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Thought last night was a decent performance. Everton's goal was against the run of play. United are making chances but need to take a few more to make things comfortable. Thought we moved the ball through the 3rds well though. Rashford's goal should have stood and that meant the last 10 minutes are completely different.

Thought De Gea, Shaw and Rashford were good, and they haven't looked good for a while. Martial looked good until he got injured. Casemiro grew into the game too.

I went back and watched Game of Thrones from the start again. I thought it was much better as a binge watch as you remembered the histories & back stories.  I realise now I didnt know what was going on some of the time! Peter Dinklage's Tyrion character is a lot more annoying when you are over exposed to him as well.

There was a lot of hype around it and some of the characters which covered a lot of flaws. I think people that binged it enjoyed it more. I read the books so some of the characters didn't look right like Robert and Renly. Series 1 was excellent imho. Some brilliant moments in all series though which made both the show and books worth your time. Tyrion and Ayra are 2 fan favourites that I couldn't warm too.

House of the dragon is well laid out - more like the 1st few series of GOT.

Tell me this. Do you reckon lumping the ball in from 60 yards repeatedly a la 'the great Down v Derry game' (DJ Kane main culprit) is a better way of playing football than how it is played now? Because I tell you what, I watched that game recently and it wasn't exactly pretty on the eye.

Who suggested lumping the ball in from 60 yards was a better way to play.
Lets be honest, football is shite nowadays for a variety of reasons and a huge responsibility lies at the feet of ego-driven coaches/managers and those that appoint them.

A huge responsibilty lies with the suits in Croke park-the rule makers

Bring in rules like kicking it out past the 45 so no short kickouts, no pass back to the keeper, his job is to stop goals and kick the ball out, and once you go past your half way line you cannot play the ball back.
I agree with an earlier post stating that perhaps nostalgia gets in the way when viewing football matches in the past. Looking at scores in match programmes down through the 70s & 80s many matches never reached double digit scores.
If you're going to bring in rules that make it illegal to come back across your half way line there has to be an incentive, like allowing hand passed goals again.
Why did they do away with hand pass goals anyhow?

It looks like nothing. No skill involved at all. The last thing you want to encourage at the minute is less kicking. I'd ban palming the ball in the net too, most dunk it so it's basically a throw.

Maybe im reading wrong but it doesnt actually specify if it was adults or the children that were the problem...

Maybe at 15 you can blame players but at 11s it's more likely coaches and parents that are at fault. And if the players are that bad at that age you blame the parents anyway.

[abandonment of U11 hurling]

In Kerry, where disciplinary problems have led to the abandonment of U11 hurling and U15 football games in recent weeks, the county's referees committee has plans to meet with all clubs in the county to improve tolerance towards referees

If you can't control yourself at an U11 hurling match what is wrong with you? Individual suspensions aren't going to change this unfortunately.

The change to U17 and U19 isn't working, at least in Armagh in my opinion, anyway.

The U19 competition is almost non-existent (maybe a few games per year) with the result that a 17 year old lad (unless he is a genuine star) won't get much club  football as they won't be fit for senior.
Like U19s, the reserve football only provides a few games per year.

Changing back to U18 would give that 17 year old lad another full year of competitive football where he will be matched better physically.

Play under 19's and under 17's. Let the stronger lads at u19 play u19 and senior. Gives a chance to lads coming from u17's who aren't ready for senior football another couple of years playing at their own level to develop physically for senior football.
Most lads I know would have played minor and senior games in a week not a bother to them.

Down had planned on playing U19s (or 20s) and reserve football on alternative weeks. I think covid never really let that happen properly but there's something in that. The issue is managers wouldn't let them play a lot of times now.

Thoughts?

Is this going to be 2023 or 2024 before it actually happens?

There's no silver bullet to fix this. I understood some of the arguments for separating underage and adult football. The theory there was fine, but it hasn't worked as well as expected.

There's now a bigger gap between juvenile and adult football than there ever was and most clubs can't field an U19 team without the 2 or 3 lads that are fit to play senior football so you can't run that competition at the same time. I don't think any clubs are going to accept U18s not playing adult football outside the few really big clubs.

Option 1 will probably more votes though, I think more people think it needs changed either way.

https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2022/09/20/news/kicking_out_weak_club-2834486/

That was posted earlier on another thread. Do you think starred games in the league and a back door are the reason Down are behind or is it just a lack of players at the minute?

