Down Club Hurling & Football

[Ed Hardy]

Very early days for Tally and this Down team, but hard to take many positives from last nights game. Despite having 2 sweepers in place Down conceded 2.15, they were cleaned out in mf. Thought big Donnelly should have been brought in there before he went off with another shoulder injury which is very concerning. Few individual moments from forward line but in general didnt link up that well. Hopefully will see a vast improvement when the suspended players and few more injured players get back tho. Conor Francis much better suited to half forward line,  and Liam Devlin looked a little lost to be honest. O'Hare looked good and surely must start against Sligo, in place of Jerome who once again failed to deliver in a Down top. Mooney and Daniel Guinness also looked sharp coming off the bench. 6 games left, 4 away from home, Div 4 is a distinct possibility now.

[Dubh driocht]

Thought Jerome did well on poor service. Who was the player injured at the far end? The stretcher was going out after the game.

[snoopdog]

All Doom and gloom on here. Are we really thinking div 4 is a serious possibility? If things are so bad what is tge point in getting what most people think is a really good management team together.

[Smurfy123]

Division 4 is a really strong possibility I'm afraid to say. Why would it not be? It has happened derry Laois and Westmeath in recent times and we would not be much better than those. Jerome had a brilliant first half. Devlin Poland McAleenan Mcconville and Flanagan has no impact of the game at all.

[ardtole]

I don't think relegation will be an issue if Mooney, McKernan, Harrisson and Ohare start. Tally looks like he is going to use this league campaign to experiment and blood new players and is taking a more long term approach. 

In fairness we looked very solid in the first half and laois really struggled to make inroads into our half despite a lot of possession. The introduction of Kingston at ht was pivotal and he was instrumental in all laois's attacling play in the 2nd half, and although the 2nd laois goal should have been a free out, laois had a couple of other opportunities they should have profited from.
I thought Flynn and Mcconville done well particularly in the first half.

[thebar]

Division 4 is a really strong possibility I'm afraid to say. Why would it not be? It has happened derry Laois and Westmeath in recent times and we would not be much better than those. Jerome had a brilliant first half. Devlin Poland McAleenan Mcconville and Flanagan has no impact of the game at all.

You have changed your tune...good to see little more realism with your posts now.

[Smurfy123]

No I'm not changing my tune. It's a realistic prospect with Mooney Harrison O Hare McKernan Maginn Johnstone McArdle O Hagens likely to miss large parts of the league. It would not be a prospect at all
If all the above playing.

[Mourne Rover]

Smurfy, although you have named eight players as `likely to miss large parts of the league', there is every prospect that six of them will be in the squad for our second game next Sunday. There is some uncertainty about McArdle and Maginn, but no one has suggested they face lengthy lay-offs.

If we slip up against Sligo, we will certainly be in trouble. However, they lost by double scores to Carlow today so a Down side with some familiar faces returning should be capable of getting a result at Collooney.

We need to use D3 as an opportunity to give us options in as many positions as possible, so there are inevitably going to be twists and turns along the way.

[BarryBreensBandage]

It was a disappointing night as we were in such a strong position at half time and the defeat means we may have to win all of our remaining six matches if we are to get promoted. The Laois manager made some crucial tactical and personnel switches during the break, and they were physically stronger than us in some key areas.

However, the game probably turned on a ludicrous decision when Francis was plainly pulled down in front of the main stand, the referee allowed play to continue and the goal gave Laois a huge lift.

Our defence struggled in the second half, particularly after Donnelly was injured, and, apart from O'Hare, our substitutions did not really work. The new faces only made a limited impact and we can expect a fair number of changes for what will be a must win trip to Sligo next week.

what was the craic with the mark JJ took in the second half? ref blew him up for overcarrying even though he had caught the ball clean and was standing still. they went up the field and scored from the resulting free kick. it would have put us 3 up but changed it to a 1 point game. We were poor though, kick out strategy seemed to be hoof a 50/50 ball to the same area each time and pray to win a breaking ball. Donal Ohare was the only man who looked like a proper county man when he eventually came on. A lot of players missing for various reasons but it should have been pencilled in as a must win game if promotion was a realistic target.

This has been an issue for at least ten years with Down. It was eventually their undoing in the 2010 AIF.

[Lotto]

I hear that Poacher let himself down a bagful again last at the end of the Down game when he must have got into it with the Laois stats people at the back of the stand and he ended up throwing a bottle at them as he was going down the steps. The man just can't help himself.

[Godsown]

If true then he should be dealt with appropriately by Down. He has caused mayhem here for several years and gets away with it ad nauseum . In instances like this he taints us all in the eyes of visitors

[thewobbler]

So I was chatting to Stevie this morning.

Apparently the Laois man is obsessed with attacking football, and him and Poacher have had a run-in about this before.

