphy back in action, he believed there was a lot of work to do between now and next weekend."It's better happening here now instead of next Saturday night in Celtic Park in the League. We'll go back to the drawing board on Tuesday night and get ready for Mayo next Saturday night."

http://www.irishnews.com/irishnews/2008/1/597/5776/578660_334847394601Playersar.html

Players are driving us forward: Carr
Carr wants wheels to keep moving

If you ask me Carr's team never got out of third gear. The second half rally from Derry never materialised. Carr had his team well marshalled.......Carr steers Down to McKenna Cup victory.....Carr's Down back on the road again....Carr's team motoring in the McKenna Cup......

[Hardy]

And one of these days it'll be "Carr Gets The Boot!"

[AZOffaly]

Or this one some time in june probably.

"Carr Sick"

[donelli]

I didnt see the match yet (may catch it if it is repeated on setanta later on the week)
Surprised at the result as i think Derry are real contenders for the provincial title this year. However, Down aer a decent side. They could have beaten Monaghan in the championship last year handy enough but for goals scored for Monaghan at critical times.
What Down must to do this year is if they fall in Ulster, they must at least make a good stab at the qualifiers. The last number of years performances in the qualifiers has been shambolic.

[RadioGAAGAA]

When a player plucks the ball out of the sky more often than not he is surrounded by the opposition and generally gets blown up for over carrying.

As soon as you hit the ground after a catch you should be running.


You start running and I guarantee you'll have a yard on the people around you.

[Hardy]

A great point. Fielding technique is something we could learn from Aussie football. You seldom see an Aussie player standing under the ball trying to make a mark. They start a run from 10-15 yards from where the ball will come down and generally take it with flying forward momentum. That's how Gaelic Footballers should be coached to do it. It's ironic that the Aussies, who don't need to do it (because they get a free mark) do it, while we who could benefit from it don't.

[Leo]

When a player plucks the ball out of the sky more often than not he is surrounded by the opposition and generally gets blown up for over carrying.

As soon as you hit the ground after a catch you should be running.


You start running and I guarantee you'll have a yard on the people around you.

Watch it again. The fielder is immediately bottled by players who are already on the ground - no need to challenge in the air when you can maul on the ground - as a tactic its simple - crowd the midfield and spoil the fielder who is prevented from any movement forward or otherwise  (and wait for the non-playing spectators to blame the person who showed the skill!).

[Leo]

A great point. Fielding technique is something we could learn from Aussie football. You seldom see an Aussie player standing under the ball trying to make a mark. They start a run from 10-15 yards from where the ball will come down and generally take it with flying forward momentum. That's how Gaelic Footballers should be coached to do it. It's ironic that the Aussies, who don't need to do it (because they get a free mark) do it, while we who could benefit from it don't.

The oval ball is hung up in the air allowing players to come forward on to it. It's a totally different skill in a totally different game and one of the reasons the bastardised inter rules will never work. If we import this idea from Aussie then you must import the mark with it and settle for even more stop-start in our game - desperate idea that would be.

[western exile]

A great point. Fielding technique is something we could learn from Aussie football. You seldom see an Aussie player standing under the ball trying to make a mark. They start a run from 10-15 yards from where the ball will come down and generally take it with flying forward momentum. That's how Gaelic Footballers should be coached to do it. It's ironic that the Aussies, who don't need to do it (because they get a free mark) do it, while we who could benefit from it don't.

The oval ball is hung up in the air allowing players to come forward on to it. It's a totally different skill in a totally different game and one of the reasons the bastardised inter rules will never work. If we import this idea from Aussie then you must import the mark with it and settle for even more stop-start in our game - desperate idea that would be.

Correct again Leo.  And another reason that the Aussies start a run to field the ball with forward momentum is because their game allows them to raise their feet above shoulder height.  If a player did that in Gaelic Football he would also be punished by the referee. No win.  Which brings us back to the point that it is the referee interpretation that needs to be improved.

[Hardy]

The oval ball is hung up in the air allowing players to come forward on to it. It's a totally different skill in a totally different game

With due respect, the laws of physics don't allow for any ball of any shape "hanging up" in the air.  With due allowance for the (infinitesimal) effect that the difference in air resistance between the two types of ball would have, both balls obey the law of gravity and fall to earth at the same rate. What will make a difference is the trajectory of the kick and it's true that GAA kickouts often have a lower trajectory than the shy-high kicking of Aussie players.

But it's the same skill and there's nothing preventing a GAA player giving himself the advantage of momentum by running to the point of the catch instead of standing under it. Mick O'Connell is the best example I can remember of a player who did this regularly. 

I see no logic at all in the assertion that players improving their catching technique in this way would necessitate the  introduction of the "mark" rule. All I'm pointing out is that a player arriving with momentum will jump at least as high (I would have thought higher, but AZoffaly told me here one time that that's not the case as he proved by experiment). But the big advantage, in my opinion, is that it gives him a much better chance, having taken the ball, of clearing through the group of players standing under it, hitting the ground running and being gone before he can be bottled up. And if he is interfered with, it's more likely to be an obvious foul.

And I don't see any problem with raising your feet above shoulder height as long as you don't foul anybody while doing it. The problem is, you'd want to be some athlete to gain that sort of height. The Aussies do it by levering themselves up on the backs of opponents. That would be a foul in GAA (though I think it's spectacular and would be great if it was allowed in our game).

[western exile]

Hardy your point is well made. However every player has a different technique.  Your post is based on "what if a player changed their technique?" idea.  This discussion started by posters wondering why, more than one great and legal catch which was made by Dan Gordan during the game, and was penalised because the referee ignored the illegal attention of his opponents and only concentrated on what Dan would do in the scenario he found himself in.
Do you agree that a 2 or 3 hand tackle is not allowed under current rules and should have been penalised before Mr. Gordan was blown for over carrying?

[Hardy]

Certainly. I'm not disputing the original suggestion that refereeing interpretations ought to favor the man coming down with the ball.

[Leo]

Certainly. I'm not disputing the original suggestion that refereeing interpretations ought to favor the man coming down with the ball.

Well we can arue all day about physics tecniques auddie rules and semantics but on this one point it appears we are (quite corrcetly) in agreement and its time the looney faction of the GAA (ie referees committee) took notice.