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Offaly, Limerick and London then?

Seems like it..

Home to limerick
Away to London
Neutral venue for Offaly

If our league performances are anything to go by this shouldn't be difficult


League Results:

Down 4.12 Off. 2.14
Down 3.16 Limerick 0.09

So possible the Offaly game is the only one that might be worth attending..but still it's a no from me.

If someone  is clearly  drunk while entering the ground , can they not be  refused entry?

There  are other events/establishments  people would be refused entry to  in such a state, so why  not a GAA match as well?

Stewarding needs to be better..

But the jovial attitude towards young lads 'enjoying' themselves usually gives them a bye ball

My parents didn't go this year cause they couldn't face the same crowd as last year (and they are very much hill or nowhere - not fans of the stand!).
I went but went to the Pat McGrane stand and it was fine but it was really obvious the same louts were back this year.

No respect for the minutes silence or anthem for a start.

Personally I would now avoid the hill in Clones (although I do get the impression that it's mostly Armagh fans)

Some people expect miracles from Day 1. The fact is Down are coming from such a low ebb its going to take 5 years minimum. We can't be compared to Derry, thry had better players and a quite a bit of underage success minor finals winning minor all irelands. Not just one strong club but a few. We don't seem to have the natural forwards we once had either, so there's a lot of work to do. The Tailteann won't be easy, teams like Fermanagh, Kildare, Antrim, sligo,Offaly, we will need to win all thr group games to be guaranteed the home QF. After that it's anyone's.

So true, not sure what people expect

I went to Clones fully expecting us to get hammered and finished upa at an exciting competitive games (yes at times the possessive style was frustrating). Full credit to the management and players for getting it right tactically.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did any Down fan I was talking to at it, it is so obvious how far we have come on from last year.

There is lots of areas we need to work on, especially free taking but we have the bones of a good team again, a year in Division 2 against stronger teams is exactly what we need and we proved on Saturday we aren't going to get hammered in every game.

As for the Tailteann, as Laverty said, no disrespect to it, but it's not where we want to be. We have every chance to do well in it, but other than games against the other seed 1 teams it's not where we need to be right now.

If we are going to insist of having a 2nd tier championship, I think we need an intermediate tier too.

Anyone want a ticket for the Down antrim game DM me..I bought one but won't be able to make it now..someone might as well get use of it!

any single tickets going folks?

I think I have a spare hill.ticket if you interested?
Available for collection in Castlewellan/Newcastle area

I see HQ are looking at getting rid of league finals in an effort to free up the calendar. Are pre season competitions untouchable? Surely it would make more sense to start the NFL mid January instead of the last weekend of the month. Option B should be to push the AI final out to early August.

The league finals should have been scrapped back when Division 1A/1B were scrapped.
The league winners should be whoever tops the league

First sensible decision by the GAA

Let's hope tickets will be easy to come by. All depends on who is on the AI SF that day. Prob be 60 euro a ticket

it's £45 sitting, £30 for the hill

Not worth it when the only match I'm interested is the Tailteann final.

Might go if Derry happen to being playing the semi on the same day (hubbie is from Derry) and I can get a hil ticket

+1.
As for the soccer bucks talking about "Cup" competitions...

Call it whatever you want, the league is the league. The other major competition (Sam Maguire, All-Ireland, cup or whatever, name doesnt matter) is the knockout - zero need for the round Robins and extra games.

If the winner of the Tailteann made it into the Sam Maguire in the same year it would definitely improve it though!

Have zero interest in soccer

[The only reason to win it is to guarantee a place in the AI next year]

To be honest I'd say if you asked Cavan and Fermanagh what they would prefer, promotion or Tailteann winners then they'd choose the former all day long.

Don't quite understand that logic at all. The chance of winning a national trophy in Croke Park in front of a big crowd during the summer on a big championship day with a guaranteed holiday. As opposed to getting promoted playing winter League football with no tangible success. Nobody will remember finishing 2nd in division 3 at the end of their career.

No-one is going to remember winning the Tailteann Cup either

The teams already have a chance at winning something at their level..the divisional national leave finals.

The problem with the Tailteann cup is that the teams at the top of it it don't want to be in it, and the teams at the bottom of it have no chance of winning it so ultimately no one is interested in it.

The only reason to win it is to guarantee a place in the AI next year, which the winning team will probably get via promotion the next year anyway.

Total nonsense. They are playing to lift silverware in Croke Park in mid summer. By using that logic then the same applies to the winner of every junior and intermediate club championship up and down the country every season. If some of the 'top counties' don't want to be in it then by virtue of the fact that they aren't in the Sam Maguire, then they aren't actually a 'top county'. If they think they are too good for it then it boils down to having over inflated notions about themselves.

Why don't you ask the players why they are playing it?

