Down Club Hurling & Football

[marty34]

You seem to be working from the idea that once a squad is named at 13, it would be a closed ship until 17.

That shouldn't be the case.

When there's a strict cap on player numbers, then standards have to go up. Surely that makes sense? And when a lad springs up at 16 and he's invited into the panel, as the standard is better it won't take long to work out if he is still potential, or actually suited to representative sport.

Bloated square are a shitshow imho.

But what is final destination?

Is it to have a good U15 or U17 team OR have a player ready for senior inter-county football?

As development squads within county squads have been about about 10/15 years now, it'd be interesting to do a study of teams and find out how many players have come through 'the development system' compared to those who, for whatever reason, have not.

Nice wee project for a sports science student for their thesis.

[thewobbler]

The final destination is the same.

But my belief is that expanding a squad to fill it with "hopefuls" serves no purpose to the lads who are currently good enough.

Say there's 500 footballers at every year group in Down. Let's rank them quickly in order of current ability.

My guess would be that the gap in standard between those in positions 1-10 and those in positions 40-50 would be greater than the gap in standard between those in positions 50-60 and positions 150-160.

In effect, I believe, we are asking the current best 8-10 players in the county to improve when they're training and playing with average club players.

That's not going to take us to our destination. It's clearly not.

[Truth hurts]

I see on Twitter that there were 30 u16 players to go to u16 county last week. There were also u15 trials, does anyone have a number of how many are trialing for u15?

I have been reading here and of the illusion that what the wobbler is saying is correct, we are setting our lads up for a harsh fall. Schools are better equipped to take our players through.

In saying that Sean og in his report to the convention urged post primary schools  for better access to coaching. I do think the county has been pushing for schools but to no avail. Is there a reason for this?

[rory]

Would the lack of success at St Colmans indicate not all is well in Down football? Abbey never produced but been a while since Colmans won anything of sort.

The presentation of the 2019/20 Danske Bank MacRory Cup has taken place with the winning captains from St Patrick's Maghera and St Colman's Newry. The Final had been rescheduled to take place earlier this month, but a decision was taken to cancel this owing to the current public health situation. As a result, the trophy was shared between the two finalists. 🤔

Bad state of affairs when Colmans are clinging on to a shared trophy. I'd seriously doubt they'd have beat a star studded Maghera side (back boned Derry minor AI winning team). I can't remember when they last won a Rannafast or Corn na Nog.

St colman's won the 19/20 Rannafast and went on to win the All Ireland.

[johnnycool]

The final destination is the same.

But my belief is that expanding a squad to fill it with "hopefuls" serves no purpose to the lads who are currently good enough.

Say there's 500 footballers at every year group in Down. Let's rank them quickly in order of current ability.

My guess would be that the gap in standard between those in positions 1-10 and those in positions 40-50 would be greater than the gap in standard between those in positions 50-60 and positions 150-160.

In effect, I believe, we are asking the current best 8-10 players in the county to improve when they're training and playing with average club players.

That's not going to take us to our destination. It's clearly not.

Depends what you decide your destination is going to look like. Is it ultimately senior intercounty level and the type of player you need to compete?

Do you look at a 14 or 15 yo and decide wee Johnny isn't going to be big enough, fast enough or whatever and discard him even though he's maybe got good feet, skill, movement or discard the big rangy lad as he's not the greatest at kicking?

Or do you just pick the best players at that grade and hope for the best?

I always find these conversations interesting as I'm not sure myself what's the best approach.

[Walter Cronc]

Would the lack of success at St Colmans indicate not all is well in Down football? Abbey never produced but been a while since Colmans won anything of sort.

The presentation of the 2019/20 Danske Bank MacRory Cup has taken place with the winning captains from St Patrick's Maghera and St Colman's Newry. The Final had been rescheduled to take place earlier this month, but a decision was taken to cancel this owing to the current public health situation. As a result, the trophy was shared between the two finalists. 🤔

Bad state of affairs when Colmans are clinging on to a shared trophy. I'd seriously doubt they'd have beat a star studded Maghera side (back boned Derry minor AI winning team). I can't remember when they last won a Rannafast or Corn na Nog.

St colman's won the 19/20 Rannafast and went on to win the All Ireland.

Fair play. That's me back in the box. Still think they aren't the force they once were.

[mourneman9194]

Agree with Danny that there should be more done within schools with regards to player development. However, given the Armagh/Down split within the Abbey and College for example, would there not be a degree of hesitancy for the county board to invest in player development within schools where potentially Armagh players would reap the benefits?