The Laois fella spent the whole game winding people up by shouting things like "get it into the forwards", "take your man on" and "have a go".

Which was okay when Down were winning, as our crowd could laugh away at him. But when Laois began to get on top, the air began to change too.

Poacher says he tried to warn him that things could get ugly: "you're in the the wrong province for that kind of talk, son", and "look, there's children here, they don't need to hear words like that".

But on and on the Laois man went. Louder and louder, "Don't be afraid to take a pop", "protecting the lead is a dangerous game lads; stay on the front foot".

Then he threw out the ultimate insult to everyone around him "for God's sake Donie, don't be chasing back, defending is something for the backs to do. You take a breather".

At this point Steven was rightly worried a riot could ensue. Being a friend to any man in trouble, he went into full distraction mode, throwing water bottles around and doing that "everyone look at me" raindance thing he does.

It was this little charade that created a short window for the Laois man to run for safety.

Steven willingly showed me the thank you texts he got from across Laois this morning. The lad involved probably won't be coming north again for a while. He forgets himself and just can't rein it in, and puts the whole county in jeopardy. Awful shame as apparently he's a really nice fella, apart from his mucked up desire for attacking football.

[thebar]

So I was chatting to Stevie this morning.

Apparently the Laois man is obsessed with attacking football, and him and Poacher have had a run-in about this before.

The Laois fella spent the whole game winding people up by shouting things like "get it into the forwards", "take your man on" and "have a go".

Which was okay when Down were winning, as our crowd could laugh away at him. But when Laois began to get on top, the air began to change too.

Poacher says he tried to warn him that things could get ugly: "you're in the the wrong province for that kind of talk, son", and "look, there's children here, they don't need to hear words like that".

But on and on the Laois man went. Louder and louder, "Don't be afraid to take a pop", "protecting the lead is a dangerous game lads; stay on the front foot".

Then he threw out the ultimate insult to everyone around him "for God's sake Donie, don't be chasing back, defending is something for the backs to do. You take a breather".

At this point Steven was rightly worried a riot could ensue. Being a friend to any man in trouble, he went into full distraction mode, throwing water bottles around and doing that "everyone look at me" raindance thing he does.

It was this little charade that created a short window for the Laois man to run for safety.

Steven willingly showed me the thank you texts he got from across Laois this morning. The lad involved probably won't be coming north again for a while. He forgets himself and just can't rein it in, and puts the whole county in jeopardy. Awful shame as apparently he's a really nice fella, apart from his mucked up desire for attacking football.

wobbler you should get a gold star for that post! 

[Square Ball]

So I was chatting to Stevie this morning.

Apparently the Laois man is obsessed with attacking football, and him and Poacher have had a run-in about this before.

The Laois fella spent the whole game winding people up by shouting things like "get it into the forwards", "take your man on" and "have a go".

Which was okay when Down were winning, as our crowd could laugh away at him. But when Laois began to get on top, the air began to change too.

Poacher says he tried to warn him that things could get ugly: "you're in the the wrong province for that kind of talk, son", and "look, there's children here, they don't need to hear words like that".

But on and on the Laois man went. Louder and louder, "Don't be afraid to take a pop", "protecting the lead is a dangerous game lads; stay on the front foot".

Then he threw out the ultimate insult to everyone around him "for God's sake Donie, don't be chasing back, defending is something for the backs to do. You take a breather".

At this point Steven was rightly worried a riot could ensue. Being a friend to any man in trouble, he went into full distraction mode, throwing water bottles around and doing that "everyone look at me" raindance thing he does.

It was this little charade that created a short window for the Laois man to run for safety.

Steven willingly showed me the thank you texts he got from across Laois this morning. The lad involved probably won't be coming north again for a while. He forgets himself and just can't rein it in, and puts the whole county in jeopardy. Awful shame as apparently he's a really nice fella, apart from his mucked up desire for attacking football.

wobbler you should get a gold star for that post! 

👍👏👏

[AnDun2025]

Tough result to take in Saturday  Night. Relegation should not be an issue from this Division. Promotion is still possible  all teams will drop points especially with so many derby games in Leinster.

Paddy and his team have a massive job on their hands let's give him the time to get it right. And support the players to get the work under their belt and learn the skills that are needed to compete at this level.

The players that are not available for one reason or another can not just be replaced it will take significant game time to get these young guys up to the standard they need to be at to compete.
Players who played league or championship last year that are currently  unavailable to the county.
Gerard McGovern
Niall McParland
Anthony Doherty
Peter Turkey
Shay Millar
Ronan Millar
Daragh O'Hanlon
Aaron Morgan.
Men with a significant amount of experience and power and many hours of league and champiounship hours under their belt.
If we get K McKernan, D O'Hagan RJ and Harrison back in the starting 15 for Sligo I'd be  confident we can get the Result.