Down Club Hurling & Football

[Pocs pints and the gaa]

It's very early days yet I would not worry to much about it.

Start worrying in January if only 13 show up

Most counties will have had 2 solid months training done by then.

Would it be us or you's bottom of the heap in Ulster?

Still youse, we have a county stadium after all

And it not even in your county

[Smurfy123]

Kilcoo not showing up for Division 1 final tomorrow night
They have been given only 2 days notice of the game being fixed
Whose mess is this?
Why has a team playing in our second biggest competition not been given more time

[downjim]

It's 10 days before the Ulster championship game. Why can't Kilcoo play this game tomorrow night? They have a panel of 40. Their seconds would probably beat an aged Town who are on their last Hurrah.

Siege mentality bullshit from one of the big clubs AGAIN

[EagleLord]

Kilcoo not showing up for Division 1 final tomorrow night
They have been given only 2 days notice of the game being fixed
Whose mess is this?
Why has a team playing in our second biggest competition not been given more time

Just seen Kilcoo's tweet saying that. 100% right to not turn up. A joke of a decision. Wonder will Co board refix it given Kilcoo stance, or will Castlewellan get a WO? Wouldn't be surprised if its the latter.

[gaaman2016]

Given what they did to Loughinisland they surely have no choice but to award fixture to Castlewellan?

[downjim]

Kilcoo should play the game. Sure they sent their thirds to play the last league game.

[Pocs pints and the gaa]

It's 10 days before the Ulster championship game. Why can't Kilcoo play this game tomorrow night? They have a panel of 40. Their seconds would probably beat an aged Town who are on their last Hurrah.

Siege mentality bullshit from one of the big clubs AGAIN

Kilcoo will need their second string at training to set up tactically against their firsts in preparation for Ulster semi final. It's not a matter of going out and playing a second string. If they play they can't train the day before or after so that's 3 days gone and no tactical work on the pitch done and a waste of a quarter of the time they have to prepare. It's bull shit from the down cccc is what it is

[Maurice Moss]

It's 10 days before the Ulster championship game. Why can't Kilcoo play this game tomorrow night? They have a panel of 40. Their seconds would probably beat an aged Town who are on their last Hurrah.

Siege mentality bullshit from one of the big clubs AGAIN

Siege mentality bullshit my hole. We are the County champions representing the county in Ulster. You would assume that the County board would be fully backing us to give Ulster a rattle and this definitely isn't the way to go about it. And I'm not just saying this with any bias towards our club. If it were Castlewellan, Clonduff, Mayobridge or Burren and they were the county representatives in Ulster and we were playing them in the league final we would expect them to be focusing on Ulster and we would just have to wait until their campaign ended.

There were league finals played in December a few years back (when we were not representing the county) and yes it is a joke that a league final has to be played this late in the year but not at the expense of possibly damaging your chances of doing well in Ulster.

The real joke here is how the County board are running the leagues and the management of the fixtures (not only on division 1). One way of stopping this from happening in the future would be to award the team that finishes top the league as they have been the most consistent team throughout the league...Oh no, wait..scrap that idea, let's just keep the format the way it is and try and milk supporters for as much as possible. Not as if they don't make enough from people at the club championship games throughout the year. No disrespect to Mayobridge or Burren, but if they were representing Down in Ulster they wouldn't have this thrust upon them. They are making a mockery of their own league set up and then trying to force our club into playing when we have a bigger prize to focus on. If we did go on to lift a provincial title it wouldn't be too long til they were singing our praises.

You know what the Down County Board can do. They can take that league cup and shove it as far up their feckin holes as they can.

That's if there is room up there, along with their heads.

#UTM

[Hoes before bros]

I don't blame Kilcoo for not fielding tomorrow night. They have as good of chance of winning Ulster as they are ever going to have. They are just right not to let anything get in the way of that. It is disappointing that the way our county league is going to end but every club in the county would do the same in their situation

[gaaman2016]

Loughinisland has a similar situation last year. They won the Down IFC on the Sunday and where made to play Longstone in a promotion playoff the following Saturday. Island assumed that when the Co Board notified them of on the fixture on the  Monday that the match wouldn't go ahead as the precedent in previous years was that a club in Ulster would have been allowed to focus on Ulster and there was also a wedding in Longstone on the Saturday. By Friday when it became apparent Co Board where not going to move the fixture, Island were told that if they didn't show Longstone would be awarded the fixture. Island showed up but were ill prepared tactically,physically and mentally and the result was a foregone conclusion.

Whether it's fair or not if Island had have been awarded the same treatment as Kilcoo/Burren/Mayobridge had been in previous years I have no doubt they would have beaten Longstone.

It seems the Co Board has taken the stance of get the fixture pencilled in ASAP as we need the gate receipts and to hell with the Clubs Ulster/League prospects

[SHEEDY]

kilcoo are 100% right not to play tonight. full concentration needs to be on trying to win an ulster title. its an absolute joke that the down county board are trying to play a league final on a thursday night in november.

[whitegoodman]

Why not finish the league by the middle of August and play the championship over 5 wks from the start of September.  That means league games are meaningful for all teams to the end and a league title is actually worth something !!!

[Smurfy123]

Whitegoodman that would make sense but let's be honest this is the county board.
What is the outcome of tonight?
Down GAA call the game off so I take it will be fixed for a later date?
No winners in this I'm sure Castlewellan are not happy either way?

[thewobbler]

I'm not sure about this one folks.

EPL teams will always fulfil league fixtures, important or not, the weekend before they play a Champions League final. Pro 12 teams will fulfil their fixtures even if they've a European final.

So why should the GAA be different?

Prioritising competitions is as old as sport itself. Refusing to fulfil fixtures is completely against the spirit of sport.

Kilcoo may attempt to blame the County Board all they want here, but instead of looking wistfully at the previous, horrific instances where their opponents would wait 8 weeks to play their final league game, they should look at why they think they've a right to do this, when it doesn't happen in any other sport. GAA isn't that unique or tough ffs.

As for finishing up all leagues by early August just in case this situation happens again, that's a classic examples of the the many sacrificing everything for the few.

[Johnny McCumiskey]

 The easy way out for next year is the team that finished top wins the league