Down Club Hurling & Football

[Hard2Listen2]

Aw listen here! If it's sense you want you're addressing the wrong group.

[SamFever]

Aw listen here! If it's sense you want you're addressing the wrong group.

There are a few of us on here of a sound mind.

[toby47]

Have any of the Brannigan's ever played for Down?

What age would Eugene or Darryl be? I'd be beating their doors down to get them involved.

[yewtree]

Down v Monaghan Ulster SFC

Smyth

Collins
McArdle
Aaron Brannigan

D Brannigan
McParland
D O'Hagan

Murdock
Mooney

B O'Hagan
J Johnston
McGovern

S McCartan
Kerr
Ryan Johnston

This is the team that Down are hoping to put out in Championship.
Already there has been talk to try and get the money together to buy out the soccer contracts and wages.
Lots of talk about scholarships and other ways to compensate the players if this can be done within GAA rules.
At the minute QUB GAA have scholarships but talk is they don't want to offer any more scholarships if players aren't playing for club and counties.
It would be some addition to Down if this can happen.

[befair]

Down v Monaghan Ulster SFC

Smyth

Collins
McArdle
Aaron Brannigan

D Brannigan
McParland
D O'Hagan

Murdock
Mooney

B O'Hagan
J Johnston
McGovern

S McCartan
Kerr
Ryan Johnston

This is the team that Down are hoping to put out in Championship.
Already there has been talk to try and get the money together to buy out the soccer contracts and wages.
Lots of talk about scholarships and other ways to compensate the players if this can be done within GAA rules.
At the minute QUB GAA have scholarships but talk is they don't want to offer any more scholarships if players aren't playing for club and counties.
It would be some addition to Down if this can happen.

It seems overload, but the Kilcoo keeper, , full-back, and the other Branagan (the wing half-back)would also strengthen the team; if they can be persuaded....

[ardtole]

Have any of the Brannigan's ever played for Down?

What age would Eugene or Darryl be? I'd be beating their doors down to get them involved.

Aidan was on the panel under wee James first time around. He got very little game time, both himself and Laverty were on the bench, maybe thats were the resentment first started? I dont kniw.

[ardtole]

Down v Monaghan Ulster SFC

Smyth

Collins
McArdle
Aaron Brannigan

D Brannigan
McParland
D O'Hagan

Murdock
Mooney

B O'Hagan
J Johnston
McGovern

S McCartan
Kerr
Ryan Johnston

This is the team that Down are hoping to put out in Championship.
Already there has been talk to try and get the money together to buy out the soccer contracts and wages.
Lots of talk about scholarships and other ways to compensate the players if this can be done within GAA rules.
At the minute QUB GAA have scholarships but talk is they don't want to offer any more scholarships if players aren't playing for club and counties.
It would be some addition to Down if this can happen.

It seems overload, but the Kilcoo keeper, , full-back, and the other Branagan (the wing half-back)would also strengthen the team; if they can be persuaded....

McEvoy at full back would be a definite starter for me if available.

[Ed Hardy]

Down v Monaghan Ulster SFC

Smyth

Collins
McArdle
Aaron Brannigan

D Brannigan
McParland
D O'Hagan

Murdock
Mooney

B O'Hagan
J Johnston
McGovern

S McCartan
Kerr
Ryan Johnston

This is the team that Down are hoping to put out in Championship.
Already there has been talk to try and get the money together to buy out the soccer contracts and wages.
Lots of talk about scholarships and other ways to compensate the players if this can be done within GAA rules.
At the minute QUB GAA have scholarships but talk is they don't want to offer any more scholarships if players aren't playing for club and counties.
It would be some addition to Down if this can happen.

It seems overload, but the Kilcoo keeper, , full-back, and the other Branagan (the wing half-back)would also strengthen the team; if they can be persuaded....

McEvoy at full back would be a definite starter for me if available.

