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Does anyone remember the 1993 Hogan Cup Final between these two colleges? Played in Longford, i was at it because there was a couple of lads from Letterkenny playing for Jarlaths. It was the first time i saw Michael Donnellan and Padraic Joyce playing. Donnellan got a great goal after half time to put Jarlaths 4 up but a wonder goal from Diarmuid Marsden late on won it for Colmans. A lad called Mark Rowland i think was captain and MOTM for Colman's.

Don't remember that one but there was a great game in semi final in 1998 in Clones which Colmans won after extra time. The brother was on Colmans team that year.

The 1998 semi final which St Colmans won was actually against Roscommon CBS, who defeated St Jarlaths in the Connaught Final.  The semi final was a superb game which St Colmans won after extra time and they proceeded to walk the final against a Dublin Irish College.

Ah would yiz f**k away aff.

In 1993 Mark Rowland was the captain and MOTM in the final, was from Antrim as far as i know.

Mark Rowland was from Rostrevor, Co. Down and formed an all Rostrevor half back line which included Finbar Caulfield and Gary Farrell.  All 3 went on to represent Down at senior level although Finbar Caulflield was the one who played most and longest for the County out of the 3.

Mark played for Rostrevor up to 1999 i believe and won the Down Senior Championship with them in 1998.

They played Rostrevor and stuffed them by all accounts, heard they played kilcoo last week and it was wee bit feisty 

It was a stuffing in the end but for 45 minutes it was a decent game (2 halves of 35 mins). Only 2 points in it at the 45 min stage and Rostrevor had missed a penalty early in the second half. There were heavy enough tackles going in at that stage. The additional fitness and fresh legs of the County team then told big time and must have tagged on 1-10 to no score in the last 20 minutes.

The County team did look pretty strong though, D McCartan, D Raff, L Doyle, A Carr, R Sexton, C Laverty, J Clarke, J Colgan all playing. Not bad for what was effectively a reserve team compared to what has played all year for Down.

Rostrevor missing a few players, M Cole, D Magee, C Magee, A Mackin, but gave a decent account of themselves for most of the game.

Wondering where the Burren players are!!!

Down U20 champions and Ulster U21 champions.

Burren II's v Rostrevor II's - Fri 3/3/11 in Burren at 8pm under lights.

Should be a good start to the season with 2 traditionally strong reserve teams playing. Burren minus their under 21's i would guess as they play in the Ulster Final on Sunday!!

Can anyone confirm who has been released from the panel?

He won an all ireland as a player and even came on in the final v Dublin in1994.  Think that is more than most have to say.  I also think its more than our whole senior panel has at the minute.

Ahh right, so because he came on as a sub to collect an all ireland medal he will be a good manager? Makes perfect sense

Mike Tyson, you are from Loughinisland. Did Colgan not manage you to 2 Championship Finals in a row. Fair enough you lost both of them, but you lost both of them to established top teams and if things had went your way you could have ended up with two wins rather than two defeats.

Going on your comments i take it you are not a fan of BIG Colgan!

He sure did, and we are extremely grateful to him for getting us to both. However we had our fair share of luck getting to both, and with a bit more tactical knowledge and common sense he would have won us the second. He also managed to get us relegated. I neither dislike or like "BIG Colgan."

Fair enough.  Although like all of us are aware, a championship team is different to a league team, not least because County players are missing for large parts of the year. Perhaps Loughinisland found that missing Dan Gordan/Jamie O'Reilly for many games was just too much to cope with in Division 1 league football.

He won an all ireland as a player and even came on in the final v Dublin in1994.  Think that is more than most have to say.  I also think its more than our whole senior panel has at the minute.

Ahh right, so because he came on as a sub to collect an all ireland medal he will be a good manager? Makes perfect sense

Mike Tyson, you are from Loughinisland. Did Colgan not manage you to 2 Championship Finals in a row. Fair enough you lost both of them, but you lost both of them to established top teams and if things had went your way you could have ended up with two wins rather than two defeats.

Going on your comments i take it you are not a fan of BIG Colgan!

Juice i know where your coming from on this one.

I'm 30 now and have been playing on the senior team since i was 18.  Someone mentioned earlier that you can be flying one game and have the legs feel like lead the next. That is so true it is unreal.

I keep myself in good nick but go out every weekend for a few pints.  I find i get out of shape so quickly now if i dont do anything, so started up the winter training about 4 weeks ago. 5 a side, weights, road running, racket ball etc etc. Basically anything goes with the only consistent being the gym session twice a week.

I fully intend to play on for another 3-4 years at senior level so to do this i believe i have to train harder than all the younger fella's, or at least the majority of them. Pints the night before sunday morning training are now a distant memory but these are the steps i believe must be taken.

[Would be interesting to see three select division 3 , 2 & 1 teams which has been worked on for a month under county guidance, play each other to see the gap in standard if it exists. I would say there is very little between them all.]