No offence but Scor??....does anyone give a shit really.
Outdated concept.

Not one single fkck. I do agree the relegation from senior championship should be scrapped.

What are your proposals for relegation/promotion from sfc?
If ifc winners this year are to get promotion to sfc , who is to be relegated ?
If it's done on league position it's unfair , as many league games are played without county players. Surely you can't penalise clubs with county players?
A sfc club plays championship with full deck including county players , if they lose 4 sfc games with their full deck then relegation is close to a fair fight. If you relegate a team from sfc on the basis of a league where they play many matches without a full deck , then it's clearly unfair on clubs with county players

I disagree.

Having been involved with Ballyholland as a yo-yo club during the noughties, it's nigh-on impossible for a d2 (let alone d3) team to get up to the pace of SFC. Creating a circumstance for more D2 teams to compete in it does nobody any favours. And if anything it opens up a potential for gaming the system whereby a d1 club can end up in the IFC by choice, which should be a guaranteed championship for them.

Top 15 league finishers the previous season, plus the IFC champions is the right way.

I don't remember there ever being an issue with the top 15 + intermediate winners. Division 1 teams should never be in the intermediate championship.

Pat Spillane has explained why he thinks playing All-Ireland Finals in July is "stupid".

"I'm against the split season."
While club championships are now well underway, Spillane feels that the GAA are missing a trick by curtailing the inter-county season so early.


"I'm completely against the split season," the former RTE pundit told the Irish Independent.

"We have taken our two best products, inter-county hurling and football, and taken them off the shop window for nine months.


"It's absolutely stupid."
"Now, when you take your best product out of the shop window for nine months, you give the opposition a chance. Maybe we're not going to go as far as the third Sunday in September to play an All-Ireland final, but at least take back the month of August.

"People say, 'oh, you're only saying that because you used to get paid for The Sunday Game' and that's a load of rubbish. I'm passionate about the GAA and a passionate GAA man, a passionate clubman and I like to see the GAA thriving.


"We've lost the month of August, we've lost the month of September and the main national papers are not talking about club matches. We're not talking about club matches and we're losing that opportunity for inter-county games, we need to change it. It's an own goal.

"It's absolutely stupid playing an All-Ireland in the middle of July. The funds for grassroots come from the inter-county game so without a vibrant inter-county calendar, we're cutting off our noses to spite our faces," he said.

I think finals in September made the season too long. The huge amount of games between both codes in July this year was very enjoyable, got down to Kerry's win over the Dubs and it was a great atmosphere. Maybe the season could be stretched out to mid August because most counties didn't start championship until then anyway. The GAA has to be about more than just intercounty on the TV, club players need a decent championship every year.

[Annaclone]

I do think that there should be a hurling board back in the county, a sub-committee of the main county board. I will look to see them working closely with the camogie board to promote hurling in both males and females across the county.  A lot of clubs in Down do not play this great ancient sport and I think that more needs to be done to get hurls into some clubs. You would be targeting clubs like Downpatrick, Burren, Annaclone, Rostrevor, etc to try to introduce hurling and camogie into their clubs.

Annaclone lads have always hurled in Ballela, the camogie team would have a good few Annaclone girls playing too at all levels.

Clonduff have got a fair few from Rostrevor and Mayobridge at the minute while there's a few Burren lads playing for Warrenpoint. The issue there would be keeping them past 11yo is the big challenge. It's very hard to start a new sport in a club with no history of it in the club, Saul will be a good case to keep an eye on.

Saul have a good catchment area and will be worth watching but Downpatrick should be pushing the sport. Dundrum, Bryansford, Glasdrumman, Attical, The kingdom, Ballymartin, Longstone, surely numbers there for a Mourne hurling team like Craobh Rua in Camlough .

Same for clubs around Magheradroll, Loughiniland, Drumaness and Saintfield areas. A new hurling board could push clubs to start and get coaches in as taster sessions.

Have a look through all those clubs you've named. Of them, maybe 1 is on a stronger football pedestal than they were 10 or 20 years ago, and 2 of them roughly the same. The rest have fallen back some or a lot.

Decline tends to run in parallel with membership levels. Not always. But usually.

I'd honestly say the last thing any of those clubs needs is hurling foisted upon it by idealists.

To be clear this isn't an anti hurling message. This is an acknowledgment of demographics message.

