Down Club Hurling & Football

[Smurfy123]

I certainly did not call for the sacking of burns

I give an honest assessment of how I felt the guys played today and that was my own opinion which might not be the opinion of the man sitting beside me at the game

It's a discussion board after all

[Gaa for life]

Leagues begin Friday 8th April with the next match 11/4 then then 15th and 18th April so 4 matches over the 1st 2 weeks

this has been the same start to the leagues for the past 10 years are so if I remember correctly. 4 games in 10days surely this is a bit much to ask. from a playing perspective 1 game every 7 days is more than enough.

standard week should be

Fri match
Sat Rest
Sun Light session
Monday Training
Tuesday Rest
Wednesday Traning
Thursday Rest
Friday Match

And in your ideal world we'd never have championship, replays, or postponements, let alone the uncertainties of a county team's progress through the qualifiers.

Starting leagues in March would, 9 times out of 10, result in postponements due to unfit pitches, which would cause havoc with refixtures later in the year.

There aren't enough weekends between April and September to run a league off one game per week.

So doubling up on a few weeks is an unfortunate necessity.

I understand that there will be a need to double up every once in a while but to double up twice in the first 10days of the season is a bit much to be asking from the players.

[Down Follower]

Glorified challenge games with a host of players missing, new management in place and new players on the field results in a defeat for Down and doom and gloom setting in.
Get real folks and give the lads a chance.

[Brick Tamlin]

Right let's get this sorted, sack the management , get rid of all the new faces and start again , given that our previous manager was given 8 months I'd say Eamonn has over stayed his welcome , now that's the sort if posts I'm reading on this forum or that's what all the negative comments are leading to, Eamonn Burns and his staff know that their task in making us a more successful side is going to take time and lads time is key, and patience from genuine Down supporters is of equal importance , let's give him a chance , I know that sometimes watching county games is painful and it seems players don't give a damn but the opposite is true, players don't take the field to deliberately play bad , so unless you have a constructive point to make or a good point to make about a game or incident it's better to say nothing.

Seriously?
The top right-hand corner of your spacebar, next door to '/?'

[thewobbler]

Glorified challenge games with a host of players missing, new management in place and new players on the field results in a defeat for Down and doom and gloom setting in.
Get real folks and give the lads a chance.

Yep a number of recent comments are OTT.

I'm guessing though that there's a genuine fear rising among our supporters.

We shouldn't expect to be privy to the direction that a county set up is taking. It's Burns's choice if he wants to keep low key. Plus new players need to be bedded in and new ideas need to be tried out; that's what the McKenna Cup is for.

But a couple of weeks from a Division 1 campaign, it would appear that Down are in full-on experimentation mode. I'm not even slightly close to a nervous soul, but this worries me. I know some of the experimentation is born from necessity, but it's the lack of communications about it all that turns theories into rumours into accepted facts.

[DownFanatic]

McKenna Cup is very useful for exposing players to county standard football. At the moment this is what Eamon Burns is doing as there are quite a number of new faces. However, in the next three weeks we are going to need to get next to near our championship team out on the field if we are to have any hope of staying in division one.
Of yesterday's starting team I can only see 5/6 that would be on out strongest starting XV.

[Lecale Gael]

a common feature on sunday was the ball carried out of defence and the player did not deliver into the forwards early enough who were showing for it. The player in possession was then crowded out and dispossessed.

yes its difficult to deliver quality ball to forwards in a packed defence and that has to be worked on.

Down seemed to be doing it in the opening period of the first half to Mooney in particular but some not taken clean (or taken but ball turned over) and attacks broke down

the cold hard fact in Down football is while we do have skilful players they are unable to play to a game plan (or restricted from doing so - whatever is the reason).

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. Players need to be brave and better anticipation is needed.

i agree that a right few players are being given a chance and so have never viewed mckenna cup games as indicators for the season ahead other than you can see what players being given a chance do not have the skillset for inter county football (the main skill being in the grey matter department)

Up Down !