100% and Eugene Branagan. Live in hope lol

[SHEEDY]

Down v Monaghan Ulster SFC

Smyth

Collins
McArdle
Aaron Brannigan

D Brannigan
McParland
D O'Hagan

Murdock
Mooney

B O'Hagan
J Johnston
McGovern

S McCartan
Kerr
Ryan Johnston

This is the team that Down are hoping to put out in Championship.
Already there has been talk to try and get the money together to buy out the soccer contracts and wages.
Lots of talk about scholarships and other ways to compensate the players if this can be done within GAA rules.
At the minute QUB GAA have scholarships but talk is they don't want to offer any more scholarships if players aren't playing for club and counties.
It would be some addition to Down if this can happen.

It seems overload, but the Kilcoo keeper, , full-back, and the other Branagan (the wing half-back)would also strengthen the team; if they can be persuaded....

McEvoy at full back would be a definite starter for me if available.

100% and Eugene Branagan. Live in hope lol

and Miceal Rooney 👍

[Truth hurts]

There comes a point in every player's life when you realise that you aren't just the superstar you thought you were. It isn't that you don't have the talent or the drive or the skills. It's just that the day arrives when you find out the difference between the shallow end and the deep end. Welcome to the Thunderdome.

I watched the club championships back in February and March and the player that jumped out at me and everyone else was Michael Lundy of Corofin. You didn't need to be an expert to see that this guy can really play. He was fast, he was direct, he was decisive. When Corofin were in trouble, he called for the ball and drove at the opposition. He was excellent against St Vincent's and the same again against Slaughtneil on St Patrick's Day.

There were a couple more stand-out players for Corofin, like Gary Sice and Liam Silke, but you couldn't come away from those games and not look forward to what Lundy was going to bring to Galway in the summer.

So when I watched the recording of Mayo and Galway on Sunday after coming back from Thurles, he was one of the players I kept an eye out for from the start.

I didn't know whether it would be Lee Keegan or Colm Boyle who'd be on him but, one way or another, this was going to be a test above all tests for him. Keegan and Boyle are as good as it gets as wing-backs – fast, strong, physical, full of running. Most important of all, they've been swimming in that deep water for four or five years at this stage.

It was Keegan that Lundy found himself on and straight away within the opening 40 seconds, the pair of them were wrestling away on the ground. The referee stopped play and went over and flashed a yellow at them both. The camera caught both of their reactions afterwards – Lundy let a big roar out of him, as if to say, 'Now I have you where I want you'. Keegan just smiled a big smile, saying pretty much the same thing.


If Lundy thought he had Keegan in trouble because he got him on a yellow card inside the first minute, he was about to find out this wasn't Corofin he was playing for. We ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Keegan has played in All-Ireland finals, he has a couple of All Stars under his belt. An early yellow card isn't going to inhibit him or stop him doing what needs to be done. He shut Lundy down for the rest of the game and only picked up his second yellow in injury-time for a bit of spoiling when the game was won. These boys have been around the block too many times to let a yellow card play on their mind.

The main thing I took away from watching Lundy was the massive jump you have to take from being a top-class club player to competing with the big guns at intercounty. Lundy was the best player on the best club team in the country but he hardly made an impact on Sunday. I don't want to knock him or single him out just for the sake of it, only to make the wider point about the step up in class.

The distance between club and county is light years. You never realise it until it happens to you. People can warn you about it and you can try to prepare yourself but until you've gone out and tried something that worked in a club game but falls on its arse in an intercounty one, you won't be able to get your head around it. It's probably the earliest lesson you learn.

Second Captains

The club
Club football gives you a false impression of how good you are. That lovely little dummy solo that bought you a yard of space in a club game might work the first time you try it in county training but it won't the second time. The second time, the defender will strip the ball and laugh at you while he's doing it.


On the face of it, the game is the same. There's every chance that when you go in for county training, the drills won't be all that different to what you're used to with a good club team. This is a small country and when somebody comes up with an innovative new drill, it crosses club and county boundaries like a rumour. So you'll see a coach lay out a drill for you and you'll be happy enough because you've seen it before.

But the difference is the speed. Not so much speed on your feet or with your hands. More speed in your head. At club level, the drills are designed to improve your skill with the ball.

At county level, even if the drill is exactly the same, the objective is different. It's taken as given that you have the skill – the purpose of the drill is to do the skill at pace.