That was my point in a way. For younger lads there's always a club to go to if they want to play. Plenty of Ballyholland and Saval lads in Shamrocks playing. You can't start where there's no interest. The mourne clubs aren't into it. An Riocht had a team way back when the Sheehan's were up there, but they haven't hurled in years.

It's about 20 years since Rostrevor, Darragh Cross, Drumaness and Downpatrick stopped playing, closer to 30 years since underage hurling was played in any of those clubs. If you go a bit further back Kilcoo, St Johns, Mayobridge and Glenn had senior teams too. It would be nice to see some clubs start again but I don't see it happening.

[Annaclone]

I do think that there should be a hurling board back in the county, a sub-committee of the main county board. I will look to see them working closely with the camogie board to promote hurling in both males and females across the county.  A lot of clubs in Down do not play this great ancient sport and I think that more needs to be done to get hurls into some clubs. You would be targeting clubs like Downpatrick, Burren, Annaclone, Rostrevor, etc to try to introduce hurling and camogie into their clubs.

Annaclone lads have always hurled in Ballela, the camogie team would have a good few Annaclone girls playing too at all levels.

Clonduff have got a fair few from Rostrevor and Mayobridge at the minute while there's a few Burren lads playing for Warrenpoint. The issue there would be keeping them past 11yo is the big challenge. It's very hard to start a new sport in a club with no history of it in the club, Saul will be a good case to keep an eye on.

Bredagh beating Ballygalget at the weekend must have been the 1st time in a long time, a non-Ards club beat an Ards club.

Maybe Laoitrim have done it at some stage, or would it go right back to when Kilclief reigned supreme.

No, beat one of them in the championship previously

Bredagh have beat both ourselves and Ballycran last year, so not really a surprise. We've fallen down and will take a while to get back up and not taking away from Bredagh who've some fine hurlers in their team and probably should be with the county panel if not already.

RIP Martin Spike Baile, the last few years have been hard on the family as he'd an aggressive form of dementia take hold, hard to watch the impact it had on him, big, strong lad wasting away. Only turned 60 the other week.

Some player in his day, very unpredictable in all sorts of ways and was in his pomp when a lot of us young lads started coming through, he'd always look out for you, some craic on team building nights out.

Condolences to Sheila, Shane, Naomi, Caolan and especially the Da, Seamus, our treasurer for lord knows how many years, runs the bar, cuts the grass, you name it.

What is the landscape like now in Down regards club hurling at underage? I see Castlewellan are into 'A' grade finals at U-13 and U-15 level. Are some of the mainland clubs now on par with Ards' sides in most age groups?

Castlewellan are coming strong at U15, in saying that I was surprised they beat Portaferry in Portaferry on Sunday past as the Ports would have been considered strong favourites based on results going into that game but they did beat us in the U13 final last year so they should be there or there abouts.
U13 they're the strongest team I've saw this year and should win that one.
They've also got a strong P7 outfit to boot in the go games, so keep up the good work is all I can say. They play a decent style of hurling and have plenty of skill in them.

We play O'Rahillies in the U17 semi-final on Wednesday evening in Liatroim which is a combination of Castlewellan, Liatroim, Balella, Ballyvarley and I think a Clonduff lad going by his shorts, they're probably slight favourites based on the last encounter and the winners will face Bredagh in the final, so the Ards aren't as dominant at underage as it used to be and that's a good thing for Down hurling.
From a Ballygalget perspective we've always struggled with teams able to field a full compliment of lads in their last years at that level. We don't have that luxury and will always be dipping into the younger lads to field and there's nothing you can do with a 14yo playing against a 16 or 70yo which will happen in quite a few positions on Wednesday night.

and so it came to pass, there won't be one juvenile hurling championship residing in the Ards this winter.

Bredagh deservedly won the minor, better all-round team against our lads on Saturday, well done to them.

Castlewellan won the U13 vrs Carryduff and they'll both play off again this Sunday in the U15 final but I'd expect the winners to be reversed.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing Johnny? From a county point of view have good teams this side of the water can't be a bad thing but if the ards teams are struggling for numbers that's not a great sign at all.

There's a lot of good work going on in Castlewellan, fair play to them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62897652

Senior debut and not turned 14. Anyone know anything about him? A few on twitter saying Glenavon did it for publicity. Wish him all the best - hopefully he has a good future in the game