[Johnnysboys]

It's easy saying that more should be done in schools - but how do we as a county actually make it happen?? County Coaches are already tied up with primary schools so not available and in some secondary/grammar schools - the staff have absolutely no interest in taking teams or developing players. The Newry schools even though they are working with Armagh players have a focal point and head coach in charge of teams. St Joseph's have turned a massive corner with Poacher and young Kevin McClorey taking their teams to another level. Red High have a big focus on hurling this year by looks of it, St Malachys Castlewellan are competing seriously well at Oisin McGrath cup level with OLSPK playing McCrory this year and Acquinas, St Louis competing at every level. Biggest disappointment is St Patrick's Banbridge and St Mark's. St Mark's baffles me to be honest. Like I have said before my own lad is there and some of the things he tells me that's happening in PE and lack of passion for after-schools football is shocking. But putting a county coach in here won't sort the problems as they can't train all the teams and take them to games. The staff need to take a look at themselves and get this particular giant of a school off the ground and back competing again - and soon.

[Hard2Listen2]

Was in the public toilets in Newcastle yesterday evening. The ones up near the harbour. (Acceptable levels of cleanliness but nothing to write home about!)
Anyway when I'd finished my business I bumped in to a very "in the know" senior east Down Gael who informed me that former Fermanagh captain Eoin Donnelly has transferred to Carryduff.
Could be a great player for them but also makes me think back to when they used to play a lot of blow-ins which hampered the development of their own players.
As a one off Donnelly could be great for them but could be detrimental if it goes back to being their norm.

[rosskarr]

 Word reaches me that there was a bust up in the changing rooms after Saturday's game.Interventions from players restraining one of their own against a non player.Players met up to discuss this.More to follow.......

[johnnycool]

It's easy saying that more should be done in schools - but how do we as a county actually make it happen?? County Coaches are already tied up with primary schools so not available and in some secondary/grammar schools - the staff have absolutely no interest in taking teams or developing players. The Newry schools even though they are working with Armagh players have a focal point and head coach in charge of teams. St Joseph's have turned a massive corner with Poacher and young Kevin McClorey taking their teams to another level. Red High have a big focus on hurling this year by looks of it, St Malachys Castlewellan are competing seriously well at Oisin McGrath cup level with OLSPK playing McCrory this year and Acquinas, St Louis competing at every level. Biggest disappointment is St Patrick's Banbridge and St Mark's. St Mark's baffles me to be honest. Like I have said before my own lad is there and some of the things he tells me that's happening in PE and lack of passion for after-schools football is shocking. But putting a county coach in here won't sort the problems as they can't train all the teams and take them to games. The staff need to take a look at themselves and get this particular giant of a school off the ground and back competing again - and soon.

IMO they're seriously underperforming in the hurling and should be more competitive at the A grades there, can't fault their teachers but they just aren't there to bring them on to the next level.

As for the Red High they'd two ex pupils, now Ulster GDO's taking their hurling training most of the year and A level transfers from St Columba's helped push them up the ranks.

[ck]

Word reaches me that there was a bust up in the changing rooms after Saturday's game.Interventions from players restraining one of their own against a non player.Players met up to discuss this.More to follow.......

Heard similar, heard it spilled over at HT and then continued on after game. Whatever happened, I hope it can be resolved quickly.
A couple of huge games coming up.

[Mourne Red]

A lot of talk about schools past few days - St Malachys had a golden era where they reached 3 All-Ireland finals in a row from 08-10.. Bar Paul Devlin and Darragh O'Hanlon did anyone else in those teams have an extended county career? I was thinking over the weekend and only those 2 came too mind

[Nanderson]

A lot of talk about schools past few days - St Malachys had a golden era where they reached 3 All-Ireland finals in a row from 08-10.. Bar Paul Devlin and Darragh O'Hanlon did anyone else in those teams have an extended county career? I was thinking over the weekend and only those 2 came too mind

Conor Poland was part of that team as well

[Smurfy123]

Being a good schools player doesn't automatically mean you will be a good adult player

Development sqauds are ok from under 16 up but it has to be run right which is not happening in Down that's why we have so many drop out

My nephew was on one and he got word on a Thursday night that he was training on Saturday and it could have been anywhere. Now that's ok only his parents worked so it was a scramble to get him sorted with a lift and eventually he just stopped going as he was already training with his club 3 nights and maybe 2 schools session

Whether we like it or not it's just not fancy to play for Down anymore

Look at the buzz around Armagh at the minute and the big crowds they are getting compared to us

Questions need to be asked from the top down