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What constitutes a public figure in down football? Where do you draw the line or how do you qualify that. Just curious.

What constitutes a public figure in any walk of life Brick?

In any given field, if the majority of people know who someone is, and journalists would seek their opinions on matters within that field, then that would be a public figure.

Classy tweets from our ex-Minor manager today. The wheels of his bus have really come off now.

what I'm picking up here is that it would appear you believe that public figures in Down football are not entitled to have opinions, but as long as it's done anonymously, it's quite okay to make highly derisory comments about those same people.

Interesting double standards.

Wobbler, Bredagh underage players have regularly been asked to get to Carryduff at 9am for a lift to an 11am county Saturday session in Newry. After training and a team meeting, they are looking at getting home about eight hours after they left. They are competing for a place in the squad with player from colleges in Newry who are frequently not required to attend the same sessions. Carryduff is a fine club which has produced many Down minors over recent seasons but there are a number of other east Down clubs which feel that they are not treated fairly. Bredagh is only one of them but it is 20 years since the club with the biggest underage membership in our county by a huge margin has provided a starter for Down minors in the championship. Bredagh comfortably beat Burren in the u16 championship the other night, and regularly compete with our best underage sides at all levels. Are you seriously suggesting that rotating minor training venues across the county is against the best interests of Down football ?

Not disagreeing with you, but here's a few things to consider:

- for development squads, if you're from genuine East Down (Downpatrick and hinterland) then you'll be asked to make your way to Loughinisland for a bus. This is approximately 100 times more inconvenient than the 2 mile traipse from Cherryvale to the Ivanhoe! Meanwhile if you're from the Mournes, maybe 40 mins from Newry (like Glassdrumman), well, get your own way in. I'm not suggesting this is fair, but the clubs have a chicken and egg scenario here. If it's going to cost £500 a session for buses for a development squad, then the clubs had better be on board and force their players to attend.

- for the past two years there has been a direct taxi from Belfast to minor training for Carryduff players. They were among the first home every night.

- if you can find any clubs in the county who are willing to provide guaranteed floodlit facilities several times throughout February, March and April, then please pass their details to the County Board. I mentione recently that there's a thousand things they're getting wrong at present, but training at Abbey or Colmans isn't a choice, it's a necessity. They're the only places in the county where the facilities are guaranteed, which allows minor management to plan accurately.

- bredags's performances in minor leagues and championships the past few seasons would suggest that the club has a genuine problem in keeping lads interested and motivated past 16. Personally I reckon this is a problem that needs addressed internally at that club, instead of looking externally for causes.

I think there's a cause and effect issue here; if the Bredagh lads saw their club-mates getting into county minor squads then they're more likely to keep at the football. It isn't automatic that there's a fall-off but it is harder for the clubs in areas where there's more choice of sports- primarily the urban areas- where fall-off between under 16 and minor occurs. Mind you the Bredagh team that takes the field tonight will have 7 or 8 members of the minor team that got to the county semi-final in 2008.
There isn't that much of a shock about the under 16 result as Bredagh beat Burren earlier this year in the league

Not sure where you're going with this Down minor and Bredagh thing. Carryduff have had a series of Down minors for the past few years, and you can't honestly believe that it's easier for them to travel or more biased towards picking them.

While I truly wish there was a centre of excellence in Castlewellan or nearby, for now there isn't. Any you know what, Bredagh to Newry is actually a straightforward run. If I was to set a series of cars off from St Colmans College at 10pm: one heading to Cherryvale, one to Ballymartin, one to Downpatrick, one to St Michaels, one to Ardglass, I'd make Cherryvale slight favourite.

Nice and brief there wobbler.
Agreed on open draw - this, A cant play B and C cant play D crap make a mockery out of the draws in the AI qualifiers at times.  Once you bring in a back door there is going to be a chance of the two teams meeting again and thats just that.

The 4 minor teams (assuming Warrenpoint get through) who are through to the semis are def the 4 strongest teams.  Clonduff did have a shout to be amongst that but Rostrevor put paid to that.  The semi finals should be cracking games with Burren favourites based on results to date.
Are many of these minors playing for the senior teams at the moment?

Mark Harte, Jody McGovern and Jack Mallon all been playing regularly with Shamrocks this year and last.

Conall Gordon is recently playing for Rostrevor.

I'd be surprised if Aron D'Arcy and Paddy Murdock aren't pushing onto CPN.

It didn't quite happen like that. It was much worse.

First he went into the media room and exchanged their sugar pot for one filled with salt and little bits of dandruff.

Then he went to the referee's room, and, using his own blood, inscribed on the wall in 12 foot high letters the Latin for "just blow against us again, just once, I dare you. Signed, the reaper".

He then broke into the county board's ticketing van and changed all the numbers on the dials, meaning that next week's tickets can only be sold at €1.00, with sterling not welcome.

Eagle eyed, he spotted Sean Og's famous hat in the van, and quickly remoulded it into a crown of thorns, with an accompanying pouch filled with pieces of silver. He was going to leave a note for the Runai, but let's be honest Sean Og would put 2 and 2 together quickly. Only one man is capable of these deeds.

But the lowest moment came when, just before the throw in for the next match, the machete he was using to lacerate every tyre in the official's car park suddenly slipped from his hand. A series of "accidents" when he continually plunged the sword in peoples' sides when trying to explain to newcomers what had happened, culminated in 11 young people losing either their eyesight, or the power of speech.

He doesn't even feel guilty about this either.