Intercounty football is about economy. Move the ball at a high tempo, cover the ground in the most efficient way possible. For that to happen, these skills have to come as second nature. Club players take time to weigh up their options. It might only be a split-second but in the wrong company it's a split-second too much.

Pure fun

I loved playing club football. There's nothing you enjoy in your career more than time spent playing football with the fellas you grew up with. Even though you spend such a huge chunk of your time with the county panel, you long for the simplicity of being back with the club.

Just the pure fun of it. The slagging, the stories, the ducking and diving. My own club An Ghaeltacht went way up to Galway one year to play in a tournament. I wasn't with them because I was away with Kerry but I heard all about it. There was supposed to be a curfew but sure boys will be boys and by the time they met up for training the following week, all anyone was talking about was whether management were going to take action.

I used travel back west from Tralee with our manager Séamus MacGearailt. The boys knew I'd be in the car with him so I was to suss out what the story was. I got into the dressing room and straight away put them at their ease. Ye're grand lads. No big deal. Boys will be boys.

We went out and warmed up anyway, before Séamus called us into a circle. And he proceeded to tear strips out of every last one of them! Heedless messers, the lot of them. No standards. No pride. No hope. How could any of them hope to play for the county with this sort of attitude?

As he was doing this, they were all staring over at me, fit to kill me. I felt that they should be thanking me – sure didn't I give them a few brief moments of happiness on their way to the electric chair?

Some people assume it's a chore going back playing for the club but that's not the way it is at all. Apart from anything else, a few county league games are great for the confidence if things aren't going well. Never underestimate the good it does you to turn a club game your team's way by making a burst for 15 or 20 minutes and really affecting the game.

But if you've been around for a few years at this thing, you know it's not doing you a lot of good. Short-term, maybe it will give you a boost and get you back some confidence. But long-term, it's no use to you. You're playing at a lower level and you're swanning around barely being touched.

The talent
It's the effect of the environment that surrounds you. Last Sunday, Michael Lundy found that he wasn't just up to it in that environment. I have no doubt that he will be, just not yet. He obviously has the talent and he's shown that he is well capable of lighting up games when the circumstances are right.

What he needs now is experience. He needs Galway to go on a run through the qualifiers and make an All-Ireland quarter-final, he needs to come up against good defenders from different counties and get the better of them.

He needs plenty of games for Galway rather than for Corofin so that when he meets Lee Keegan next year, he will be able to give him a better, fuller challenge.

Darragh O'Se wrote this in 2015 about Micheal Lundy of Corofin, We are getting carried away here men

[BigRipper89]

Truth Hurts makes some very good points. Think people under estimate the step up to county football from club. Now thats not to say that a big handful of lads from kilcoo would be fit to make the panel. But its just not as easy to slot them straight in to downs starting 15. Niall and Adain Brannigan played in 2012 also and didnt get much game time so think thats why they choose not to commit as alot older now. Now Mc Evoy, Dabs, Jonstones, PD, Ward and Doc more than capable of playing at that level but would be in competition for starting places not certain of them. Forwards like Kerr, B.o Hagan, Corey Quinn all be of that level. Rooney cracking club player and would like to see him get a run for down this year and Mc Evoy/ Mc Elroy be great competition for each other.


On another note, any word of whats happening with the leauges. Surely it wont be 3 16 leauge teams with 6 going down at the end of the year as suggested. This would be such a waste of a year for some club teams   

[snoopdog]

There comes a point in every player's life when you realise that you aren't just the superstar you thought you were. It isn't that you don't have the talent or the drive or the skills. It's just that the day arrives when you find out the difference between the shallow end and the deep end. Welcome to the Thunderdome.

I watched the club championships back in February and March and the player that jumped out at me and everyone else was Michael Lundy of Corofin. You didn't need to be an expert to see that this guy can really play. He was fast, he was direct, he was decisive. When Corofin were in trouble, he called for the ball and drove at the opposition. He was excellent against St Vincent's and the same again against Slaughtneil on St Patrick's Day.

There were a couple more stand-out players for Corofin, like Gary Sice and Liam Silke, but you couldn't come away from those games and not look forward to what Lundy was going to bring to Galway in the summer.

