Down Club Hurling & Football

[charlieTully]

its hardly fecking rocket science, a more flexible approach to players who cannot commit to a ridiculous training regime that yields feck all, martin Clarke sitting in a f**king studio, id rather see him come on in the last 20 mins of a game, there is a wealth of talent in this county that is not being utilized for whatever reason. reach out to the best players, tailor an individual plan that suits the player, the all or nothing regime simply does not work.

[SHEEDY]

be interesting to hear the glass half full brigade after that. anyone who travelled to watch that shite hasn't an ounce of sense.

i was in clones today and have to say that is the biggest pile of shite i've read in a long time. im a down supporter and went to clones today to support the team and to support club mates that were on the team. these mightnt be the best times to be a down fan but i have more respect for the people that travelled than someone sitting in front of a tv and a keyboard giving out. its always easier to travel to watch a winning team and im sure all the 'supporters' will be back out in force the next time it looks like a bit of success is coming our way.

as for the match, the 2nd half was a complete disaster. kick out after kick out was lost and we were turned over so easy. in the 1st half i thought we were competing well but when monaghan got a run on us in 2nd half we just couldnt stop the blue and white tide. connor maginn and darren o hagan tried hard and kept going to the end but its hard to take any real postives from a 19 point defeat.

[wobbller]

It's time for some introspection from the decision-makers in our county. Circumstances may have contrived against them here and there, but bar the 2010 "blip", we've been on a decline for 20 years. It's one thing loving your county, it's another thing entirely to not give it a chance in a life.

it's also high time our clubs stopped pretending to be bystanders in this mess. This convention we need leadership to arise from our clubs. Thereafter we need action.


So f**king sick of the shit that Down football has become.

As thewobbler says the Clubs need to speak up and get capable people to lead the County properly and get rid of all the deadwood that sit at the top table and the collection of paid personnel who are not doing their job properly.I really felt for Eamon Burns today and his players but as someone said earlier he was the only man that would take the job. Wexford was a disaster and a blip last year but McCorry was shafted by the current County Board.He had achieved promotion and should have been given the chance to improve this year. But no, His face didn't fit with the powers that be and now we have a journeyman Manager who has achieved nothing in his managerial career so far.

[charlieTully]

be interesting to hear the glass half full brigade after that. anyone who travelled to watch that shite hasn't an ounce of sense.

i was in clones today and have to say that is the biggest pile of shite i've read in a long time. im a down supporter and went to clones today to support the team and to support club mates that were on the team. these mightnt be the best times to be a down fan but i have more respect for the people that travelled than someone sitting in front of a tv and a keyboard giving out. its always easier to travel to watch a winning team and im sure all the 'supporters' will be back out in force the next time it looks like a bit of success is coming our way.

as for the match, the 2nd half was a complete disaster. kick out after kick out was lost and we were turned over so easy. in the 1st half i thought we were competing well but when monaghan got a run on us in 2nd half we just couldnt stop the blue and white tide. connor maginn and darren o hagan tried hard and kept going to the end but its hard to take any real postives from a 19 point defeat.

I admire your loyalty but its blind.

[SHEEDY]

its hardly fecking rocket science, a more flexible approach to players who cannot commit to a ridiculous training regime that yields feck all, martin Clarke sitting in a f**king studio, id rather see him come on in the last 20 mins of a game, there is a wealth of talent in this county that is not being utilized for whatever reason. reach out to the best players, tailor an individual plan that suits the player, the all or nothing regime simply does not work.

where is this mysterious wealth of talent that you talk of?? its not there, look at the results from recent years in minor and u21. martin clarke and dan gordon should have more flexible approach given to them i agree but who else should be on the team. the players arent there and that is the fault of years of neglect of our underage structures by the county board.

[charlieTully]

its hardly fecking rocket science, a more flexible approach to players who cannot commit to a ridiculous training regime that yields feck all, martin Clarke sitting in a f**king studio, id rather see him come on in the last 20 mins of a game, there is a wealth of talent in this county that is not being utilized for whatever reason. reach out to the best players, tailor an individual plan that suits the player, the all or nothing regime simply does not work.

where is this mysterious wealth of talent that you talk of?? its not there, look at the results from recent years in minor and u21. martin clarke and dan gordon should have more flexible approach given to them i agree but who else should be on the team. the players arent there and that is the fault of years of neglect of our underage structures by the county board.

conor Laverty
paul McCommisky
Dan Gordon
Caolan Mooney
Benny Coulter
Martin Clarke

Reach out, approach them, get them on board.