Down manager said after the game on Sunday that he would trade it to be in the All Ireland..they have no interest in the Tailteann.

They don't care about the silverware, they care about the guaranteed AI spot.

All the messing with structures has removed the excitement from the championship. It was great when an an underdog county could get an unexpected win and finish up in the semi final or whatever, it was exciting, every county played to the best of their ability in every game, anything was possible, it's not anymore with the tier 2, round Robins, super 8's or whatever else is dreamed up.

The league is for playing teams at your own level, the Cup is for knock out games and the chance to play (and maybe beat) teams far higher in the league than you.

To be honest I'd say if you asked Cavan and Fermanagh what they would prefer, promotion or Tailteann winners then they'd choose the former all day long.

Don't quite understand that logic at all. The chance of winning a national trophy in Croke Park in front of a big crowd during the summer on a big championship day with a guaranteed holiday. As opposed to getting promoted playing winter League football with no tangible success. Nobody will remember finishing 2nd in division 3 at the end of their career.

No-one is going to remember winning the Tailteann Cup either

The teams already have a chance at winning something at their level..the divisional national leave finals.

The problem with the Tailteann cup is that the teams at the top of it it don't want to be in it, and the teams at the bottom of it have no chance of winning it so ultimately no one is interested in it.

The only reason to win it is to guarantee a place in the AI next year, which the winning team will probably get via promotion the next year anyway.

Don't think we need a third tier just because Laois aren't pulling their weight at the minute. Don't know why this management team was kept in place. Things can improve for Laois quickly if the right people get stuck in.

If anything Down and probably Meath are showing that they shouldn't be in the TC in all honesty. Also bringing third placed teams out of the group have resulted in poor teams getting further than they should.

Down are in the Tailteann because thsts where they deserve to be. We have struggled from one year to the next for nearly 30 years v
Bar 2010. We are still a work in progress and Meath will be a tough challenge in the final. Its only a few weeks ago that Armagh destroyed us in Clones. But the extra games have brought us on buy we aren't at a level yet to compete with any of those teams in the QF draw this morning.

Have the extra games brought us on more than playing in the old style qualifiers though?

I personally belive that the two tiers seriously disadvantages the teams on the cusp of 2nd division level etc. The teams just above them get experience of playing at a higher level and that makes them better (even when they lose), the 2 tiers improves the quality of the football in  the top tier but makes it harder for other teams to break into the top tier.

Down probably improved more from losing to Armagh than beating Laois.

The league is the competition for playing at your level, the all-Ireland is a knock out championship and shock results are part of that, the new system doesn't allow for that anymore.

Instead of playing around with the All-Ireland Structure, we should be expanding the League.

Such a hammering doesn't do much for the competition. It definitely hasn't went as well as last year. It's usually only those from bigger counties that say that as the want the smaller counties out of the way. It's got barely any coverage even today as the Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy was so condensed.

It's not a competition I have much interest in. Even talking about the success of Westmeath, they will be in it again next year and Division 3 so have they really progressed that much.

Games like today dispel the theory that it's good for teams, what did either Laois or Down get out of today's game?

. As Laverty said after the game they would trade it all to be in the All-Ireland.

Basic errors really cost us. Armagh got the lucky breaks. Going for points ball drops short a keeper with zero presence and bang it's in the net. Not once but twice! We needed to be taking all our chances so missing scoreable frees and dropping shorts short was criminal. The amount of people that attend Gaa matches purely for a piss up is actually embarrassing. Numerous lads and girls will need to watch the match on Monday to see what actually happened!

Completely agree with that we actually moved at half time due to the number of people around us who just treated it as piss up! First group of them were really drunk but polite and entertaining but somehow they seemed to attract more not so polite ones...and they had smoke bombs and airhorns so it was too much for us oldies.

As for Downs performance, Armaghs high ball in destroyed them, but let's  not forget Armagh having being playing 1, we are division 3

Disgraceful stunt or not, he has been the one constant in over 20 years of under achievement both on and off the pitch.  A great win today and looking forward to next day out against the Orange hoors!

Apart from 2010 AI Final..and finishing top of division 2 a few times, spending a few years in division 1 etc.

Despite not having silverware there have actually been a few good years in the last 20. It's easy forget them among the the terrible years

Steelstown have disagreed with the Ulster LGFA and issued their own statement ...it contains omissions errors and misleading statements

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0qtnxyBRn1Rjqpc4GVLFLRHTFEwRA6WGnVthDNpRqq19iFEgL4xPrVw6KNN8bG6Nzl&id=100045070193647

Lazer, probably not intentionally, but the way you've put that is a bit misleading. The Steelstown statement does not " contain errors omissions and misleading statements". Their club statement said that the ULGFA statement had "errors/omissions etc".

Edited now..thanks