So when I watched the recording of Mayo and Galway on Sunday after coming back from Thurles, he was one of the players I kept an eye out for from the start.

I didn't know whether it would be Lee Keegan or Colm Boyle who'd be on him but, one way or another, this was going to be a test above all tests for him. Keegan and Boyle are as good as it gets as wing-backs – fast, strong, physical, full of running. Most important of all, they've been swimming in that deep water for four or five years at this stage.

It was Keegan that Lundy found himself on and straight away within the opening 40 seconds, the pair of them were wrestling away on the ground. The referee stopped play and went over and flashed a yellow at them both. The camera caught both of their reactions afterwards – Lundy let a big roar out of him, as if to say, 'Now I have you where I want you'. Keegan just smiled a big smile, saying pretty much the same thing.


If Lundy thought he had Keegan in trouble because he got him on a yellow card inside the first minute, he was about to find out this wasn't Corofin he was playing for. We ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Keegan has played in All-Ireland finals, he has a couple of All Stars under his belt. An early yellow card isn't going to inhibit him or stop him doing what needs to be done. He shut Lundy down for the rest of the game and only picked up his second yellow in injury-time for a bit of spoiling when the game was won. These boys have been around the block too many times to let a yellow card play on their mind.

The main thing I took away from watching Lundy was the massive jump you have to take from being a top-class club player to competing with the big guns at intercounty. Lundy was the best player on the best club team in the country but he hardly made an impact on Sunday. I don't want to knock him or single him out just for the sake of it, only to make the wider point about the step up in class.

The distance between club and county is light years. You never realise it until it happens to you. People can warn you about it and you can try to prepare yourself but until you've gone out and tried something that worked in a club game but falls on its arse in an intercounty one, you won't be able to get your head around it. It's probably the earliest lesson you learn.

Second Captains

The club
Club football gives you a false impression of how good you are. That lovely little dummy solo that bought you a yard of space in a club game might work the first time you try it in county training but it won't the second time. The second time, the defender will strip the ball and laugh at you while he's doing it.


On the face of it, the game is the same. There's every chance that when you go in for county training, the drills won't be all that different to what you're used to with a good club team. This is a small country and when somebody comes up with an innovative new drill, it crosses club and county boundaries like a rumour. So you'll see a coach lay out a drill for you and you'll be happy enough because you've seen it before.

But the difference is the speed. Not so much speed on your feet or with your hands. More speed in your head. At club level, the drills are designed to improve your skill with the ball.

At county level, even if the drill is exactly the same, the objective is different. It's taken as given that you have the skill – the purpose of the drill is to do the skill at pace.

Intercounty football is about economy. Move the ball at a high tempo, cover the ground in the most efficient way possible. For that to happen, these skills have to come as second nature. Club players take time to weigh up their options. It might only be a split-second but in the wrong company it's a split-second too much.

Pure fun

I loved playing club football. There's nothing you enjoy in your career more than time spent playing football with the fellas you grew up with. Even though you spend such a huge chunk of your time with the county panel, you long for the simplicity of being back with the club.

Just the pure fun of it. The slagging, the stories, the ducking and diving. My own club An Ghaeltacht went way up to Galway one year to play in a tournament. I wasn't with them because I was away with Kerry but I heard all about it. There was supposed to be a curfew but sure boys will be boys and by the time they met up for training the following week, all anyone was talking about was whether management were going to take action.

I used travel back west from Tralee with our manager Séamus MacGearailt. The boys knew I'd be in the car with him so I was to suss out what the story was. I got into the dressing room and straight away put them at their ease. Ye're grand lads. No big deal. Boys will be boys.

We went out and warmed up anyway, before Séamus called us into a circle. And he proceeded to tear strips out of every last one of them! Heedless messers, the lot of them. No standards. No pride. No hope. How could any of them hope to play for the county with this sort of attitude?

As he was doing this, they were all staring over at me, fit to kill me. I felt that they should be thanking me – sure didn't I give them a few brief moments of happiness on their way to the electric chair?

Some people assume it's a chore going back playing for the club but that's not the way it is at all. Apart from anything else, a few county league games are great for the confidence if things aren't going well. Never underestimate the good it does you to turn a club game your team's way by making a burst for 15 or 20 minutes and really affecting the game.