[Mourne Rover]

Wobbler is completely right and the clubs need to ensure that radical changes take place within our county board. Delegates are notoriously reluctant to act, but the pattern of results over recent years is unmistakable and unacceptable. If the St Mary's game in the McKenna Cup is excluded, as they are a college outfit, we have now lost 13 competitive matches in a row against inter-county opposition. It is equally alarming that our last ten championship fixtures across the senior, u21 and minor levels have resulted in nine defeats and a draw. The combined losing margin for our senior and u21s alone in their first round provincial games this year was 41 points. Our minors at least put in some form of a competitive display but responsibility for the debacles involving the two older sides must go well beyond the respective managements.

Our first half performance today was surprisingly decent, and only some particularly strange refereeing decisions left us behind at the break, but the scale of the collapse which followed was nothing less than appalling. Monaghan are a serious team but we looked completely clueless and some kind of wider structural overhaul is long overdue.

We know that Kane is a fine shot-stopper who is confident under the dropping ball but we also know that his kick-outs simply do not work at county level. Switching Connail McGovern from his normal sweeping role to a marking job on Kieran Hughes was a strange call which backfired comprehensively while Gerard McGovern started well on McManus but faded badly. Darren O'Hagan was the pick of our defence, although O'Hanlon and Collins had their moments, but McKibben struggled and Carr seems close to the end of the road.

McKernan only showed glimpses of his ability but Turley held us together for long periods and his harsh black card was the signal for others to throw in the towel.

Maginn was just about our best player until he also tired, while Poland and Harrison ran themselves into the ground on very limited possession. It didn't happen for Murphy today and Barry O'Hagan was another who opened brightly and lost his way. None of the subs made much of an impact either and only the kindest of draws could give us any hope of progress in the qualifiers.

[SamFever]

 Watching on skyplus what the experts said during BBC's and RTE's coverage. Oisin McConville and Marty Clarke were with Sidebottom on BBC and before the game,Oisin claimed that Marty Clarke wasn't asked by Eamon Burns to come onto the panel this year. No way did this sound true but Clarke then confirmed that this was the case. Absolute embarrassing situation that we as a County allow this sort of shabbiness to occur.

[cut the crap]

I have read the anger and frustration about what's happening to our county, allowed to continue we may fall beyond the point of no return. I have to agree that consistent failures by the county executive has lead us to this point and I emphasis executive.We now face a very difficult decision, do we the clubs allow this situation to continue or do we seek change and by change I mean the entire executive. What amazes me is that there are people on our executive who are still in office despite presiding over Burrenbridge etc
It's time for change, no more rhetoric and bull from Sean og about the Down way because we are now a laughing stock.
So I'm asking the clubs with the power base to come out and look for change.

[thebar]

its hardly fecking rocket science, a more flexible approach to players who cannot commit to a ridiculous training regime that yields feck all, martin Clarke sitting in a f**king studio, id rather see him come on in the last 20 mins of a game, there is a wealth of talent in this county that is not being utilized for whatever reason. reach out to the best players, tailor an individual plan that suits the player, the all or nothing regime simply does not work.

where is this mysterious wealth of talent that you talk of?? its not there, look at the results from recent years in minor and u21. martin clarke and dan gordon should have more flexible approach given to them i agree but who else should be on the team. the players arent there and that is the fault of years of neglect of our underage structures by the county board.

conor Laverty
paul McCommisky
Dan Gordon
Caolan Mooney
Benny Coulter
Martin Clarke

Reach out, approach them, get them on board.

