Down Club Hurling & Football

[supersub]

Mooneys pace is electric - he would be the fastest in the Down squad by some distance. He broke the sprint record at Collingwood, a professional sports club. A warm up tells a man in the stand nothing.

He has recovered from the hamstring injury and it is up to Jim how to implement him in the national league. He never was the most skillfull player, but he can carry a ball, shoot, and bring others into play. Give him time and I have no doubt he will prove any doubters wrong.

[Brick Tamlin]

The lad has come back home after a couple of years away and the fanfare is ridiculous to be fair.
He has yet to prove himself at senior intercounty level and is no different that any other unproven talent at that age/grade. Talent? Yes. Proven? Absolutely not.
Personally speaking i think he has wintered a little too well since coming home and taking up the student life. Additional timber wont help his pace.

[Aristo 60]

The lad has come back home after a couple of years away and the fanfare is ridiculous to be fair.
He has yet to prove himself at senior intercounty level and is no different that any other unproven talent at that age/grade. Talent? Yes. Proven? Absolutely not.
Personally speaking i think he has wintered a little too well since coming home and taking up the student life. Additional timber wont help his pace.

+1

Finally, we are having both sides of the argument.

[Smurfy123]

Very harsh on Mooney here

[supersub]

The lad has come back home after a couple of years away and the fanfare is ridiculous to be fair.
He has yet to prove himself at senior intercounty level and is no different that any other unproven talent at that age/grade. Talent? Yes. Proven? Absolutely not.
Personally speaking i think he has wintered a little too well since coming home and taking up the student life. Additional timber wont help his pace.

He lives at home and is training nearly every night of the week - hardly the typical student life.

No one is saying he is proven at IC level, but should not be written off at this stage either.

[Brick Tamlin]

Not tryin to write anyone off to be fair.
A full season of senior club football would benefit him id think.
Lets hope he and a few others get the chance to play regular games for their clubs whilst fulfilling county duties.

I didn't mean it to get personal at all but sometimes after reading comments upon comments about the potential of some of our players it becomes irksome.
Walk into any pub in Ireland on a weekend and you will find a handful of fellas who were 'legends' in their day, might have a few underage or minor championship medals, maybe an All Ireland Minor or Hogan medal and were maybe touted as the next big thing in their club/county. Potential is only that and no more and talent will only take a player so far. No point having all the talent in the world unless you have the character and attitude to go with it. I just don't believe in jumping feet first in to exclaim how wonderful a player may be until he is doing it at the top of his level against the best. And for me, a lot of players in our county have been ridiculously lauded down through the years when they really haven't proven themselves against the best.

Sometimes a measure of reason and perspective wouldn't go amiss.

[Down Follower]

Absolutely right Brick. Reason must work both ways though so give Mooney a bit of time before we judge him.  From what I recall he was never a player who would be prominent throughout a game but you would look at the scorers at the end of a game and he could have 4 points from play, or 1-2 from play or something similar. Hopefully he can build on that to become a more prominent player.  What I do know is that since he came back from Oz he has thrown himself back into it, with firstly, Rostrevor U21's, then Jordanstown, and now Down.  He certainly hasnt been resting on his laurels.  Himself and Marty coming home were the start of the good news. McCorry becoming manager was another, and now the start we have had to 2015 has built on that.  We now have a foundation of a new team after only 4 months, effectively without Marty or Caolan, so if they can add another dimension to the team over the next year or so then things are certainly looking up.

[TooLongRef]

Down team tonight was
Mark Reid Bryansford
Aaron Mc Donald Bryansford
Aaron Beattie Newry bosco
Aidan Fulcher kilcoo
Anthony Doherty Downpatrick
Rory Burns Castlewellan
Ruairi Wells Bryansford
Conor Devlin Bryansford
Joe Mc Kinney daragh Cross
Martin Devlin kilcoo
Cathal Foy Burren
Aaron Magee Warrenpoint
Pat Havern saval
Rory Mason loughisland
Conal Gallagher Newry Bosco

Four of the seven in defence from Bryansford and another who doesn't play for his club senior team enough said!

I wouldn't really pay much heed to the actual u21 competition run within the county.
Its a dud comp and played at a time of year when its hard for players to give a sh!te.
I was more thinking of the large % of players who play regular top tier football for their clubs or have shown pedigree at Ulster Colleges level beforehand.
Would have thought that the stronger/bigger clubs in Down would have decent 21s lining out for them regularly.

I think a lot of us in this county under estimate the talent coming through our underage. although we have not performed well at county standard this past while if we look at each club there are a number of quality young individuals who are all probably good enough to break into senior teams, but is it a case that some club senior managers are afraid to play a youngster over someone who has been around longer?

'ifyoure good enough youre old enough'

Seriously, if a lad hasn't made it onto his senior team at 21, then is there really much hope for him?  Many of the lads on the team last night I just would not know.  The management got the panel wrong in the first place leaving lads out and then when they went back to them (knowing they made a mistake) the lads told them where to go.  They must shoulder alot of the blame for not even getting the best panel together never mind the best team.  Dawson's horrors at county level continue.