[Dubh driocht]

A more balanced debate on our first two games is beginning to emerge but I haven't seen a lot of fresh talent to date. It will be a tough league campaign, we have a tough championship draw and it will be a tough year. I think Eamonn Burns deserves to get everyone in Down behind him- players and supporters- as we are all in this together. The only things we shouldn't tolerate are lack of honesty and effort.
A couple of things about Sunday. As expected, wee Pete had his team well organised and the Quigley-Corrigan partnership would be hard to handle by most defences. I was interested in the excellent article on Pete in the Irish Times on Saturday and there is no doubt he has made a fantastic contribution to Down football. One comment did grate with me however, and I've heard it from other players and managers; '"I owe Down nothing". Some might say that he owes Down everything- I don't agree but in the GAA it's all about what you put in, IMO.
Second point is my anorak mode about the PA. To be fair, it was much better than the County final, my last visit to Pairc Esler.
However, as there were no programmes by the time we got there, it is of absolutely no value to be told that number 23 replaces number 10; we know that!

[Lecale Gael]

A more balanced debate on our first two games is beginning to emerge but I haven't seen a lot of fresh talent to date. It will be a tough league campaign, we have a tough championship draw and it will be a tough year. I think Eamonn Burns deserves to get everyone in Down behind him- players and supporters- as we are all in this together. The only things we shouldn't tolerate are lack of honesty and effort.
A couple of things about Sunday. As expected, wee Pete had his team well organised and the Quigley-Corrigan partnership would be hard to handle by most defences. I was interested in the excellent article on Pete in the Irish Times on Saturday and there is no doubt he has made a fantastic contribution to Down football. One comment did grate with me however, and I've heard it from other players and managers; '"I owe Down nothing". Some might say that he owes Down everything- I don't agree but in the GAA it's all about what you put in, IMO.
Second point is my anorak mode about the PA. To be fair, it was much better than the County final, my last visit to Pairc Esler.
However, as there were no programmes by the time we got there, it is of absolutely no value to be told that number 23 replaces number 10; we know that!

chances are he didnt know either. only 5 Down subs were listed but there were more surely, for eg there was no sub goalie listed

[Down Follower]

Re Pete, its only natural if someone feels even slightly hard done by that they would harbour some sort of grudge. I would say Pete harbours a small grudge due to being overlooked a few years ago and being effectively sacked from the minor job.  At the time I would say the majority of the county thought it was the right thing to do as, lets face it, we all thought Pete's days were over.  His record with Fermanagh has surprised many, including me.
He appears to have reinvented himself and seems much more open to new ideas and playing style as he was previously.  I wish him well and would reckon we have not seen the last of him in regards to Down Football.

Gerard Colgan is number 2 for Eamon Burns isnt he?

[Aristo 60]

Anybody at the game last night?

A win is a win but it was a big scoring night for the students.

[Down Follower]

Anybody at the game last night?

A win is a win but it was a big scoring night for the students.

It was a big scoring night for Down too!

[Aristo 60]

That much I knew. Anybody have any other insight? E.g. was the ball blew up or stuffed?

[Down Follower]

Just pointing out the positive as opposed to the negative which was your first thought!

[No1]

I was at it.

Stevie Kane made 3 brilliant saves in one on one situations. His kick outs need some work though, they aren't overly long and I haven't noticed us having a kickout strategy in the last 10 years so developing one is essential.

Defence was porous enough but The Ranch had a few speed merchants up front who were difficult to defend against.

Going forward we looked really good. Some nice short interchanges combined with long diagonal ball into the full forward line really worked really well.

Just like last Sunday though I wouldn't read too much into it.

One major area of concern for me is the form of Caolan Mooney. This is not a personal attack but the lad looks like he has forgotten how to play Gaelic Football, Sunday past and last night he made a right few simple errors and it looks like his confidence is shot to pieces. I hope Eamonn Burns can help to get his form sorted because we could be doing with him playing well!