These boys by and large have been there and done it...should they be encouraged and facilitated in order to have them involved??..ofcourse they should...would they be worth a 19 point turn around today??..the answer is no. The problem is there is simply no talent coming through to better or challenge the position of those lads named above who are no longer involved for whatever reason.....why is there no talent coming through / where are the players? For FS would someone go into these counties doing well i.e. your Monaghans / Tyrones / Donegals / Cavans even Dublin / Kerry go whereever....and see the structures they have in place and what is being done to promote the game and bring lads through...go and learn something, take it onboard, implement and improve on those things and put in place structures within our own county to try and challenge again and maybe 10 years from now we will see shoots of recovery because the way things are nothing is changing and Down who are no longer contenders for anything. The whole set up is light years behind those competing for silverware and if things dont change forget about football in Down having any aspirations of actually winning anything.

[SHEEDY]

its hardly fecking rocket science, a more flexible approach to players who cannot commit to a ridiculous training regime that yields feck all, martin Clarke sitting in a f**king studio, id rather see him come on in the last 20 mins of a game, there is a wealth of talent in this county that is not being utilized for whatever reason. reach out to the best players, tailor an individual plan that suits the player, the all or nothing regime simply does not work.

where is this mysterious wealth of talent that you talk of?? its not there, look at the results from recent years in minor and u21. martin clarke and dan gordon should have more flexible approach given to them i agree but who else should be on the team. the players arent there and that is the fault of years of neglect of our underage structures by the county board.

conor Laverty
paul McCommisky
Dan Gordon
Caolan Mooney
Benny Coulter
Martin Clarke

Reach out, approach them, get them on board.

out of those players only marty clarke and dan gordon would have made a difference today. mooney has flattered to deceive in a down and rostevor jersey, while benny and connor would admit their best days are behind them. is mccommisky still playing? doesnt say much for this so called wealth of talent you say we have.
ryan and jerome johnson are the only other players i can think of that we were missing today.

when was the last time a player broke through from the u21s or minors?? there is no wealth of talent.

[Line Ball]

After an encouraging first 35 minutes we put is as spineless and clueless a performance (both on an off the field) that I have ever witnessed. Embarrassing wouldn't even come close, what then hell have they been doing since the end of the National League to even put some kind of plan in place to win a game as there was little evidence of any system in place today. Give me strength.

We are where we are and we have been saying for years now about the lack of investment both in facilities and in structures which are now coming back to bite us now.  We have had no U21 players on the senior panel for 2 years now so that does not bode well for the future, our hopeful minors were also clueless for much of their game last week.  Now we are telling 12 year old lads that they are county material and filling their heads full of shit by making development squads which are run by a gather up of coaches, some of which do not even coach in their clubs.  We are in some f=-cking mess and while I admire POR and what he is trying to do I just don't get the way he is going about it.  Telling young lads that they are 'Rising Stars' is just filling their heads full of dung.

As for you Wobbler asking for leadership, perhaps you would have taken your own advice with the Down Minors on your way home on the bus from Derry last year.

[5 Sams]

After an encouraging first 35 minutes we put is as spineless and clueless a performance (both on an off the field) that I have ever witnessed. Embarrassing wouldn't even come close, what then hell have they been doing since the end of the National League to even put some kind of plan in place to win a game as there was little evidence of any system in place today. Give me strength.

We are where we are and we have been saying for years now about the lack of investment both in facilities and in structures which are now coming back to bite us now.  We have had no U21 players on the senior panel for 2 years now so that does not bode well for the future, our hopeful minors were also clueless for much of their game last week.  Now we are telling 12 year old lads that they are county material and filling their heads full of shit by making development squads which are run by a gather up of coaches, some of which do not even coach in their clubs.  We are in some f=-cking mess and while I admire POR and what he is trying to do I just don't get the way he is going about it.  Telling young lads that they are 'Rising Stars' is just filling their heads full of dung.

As for you Wobbler asking for leadership, perhaps you would have taken your own advice with the Down Minors on your way home on the bus from Derry last year.

Good man Line Ball. Do you want to tell us what you have done for Down Club or County football over the last few years...that qualifies you to make the comments above...hurler on the ditch???

[clowry13]

Marty Clarke said on BBC at half time that he would have at least appreciated a phone call from burns to get asked onto the county panel. Why has this not happened. So many better players around the county than what was on display today.

[Smurfy123]

Unbelievable that clarke was not asked on to the squad
Surely the Down supporters deserve there best players to be asked
Clarke May not make a difference but it would be nice to watch him play
Burns may get the phone out and make a few calls tomorrow