Down Club Hurling & Football

[County Star]

Catching up with the highlights on BBC, seems like Doherty has carried on his diving traits from Kilcoo.. McKauige barely laid a glove on him yet Doherty went down like he was shot.

Was right in front of me. Mckaigue was silly really . Made it easy to for the ref.

[Smurfy123]

The kilcoo faithful tht have added lots to the successful Down teams

[Truth hurts]

Great performance and great crowd, good to see the magpie faithful back in Newry but can they wear Down gear instead of Kilcoo gear please.

Only when the dinosaurs at the top table of the county board disappear.

That the ones your club helps pick?

[snoopdog]

Great performance and great crowd, good to see the magpie faithful back in Newry but can they wear Down gear instead of Kilcoo gear please.

Can you post details of the required match going uniform please.   

[Back2Winning]

I see a proposal to include Burren & Carryduff 2nds in the ACFL has been released.
The wording of the conclusion certainly does not portray a neutral stance awaiting a vote.
Reading it would suggest a deal has already been done behind closed doors to include these teams.
If these parishes have grown so big that 1 club cannot accommodate the playing numbers then maybe its time to form a 2nd club within the parish with its own youth structure, committee, pitch, and facilities therefore giving them the right to compete with junior clubs and grow accordingly.
Junior clubs work hard to maintain stand alone facilities and provide Gaelic games in challenging circumstances with limited numbers. The last thing these clubs need is to have moral sapping defeats at the hands of clubs who are drawing players from all areas. There is a real risk of junior clubs failing to field ( as we have seen with Mitchels ) when players walk away following such defeats. Adult players will be lost to other sports with underage players having no footsteps to follow, with the potential for smaller clubs going the way of Ballykinlar and Killyleagh.
We should protect the weak and not allow these superpowers to steamroll our smaller clubs.
Conclusion: Down GAA will lose a lot more from the smaller clubs than the 20 plus players wanting to represent Burren & Carryduff who could quite easily go back to play for their home clubs.

[manwithnoplan]

I see a proposal to include Burren & Carryduff 2nds in the ACFL has been released.
The wording of the conclusion certainly does not portray a neutral stance awaiting a vote.
Reading it would suggest a deal has already been done behind closed doors to include these teams.
If these parishes have grown so big that 1 club cannot accommodate the playing numbers then maybe its time to form a 2nd club within the parish with its own youth structure, committee, pitch, and facilities therefore giving them the right to compete with junior clubs and grow accordingly.
Junior clubs work hard to maintain stand alone facilities and provide Gaelic games in challenging circumstances with limited numbers. The last thing these clubs need is to have moral sapping defeats at the hands of clubs who are drawing players from all areas. There is a real risk of junior clubs failing to field ( as we have seen with Mitchels ) when players walk away following such defeats. Adult players will be lost to other sports with underage players having no footsteps to follow, with the potential for smaller clubs going the way of Ballykinlar and Killyleagh.
We should protect the weak and not allow these superpowers to steamroll our smaller clubs.
Conclusion: Down GAA will lose a lot more from the smaller clubs than the 20 plus players wanting to represent Burren & Carryduff who could quite easily go back to play for their home clubs.

Out of interest, how many of the players likely to feature for these reserve teams have home clubs to return to? Discarding those who may have moved to live in those areas and so joined the clubs, are there many who have joined but aren't living in those areas?
Sad to see clubs struggle and even fold, but participation levels seem to be lower in general, and of course rural to urban migration, or emigration, are surely the main drivers for this, and not the fact that a team suffers a few heavy defeats.

[thewobbler]

I see a proposal to include Burren & Carryduff 2nds in the ACFL has been released.
The wording of the conclusion certainly does not portray a neutral stance awaiting a vote.
Reading it would suggest a deal has already been done behind closed doors to include these teams.
If these parishes have grown so big that 1 club cannot accommodate the playing numbers then maybe its time to form a 2nd club within the parish with its own youth structure, committee, pitch, and facilities therefore giving them the right to compete with junior clubs and grow accordingly.
Junior clubs work hard to maintain stand alone facilities and provide Gaelic games in challenging circumstances with limited numbers. The last thing these clubs need is to have moral sapping defeats at the hands of clubs who are drawing players from all areas. There is a real risk of junior clubs failing to field ( as we have seen with Mitchels ) when players walk away following such defeats. Adult players will be lost to other sports with underage players having no footsteps to follow, with the potential for smaller clubs going the way of Ballykinlar and Killyleagh.
We should protect the weak and not allow these superpowers to steamroll our smaller clubs.
Conclusion: Down GAA will lose a lot more from the smaller clubs than the 20 plus players wanting to represent Burren & Carryduff who could quite easily go back to play for their home clubs.