Chris Killen, Luke Howard, Darren O'Hagan and John McAreavey would be my 4, although there were a couple of teams that i didn't get to watch this year and Burren were one of them so i can't comment on any of their players.

Laverty, Alder and Jason Brown could be on the fringes of the Down Panel, with a few run outs in the league but i wouldn't start any of them in the heat of championship battle.
In truth there aren't many places up for grabs as i think its a pretty strong county squad with plenty of competition for places.

Apres Match, i saw Darragh Cross play a couple of times this year - in castewellan against the Clone, and in Glassdrumman, and 3 times last season as well. Maybe i caught you on a bad day but the day in question in Castewellan most of your team were better boxers than footballers! 

Chief - I am not saying that any of the Darragh players are ready to walk in to the county set-up but if players as previously mentioned are on the squad then tey should be there.

In Castlewellan against the clone, Darragh Cross were terrible. However even playing badly they still only managed to lose by a score and kicked themselves out of it. Annaclone, even with strong county players couldnt play in the second half. They registered one point from about 4 attacks. They beat Drumgath, Attical, Glassdrumman this year and there was one forward in particular looked well worth a trail and that was young Miskelly.

I think these players need to be watches as stated previously, several times a year and possibly worked on over several weeks to see if they can make it as they have further more work to do to get to tough competitive level of fitness. It is easier for division one players as they have the benefit of superb trainers, something lower divions dont usually (but not always).

Would be interesting to see three select division 3 , 2 & 1 teams which has been worked on for a month under county guidance, play each other to see the gap in standard if it exists. I would say there is very little between them all.

Now this is the best idea i have come across here for some time.

Why's the minor match off?

I heard it was a request from Kilcoo because Jerome has 2 sons playing and Aidan Brannigan has a brother playing and they want to be able to watch the match. If it was on Friday they would not be able to as Down are obviously in the middle of something 

Kilcoo 0-8 Rostrevor 2-6

Exactly the sort of performance we didn't put in against ballyholland!!

Good win for Rostrevor. Heard that Turlach Murphy has broken his arm after an off the ball incident.

Turlach did indeed break his arm, shattered it in fact and requires a plate inserted. It was an off the ball incident but the Kilcoo man did not go out to break his arm, it was just pushing and shoving and unfortunately Turlach fell awkwardly on his arm.

It was a surprising win for Rostrevor given their performance the week before but all the games at the weekend threw up surprising results.

Our minors are at home in championship replay on the same night...anyone know what is likely to happen? And why isnt the rostrevor match on the same day as the rest?

You may get your secretary on the job

Im sure he will be doing his best!

Per the Rostrevor website the Premier Reserve Championship game is now on Wed 28th July.

Didn't this Newry crowd get up to all sorts in the semi as well? It's impossible to know for sure how bad things were without being there, unsurprisingly there are a few Down lads here trying to play things down. But that's two games in a row where this school's been dragged through the mud, no smoke without fire and all that...it should probably at least be investigated by the GAA to see if there is an issue with the school. I don't buy in to any of this northern bias craic, anytime I've been up there it's been great and there's been no ill feeling at all, quite the opposite in fact.

Are you serious or just a complete amadon.  St Colman's was the top academic school in NI last year.  It has the most McCrory cup wins and a history steeped in discipline and high standards.  It all schools in Ireland had as high standards the country wouldn't be in the state that it's in!  I went to St Colmans and ejoyed some of the greatest under age football ever seen with players like James McCartan, Jarlath Burns and then Marsden and McGrane coming through our ranks in those years.  I travelled the length and breadth of the country to support the teams from Corn na Og to McCrory and when I was in 6th and 7th year did we go in search of a pint before the match?  Of course we did!  We were fecking 16/17 and had a weekend off!!  If you knew anything about St Colmans it has a history of high class Down AND Armagh fellas who have come through the doors and gone on to be leaders in the community and on the field of play.  Educate yourself before you post crap like this.  I'm sure Fr Brown could organise for a field visit so you can witness what a real school looks like!

Sorry, what?!

All I said was that there was a few sceals going around after the Geralds game (and there were), and there appear to be some more after the final as well. Maybe someone should have a look and see if there is an issue? (If there is no issue, then you have nothing to worry yourself about.) Then I complemented northern hospitality - so what are you ranting and raving about?

I was actually at the St Geralds game supporting St Colmans i must say.  The difference in the behaviour of the supporters from the 2 schools was unreal!!  And before you jump to conclusions it was the St Geralds fans who were a disgrace.

Chants like 'Dirty Northern Ba****ds' were the norm while bottles of buckfast were readily on view from amongst their support.

The worst chant the St Colmans supporters came out with was 'You have s**t support, you have s**t support'!! Correct me if i am wrong.

I also am aware of some Northern registration cars parked at the ground having the side of their cars scraped by a key sometime during/after the game.