But if you've been around for a few years at this thing, you know it's not doing you a lot of good. Short-term, maybe it will give you a boost and get you back some confidence. But long-term, it's no use to you. You're playing at a lower level and you're swanning around barely being touched.

The talent
It's the effect of the environment that surrounds you. Last Sunday, Michael Lundy found that he wasn't just up to it in that environment. I have no doubt that he will be, just not yet. He obviously has the talent and he's shown that he is well capable of lighting up games when the circumstances are right.

What he needs now is experience. He needs Galway to go on a run through the qualifiers and make an All-Ireland quarter-final, he needs to come up against good defenders from different counties and get the better of them.

He needs plenty of games for Galway rather than for Corofin so that when he meets Lee Keegan next year, he will be able to give him a better, fuller challenge.

Darragh O'Se wrote this in 2015 about Micheal Lundy of Corofin, We are getting carried away here men

While the above is a very good point. I don't think anyone is getting carried away about the kilcoo players. The fact is a lot of the kilcoo players are better than what Down currently have. That doesn't mean Down will be world beaters but they need to start getting the best 15 in the county on the pitch. Down have no settled side, haven't for years. It's not as if bringing 6 or 7 players in that play regular with each other is going to upset the flow of the Down team. You could play the entire Kilcoo fwds and they would have given Derry a lot more trouble that what was there in sat night.

[Truth hurts]

Truth Hurts makes some very good points. Think people under estimate the step up to county football from club. Now thats not to say that a big handful of lads from kilcoo would be fit to make the panel. But its just not as easy to slot them straight in to downs starting 15. Niall and Adain Brannigan played in 2012 also and didnt get much game time so think thats why they choose not to commit as alot older now. Now Mc Evoy, Dabs, Jonstones, PD, Ward and Doc more than capable of playing at that level but would be in competition for starting places not certain of them. Forwards like Kerr, B.o Hagan, Corey Quinn all be of that level. Rooney cracking club player and would like to see him get a run for down this year and Mc Evoy/ Mc Elroy be great competition for each other.


On another note, any word of whats happening with the leauges. Surely it wont be 3 16 leauge teams with 6 going down at the end of the year as suggested. This would be such a waste of a year for some club teams

I am just out of breakfast in Railway street, I spoke with a former East Down board member who would still have his finger on the pulse.
Div 1 will have the Stone, Glenn, the Kingdom and Darragh Cross added to it and one round of fixtures will be played. THE CCC cannot fit 22 games into the calendar before the championship.
I will get to speak to a few more people today and gauge the mood of clubs within Down. Div one beckons for Darragh Cross for the first time in their history.

[toby47]

Fairly true Truth Hurts. However Down aren't competing with the Mayo's etc, they are fighting for survival in Division 2. 3-4 Kilcoo players walk on to that team that played Derry on Saturday night and 7-8 walk onto the panel.

[Truth hurts]

Fairly true Truth Hurts. However Down aren't competing with the Mayo's etc, they are fighting for survival in Division 2. 3-4 Kilcoo players walk on to that team that played Derry on Saturday night and 7-8 walk onto the panel.

I agree with you but what I am trying to say is that Down football is strong. Look at Kilcoos games in the championship, Mayobridge, Clonduff, Carryduff, Ballyholland and Burren, every one of those games went into the last few minutes where Kilcoos experience took them over the line.
We got fecked over when the backbenchers of the county board delegates ousted Tally and left the county executive to pick up the pieces to try and find a manager. Thankfully we have James in charge now but I believe Tally was not given a chance to build for the future. We have a culture in Down to get rid of the senior manager without getting to the root cause of the main issues in the county. I don't like going over things but the vote to oust Tally was not right and the clubs who supported it were wrong. This was done on a whim at a meeting and delegates then voted on it without consulting their club committees. It should never have happened and it would not have happened in another county and should not be allowed to happen again. The county board club delegates should have a voice but not that much power. There is nothing to stop at the next meeting that a delegate can propose a no confidence in any managers, get the required vote, and the circus will start again