Whilst my heart agrees with you, my head says that if we try to rigidly hold onto what was before rather than embrace the future, then we will do the GAA more harm than good.

Clubs folded and formed throughout the 60s and 70s as reaction to population shifts and drive within  communities. Things aren't much different now except the cost of land and construction makes it borderline impossible to start from scratch in 2023. So if we want the game to grow (or at least stand still) my head tells me we are better off encouraging big clubs to expand than keeping moribund clubs around on life support. It's just evolution at play. The reality of facilities, finances and structures means that, for example, there's a stronger chance of chance of Newry Shamrocks having two ACFL sides in 2030, than the Newry Mitchels still being in existence. It's got to be a better outcome for the GAA in Newry to pursue the former. I don't want it that way. But it is what it is.

[County Star]

Does anyone have the division 4 proposals ?

[Truth hurts]

I see a proposal to include Burren & Carryduff 2nds in the ACFL has been released.
The wording of the conclusion certainly does not portray a neutral stance awaiting a vote.
Reading it would suggest a deal has already been done behind closed doors to include these teams.
If these parishes have grown so big that 1 club cannot accommodate the playing numbers then maybe its time to form a 2nd club within the parish with its own youth structure, committee, pitch, and facilities therefore giving them the right to compete with junior clubs and grow accordingly.
Junior clubs work hard to maintain stand alone facilities and provide Gaelic games in challenging circumstances with limited numbers. The last thing these clubs need is to have moral sapping defeats at the hands of clubs who are drawing players from all areas. There is a real risk of junior clubs failing to field ( as we have seen with Mitchels ) when players walk away following such defeats. Adult players will be lost to other sports with underage players having no footsteps to follow, with the potential for smaller clubs going the way of Ballykinlar and Killyleagh.
We should protect the weak and not allow these superpowers to steamroll our smaller clubs.
Conclusion: Down GAA will lose a lot more from the smaller clubs than the 20 plus players wanting to represent Burren & Carryduff who could quite easily go back to play for their home clubs.

Excellent points, once they get in they the following year the likes of Kilcoo, Mayobridge, Clonduff, Bryansford, Castlewellan, Ballyholland etc will follow and division 4 will be the premier reserve league.  To improve reserve football they should change u13 football to a Saturday evening and move premier reserve to Tuesday. Keep East Down and south Down on Sundays at 2pm.  If these bigger clubs kept to playing their own then they might not have as big numbers.

[thewobbler]

Truth I take it you've never played reserve football.

Nobody. And I mean nobody, wants to play reserve football at lunchtime on a Sunday.

[Smurfy123]

With the top 25 starred as such it is affectively Burren and Carryduff thirds teams playing in division 4

Both teams along with kilcoo would be seen as the strongest 3rds teams in Down

A big blow to senior teams to get beaten by 3rds teams

[WeeJamseyMcC95]

Great performance and great crowd, good to see the magpie faithful back in Newry but can they wear Down gear instead of Kilcoo gear please.

You should stand at the gate in Thurles and if anyone doesn't arrive in a full Down GAA tracksuit turn them away.. but then again you probably wont even make that trip yourself.

[Truth hurts]

Truth I take it you've never played reserve football.

Nobody. And I mean nobody, wants to play reserve football at lunchtime on a Sunday.

Yes I have played reserves and would rather play earlier on a Sunday than 6pm in the evening. At least you have some of your Sunday to spend with the family .


Another option would be to have reserves at 7pm on a Saturday and have Ladies senior on Sunday afternoons. Saturday evening at 7pm is a bad time for women's football.


Burren need to start a new senior club in the area or sanction players to Newry Mitchells. The hoovering up of players since the turn of the millennium is not having as good an effect as the oligarch's thought. Young lads who's family are engrained in the history and parish of Burren throughout the years are not getting a game of football and quitting football before 20.

[Truth hurts]

With the top 25 starred as such it is affectively Burren and Carryduff thirds teams playing in division 4

Both teams along with kilcoo would be seen as the strongest 3rds teams in Down

A big blow to senior teams to get beaten by 3rds teams

You must not keep an eye on reserve football ?

[Truth hurts]

Great performance and great crowd, good to see the magpie faithful back in Newry but can they wear Down gear instead of Kilcoo gear please.

You should stand at the gate in Thurles and if anyone doesn't arrive in a full Down GAA tracksuit turn them away.. but then again you probably wont even make that trip yourself.

Yes I will be at Thurles as I never miss Down matches and was one of the loyal followers last year.