Down Club Hurling & Football

[downjim]

Lol yes third, the best season in years, hardly an aristocrat in Down GAA now. CPN known throughout Ireland

[Cuan12]

Everyone is having a good laugh at your expense Smurf, ya think your a big team but in reality you weren't and aren't, island were unlucky not to beat you in last years championship and when the chips are down, your lot hides, and yes you finished third , super season.😂😂😂

[Smurfy123]

Good one Cuan. Now do you understand what I mean when I say about getting the big hitters back in? Time for the big players to come back in. Poor showing today to many new lads massive step up. Same shite different year. Down scores a cracking goal bit was disallowed after the fourt handpass. It actually made me laugh it was that ridiculous. Queens and Down now playing for the wooden spoon on Wednesday night .

[Ed Hardy]

Brutal enough performance from Down today, looked like men against boys for the majority of it. Paul Devlin done well when he came on tho, harsh on Harney being taken off at ht. Considering the performance of the other corner forward who somehow managed to stay on the whole game.

[Cuan12]

Lads it's the McKenna cup with a new manager who needs to see a few players, there were guys on this forum giving of about the players then and these were the big hitters Smurf was asking to come back, we are in Div 3 for a reason , we weren't good enough for div 2.Paddy Tally will make us hard to beat with a mixture of the old and the new so let's not get over critical and one final thing the point will do well to finish 3rd again 😂😂

[Lotto]

That's just the phrase I was thinking myself Ed, men against boys. Our inability to covert plenty of possession into scoring opportunities, poor decision making and execution of the most basic of skills was the difference. Constant shouting from the line to 'get back', 'get back' and if that is the way we are going to play it, it's gonna be a long year. The tactic of putting all the big men on one side of the pitch and the keeper lobbing it up among them, then scraping for the break is pure genius, is this what a massive pay packet gets you these days?

[Smurfy123]

Strange tactic putting men over to one side and bombing the ball iut. Donegal won everything in the air. Can't understabd why a short kickout wasn't tried. Long year ahead

[Targetman]

Hard to watch that today, pushed about by a bigger more physical team for most of the match, not many positives to take if any, I know its early in the year but a lot of work for the management team to do!!

[Mourne Rover]

No one is going to get too exercised about a McKenna Cup game on a wet January Sunday but today was poor fare. While both sides were understrength, Donegal looked at a completely different level to us.  We had plenty of pace and energy but seldom got into dangerous positions. Although our tactic of pumping kick-outs into congested areas has to be down to experimentation, it severely limited our possession and a half time total of three points tells its own story. We were a little unlucky that our two best moves saw a goal disallowed for an unnecessary extra hand pass and a shot come back off the base of the post, but Donegal always seemed capable of stepping up a gear.  Our recent record in the competition is admittedly dreadful anyway, and the only match which matters this month is the league opener against Laois. However, Tally probably did not get too many additional options from this afternoon.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Good one Cuan. Now do you understand what I mean when I say about getting the big hitters back in? Time for the big players to come back in.

Do you ever wonder why we are going nowhere if folks are calling a halt to any experimentation after a McKenna cup defeat?

We don't have any "big" hitters - and we sure as hell aren't going to find any by continuing to flog the old warhorses. Our squad is decidedly average compared to most in Ulster never mind the rest of Ireland.

[stiff breeze]

Some of the knee jerk reaction stuff on here makes you wonder if some have an actual clue .

Im far from a big Down fan but todays game looked like a very experimental side getting used to a new system and generally to a man working fairly hard. There are nailed on starters in Maginn, Darren o Hagan, Harrison, Mc Kernan , Donnelly , Mooney and possibly Reid to come back in when they are fit enough/rested enough.  Thats half a team

Tally and co are doing exactly what they were tasked with doing , trying to unearth new talent by trying the best in the county who want to play and implementing a system of play which makes Down hard to beat .

Havern , Wells , A McClements , Mc Aleenan and Mason have all stepped up so far imo . Pd and Mc Kibbon too , The league will tell the tale better as it will probably be a fairly set team with minimal changes weekly.

Give the team and management a summer then decide . Its a marathon to get Down anywhere, anyone who expected quick results is completely deluded 

[elk]

Can't understand why Burren are not represented on this current panel they're the best team in Down at the moment.

[KeyboardWarrior645]

Down won a good amount of their own kick outs ye idiot. Yes they didn't clean catch them in the air but they were broken and the down lads won the majority of the breaks. Was evident this was a tactic of downs and it frustrated the Donegal players greatly. Good few short kick outs also taken today but I dunno maybe yous don't realise but down are in division 3 and Donegal in division 1. Both teams performed well below their capabilities obviously. Downs biggest problem today was their ability to be clinical in front of goal no doubt about it. Should have had two goals, even the ones they'd too many fist passes they should've worked it out. Their point taking again was poor but bloody heck it's January. All about the league and aiming for promotion. The players by then should be really well prepared for what will be an interesting championship campaign I believe for this group as down will cause upsets and go far.
Anyone who believes different obviously not a down supporter.

No burren players on the current McKenna cup squad because the ones from last year are getting rested like the Mooney's and ohagans. There are also a couple of them on university squads including Steven fegan who's with uuj. Surely yas would know this if yas followed down football at all instead of typing crap on this all the time.

[Mourne Rover]

Keyboard Warrior, Donegal are a very fine side but they are actually in division two, rather than division one. Down managed to win breaking ball from a few kick outs yesterday but the area was so congested that we had very few opportunities to set up attacks. The result was that we managed a total of three points by half time, at which stage the game was over. However, you are right to stress that all our preparations need to be geared up for the start of the league. If we are in decent shape for the Laois match, yesterday will be very quickly forgotten.

[downjim]

Does anyone know what Harps and RGU fully fot. Are they in the champ next year, did they get points deducted??