Cory Quinn can't find a starting place in the mayobridge senior team at the minute and he's one of the hottest talents in the county.

Dawson tries to make it more about himself than about the players. Dropped the big names for 'not working hard enough'. Quinn was scoring for fun before he was dropped, apparently scored 1-7 in a challenge game 2 days before hand too, find it hard how Dawson could justify that no matter how hard the lad works, he's there to score.

Who are the other big names he dropped?


Doyle - Rostrevor
Mcaleenan - warrenpoint
McGonigle - Carryduff

[PAULD123]

I don't think Donagh McAleenan was dropped. I think he has an injury. However O'Hare from Warrenpoint certainly was overlooked despite fantastic club performances for senior and under 21's. Also I think Sean Gallagher would be the correct age but was not selected.

[Shamrocks Gaelp]

I heard that donagh McAleenan had broke his thumb and was recovering however I'm pretty sure the others are correct. Managers decisions can win or lose games but frank is mainly there to assist Jim. Many very quick to tear into him here

[elk]

I don't think Donagh McAleenan was dropped. I think he has an injury. However O'Hare from Warrenpoint certainly was overlooked despite fantastic club performances for senior and under 21's. Also I think Sean Gallagher would be the correct age but was not selected.

Having watched Warrenpoint  a few times last season cormac mc cartan and ryan magee could have made the squad as well as O'Hare. Haven,t seen much of Gallagher playing.

[PAULD123]

I heard that donagh McAleenan had broke his thumb and was recovering however I'm pretty sure the others are correct. Managers decisions can win or lose games but frank is mainly there to assist Jim. Many very quick to tear into him here

Frank probably made sub-optimal decisions regarding the squad and the team selection. But I wouldn't give him all the blame. The system is terrible. The lads are brought together when they are at their least fit, given about a month to train and then perhaps their whole season lasts only one match. The team may well have developed over 3-4 matches and a couple of months. You can't expect 15 players to meet up and suddenly be a cohesive unit.

The U21 championship should be a weekly round robin running for 8 weeks with the team at the top being champions. Then we get to see the value of each team and the value of coaching. Or perhaps two groups playing home & away matches, with the group winners playing a final. At least that would be of a benefit to the  players, the coaches and the fans. The current format disposes with players far too fast. Not good for the sport.

Another benefit of the above system is that it would provide a testing ground for potential modification to the Ulster senior championship

[The Raven]

Anyone know what's happening with minor & u16 leagues. Is there just one all county league at each grade with the divisional boards running their own leagues for everyone else. I thought we had moved away from this nonsense. If we want Down to be as one play as one

[thewobbler]

PaulD - that's just not feasible, as to get off the ground running, any manager worth his salt would want two month's training ahead of round 1. Which, if we need u21s to be largely wrapped up before the club season would mean starting matches in the last week of January, training at the end of November, and trials for a month before that. No thanks. And that's before you bring in county senior and Sigerson commitments on that same timeline.

Best thing we could with under-21 football is turn it into an old style weekend tournament and guarantee everyone three games. Yes it would be attritional, but it would condense it in the schedule.


Raven, the logistics of taking a team from the Mournes to Belfast (or vice versa) on a weekday evening is difficult. The top grade sides can do it because they have the player numbers. Smaller teams just can't afford to lose a handful of players due to travel commitments, and it's natural in any club that once a few lads can't commit, a few more throw in the towel. We should be encouraging these lads to play and enjoy their football, and not make them drive an hour to face a beating, or to scramble through their phone books to field a team.

[The Raven]

PaulD - that's just not feasible, as to get off the ground running, any manager worth his salt would want two month's training ahead of round 1. Which, if we need u21s to be largely wrapped up before the club season would mean starting matches in the last week of January, training at the end of November, and trials for a month before that. No thanks. And that's before you bring in county senior and Sigerson commitments on that same timeline.

Best thing we could with under-21 football is turn it into an old style weekend tournament and guarantee everyone three games. Yes it would be attritional, but it would condense it in the schedule.


Raven, the logistics of taking a team from the Mournes to Belfast (or vice versa) on a weekday evening is difficult. The top grade sides can do it because they have the player numbers. Smaller teams just can't afford to lose a handful of players due to travel commitments, and it's natural in any club that once a few lads can't commit, a few more throw in the towel. We should be encouraging these lads to play and enjoy their football, and not make them drive an hour to face a beating, or to scramble through their phone books to field a team.

Fair point wobbler, but as 2 of the 3 "Belfast"clubs are in the all county league the only surely having to travel to Holywood once a season wouldn't be that much of an imposition. I'm sure mourne teams would much rather travel to Loughisland or Drumaness than Banbridge or Tullylish.
At least the South Down fixtures are out, I would be surprised if the East Down fixtures have even been drawn up, maybe someone can prove me wrong.
I'm not and never have been a fan of divisional boards,I would much rather see similar strength clubs from wherever in the county playing in all county leagues rather than 2 skewed one sided leagues. Think of this as a player would you rather have an all county division 2 winners medal  at Minor or U16 than a South Down or  East Down medal. I know which I would want