PaulD, re teams meeting again so soon, personally I don't think any attempts should be made to manually control a draw. It should be random.

Take this scenario: Kilcoo and Burren meet in round 1, and a pre-ordained rule means they could not meet again unless they both make the final. Being the best two teams in the county, they've drawn a win-win situation, and there's really no point in bating the shite out of each at this stage. So they put B teams out in round 1 and don't care which side they manoeuvre along from there; for on either side of the draw they should both make the final.

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Super Reds, I'm glad you enjoyed the game, but any minor team that is insistent on playing 15 v 15 attacking football is playing for second place this year, as Burren are streets ahead. If all a club wants is to make an MFC final, then fair play. But if the intention is to win the thing, then playing to a system isn't just something that can be turned on. Your management team might regret not practicing it earlier!

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Re the £50 ticket, I'd suggest that wrapping hurling and football into one package, and using it as an excuse to justify the large pricepoint, is a blunder from the county board. As competitions they've a lot less in common than the GAA traditionalists would like us believe, especially so among spectators.

At a push I'd maybe take in two SFC quarter finals, the two semis, and the final. That's not going to more than £55 individually (I hope).

So the ticket isn't being aimed at me. Who is it being aimed at?

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Re the conversation about playing JFC matches in Newry, I really don't understand why anyone would want to play those games in Esler. It's not Croke Park, not even close; it's not a field of dreams. If any man wants to play that badly in Newry, join a D3 team next years and face up to the Rocks. The stand is great, no doubt, but the rest of the facilities are no better /worse than a dozen grounds around the county. I've played reserve and ACFLII football in Esler and can tell you that is vacuous, eerie and soulless unless there's a crowd.


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Re the Poacher chat. I play 5-a-side with him most weeks, and will happily boot him to the ground at anyone's request - so long as that someone will put their name against their handle. Nobody loves an opinion more than Poacher, but at least it's his name going against it.

Doesn't matter how promptly it moves; there's six people seated on each row, but only room for one person at that point in the aisle. Anyone more than a couple of rows back from an exit would have had ample time to grab their belongings without holding anyone up.


Also, I'd guess that while in an ideal world the airline would love to have time to announce and enforce a "don't take any bags with you" policy, the primary role of their staff in such a situation is to get people off the aircraft as quickly as possible. Which means as few interruptions as possible. Which means if someone is carrying a bag, there's no time time for a conversation about it, just get them onto the slide and hope for the best.

So in summary, you reckon that those people waiting to exit the plane in single file should have stood in the queue panicking and quivering, instead of grabbing their bags while waiting for the queue to move?

No of course you're welcome to opinion.

By mentioning Messi though you're reinforcing what I'm saying. Through the saturation live coverage of Champions Leagues and World Cups, nevermind Sky's La Liga schedule, I'd say I've comfortably seen 50 full matches that he's played in (and I don't even watch that much soccer). So I've seen how he plays, where he plays, how he reacts, with my own two eyes, and watched his progression from prodigy to best in the world. My understanding of Messi's abilities is not in any way informed by reading papers or opinions, or by trusting the judgment of analysts who watching home play, or the editing skills of MotD's production teams. It's based on what I've seen, warts to weaponry.

The only people who could make this claim about Bobby Charlton are those who frequented Manchester in the 1960s and early 70s. Apart from that, opinions formed are through trust rather than observation.

Just because he will break Charlton's record does not mean he is the better player.

If Charlton got to use the equipment that Rooney does and play against the players he does on the pitches he does he might have scored seventy or eighty goals.

Bobby Charlton to me is probably a top 20 player of all time, Rooney would not make the top hundred!

Out of interest how many times did you watch him play? (Charlton)

Hundreds of times, in the flesh. three times.

Does that matter? I coach for a living and know a player when I see one, Charlton was an incredible player.

As he retired in 1976, you can be forgiven for not remembering events from over 40 years ago as well as you might.

But as not one single league game he played in was ever televised live, it's patently obvious you didn't see him play hundreds of times.

Suits is glossy and easy viewing but it doesn't half get repetitive.

I don't understand so many warm ups. There's a couple of group games where it should be possible to experiment and change things up a little. Modern rugby is too physical to expect anything better than to lose 4 starting players over the course of the tournament. 3 friendly matches should take you closer to 6-7 absentees.

I have great time for him, and he always turns up for Ireland and does his best, but it has to be said (before Seanie does ) that a lot of his goals come against teams that you would expect any decent goalscorer to get. He hoovers up the penos as well. Still he has scored against the likes of France and Germany too, so as I said, I have great time for him. That said, if he scores another goal for Ireland, he'll be level with Der Bomber, Gerd Muller, and that just seems wrong

I defy anyone to name me a striker who doesn't score the majority of his goals against weaker teams.

Just because he will break Charlton's record does not mean he is the better player.

If Charlton got to use the equipment that Rooney does and play against the players he does on the pitches he does he might have scored seventy or eighty goals.

Bobby Charlton to me is probably a top 20 player of all time, Rooney would not make the top hundred!

Or he might have struggled against modern defenders who aren't plucked from one country, but from everywhere in the world, and therefore must be better (imagine if only players from the 5 "home" nations were allowed to play defence in the EPL now).

Anyone aged under 60 has no real business comparing Rooney to Charlton. For anyone younger, they'll have been able to see every minute of Rooney's career, including the mediocre and poor spells that every player endures. For Charlton they'd be lucky to get their hands on videos of 10 full matches he played; therefore for most of us, Charlton's career is a highlights reel, not a reality.