Messages

All the talk of reasons to doubt Cross's favourite tag and rumours of problems is a childs way of inticing Burren into a false hope. Great Imaginations in the province.

Burren will give Cross a real battle and I have an inkling thery might nick it

Personally i think the relegation situation is a disgrace, shouldn't be coming down to head to head, its a complete joke. We had to play Rostrevor minus 4 county men and 2 county minors earlier in the year, while they were a full strength, what's fair in that? all the league games shud have been played and there is no rule in the rule book to allow teams more than 7 days for a championship game, county board leaving themselves wide open for appeals, Down County BOard need to take a good look at themselves, complete and utter joke!! Most dysfunctional, worst ran county board in Ireland

To be fair Ned, I agree with you totally regarding the head to head results. If you are level on points, then play again and winner takes all. With regard to a team in the championship final, they are always going to look for a few days grace, particularly when they are both playing in the final. Any team going into a game needing to win to avoid relegation should only have one thing in mind, out and out win. There is no point in relying on favours or worrying about when or how other teams play their respective games.

An Riocht have had alot of injuries and boys away, but they didnt capitalise when they were all there.

Lads, i think we are all missing a vital point here, the time for starting our league is far too late, most teams are starting pre season in January and dont start league games until end of march. Then we are into intercounty championship time and suddenly we have games called off, players missing and all sorts. Why the county board don't start the leagues alot earlier I don't know.

The starred game system was started to accomodate county team preparation, but now we have situations were starred games are cancelled or replaced with other fixtures and slowly the system deteriorates. Clubs have to be more honest and realistic about why they look for games to be called off or refixed, and then in turn get them played in the middle of the following week.

Similarly I am all for accomodating Hurling but surely in the case of Dual clubs, we would be better having an agreement whereby if the club has a football fixture on a friday night , they must play their Hurling fixture on a sunday or vice versa. We lose too much valuable time in the long summer evenings where games are not played. The argument might be that it disrupts training schedules to play on a sunday but a good game will work every bit as well for them dual clubs.

Cut the July break to two weeks. I remember there was always a game played on the thursday or friday of the holidays and then again on the last sunday. There are umpteen opportunities to get games played but unless we Take them, we will be playing before the christmas dinner every year.

Mourne Rover & Forevergreen

Where either of you at the game on Saturday night?

Well True Blue, wasnt @ the game on Saturday night but I get your point. I have been told it was a physical encounter, but how many of all the championship matches this year could be described in that manner. If a championship match between Kilcoo and Clonduff can't raise the blood in either team something would be badly wrong.

My point is that in the Ulster Championship, the level of play becomes dogged and teams bring a higher level of physicality to them. All too often we have heard Down teams going into Ulster and having been beaten, then go on to complain about how physical or cynical the opposing team was. I'm not talking about taking a man out or fighting, simply being able to raise the physical stakes, whilst being ready for the referee to wave play on for what might be penalised in Down.

Mourne Rover has hit the nail on the head, whenever our teams go into Ulster, they are seldom ready for the physical demands of the games that come. They have been used to getting soft frees for minimal contact and slight jersey tugs etc that are not penalised in other Ulster counties. Since Burren's dominance in the eighties we have not been able to perform at the top end of the Ulster Championship. Those Burren teams were packed with strong players coupled with a number of skilful players in Shorty and co. Mayobridge reached an Ulster final when they had strong players like Francie, Shane McMahon and Glen McMahon to name a few, they pushed Ballinderry all the way but the following year went out early without those same players. Our teams need to go into Ulster knowing that it is going to hurt and frees are hard to come by.
The Ulster Championship is played @ the dirty end of the year October/November, ground is heavy and it's a slogging match, when hardwork and sheer bravery is worth more than a few light weight fancy boys that get easy frees. Its time our managers from all teams going into Ulster look @ the horses for courses scenario. The team that wins a Championship final mightned necessarily be what you need on a wet october day.

Vintage performance from burren last night. Donal o hare is unreal. Looking forward to taking the scalp of the yellows. I think they have played their final. On another note was that the correct score between the bridge and ballyholland on sat or did the irish news misprint

Downjim, wouldnt classify our performance as vintage by any means, we put Rostrevor away but in my opinion we still have alot of improving to do. Rostrevor were very poor to be honest and apart from Connor Magee in midfield, they were lacking any competitive edge or composure and if it wasnt for J Parr in goal, we could have beat them by 20 pts. Defensively we played well and man for man the boys done their jobs and kept Rostrevor under control. Mooney was lively but as the game wore on McCartan won the individual battle and Mooney's influence disappeared.
The unit played well and McKernan being back definitely gives it more cover and has tightened it up.

I thought Midfield broke even, Toner didnt play anywhere near to the level he reached against mayobridge and we need more from him Anton battled throughout and whilst he is getting back to that marauding running, his final pass, particularly his fist pass needs alot of work and he needs to stop putting the ball in the air, he is guily of a hospital pass all to often.

Up front we are definitely working well, Donal in particular is very sharp and his direct running is something we have lacked in recent years. Half forward line was a marked improvement, Eamonn and Conaill were alot more composed and the latters handling was alot better but Sean Murdock still off the boil. He needs to release the ball alot sooner and his decision making particularly carrying the ball into tackles needs to improve greatly. All to often he does great work to win break ball and then carries it into the tackle. ( I suspect he had alot more time on the ball during the summer in the US). But he will come good and hopefully just at the right time.

All in all just a GOOD performance, we can still get tighter at the back, we can improve immensely @ midfield, where Arthur McConville and O'Hagan will be up for the battle. Up front there is plenty more in us and Eamonn Toner can push in as well. We would need to be alot more ruthless if and when goal chances come.

The final will be a battle, Clonduff will be full of confidence after beating Kilcoo and they wont be complacent in any way. They are a good side that probably hasnt had a full quota of players until Saturday night and now they will believe they have it in them to match anyone. Burren need to up the ante massively from last night and eliminate the simple mistakes that are still there. If we are going to push on and win the final, the feet and heads must remain on the ground and the hardwork must be done over the next three weeks. Any notion of Clonduff coming for the day out or ''having played their Final'' is misconcieved and dangerous. Championships are won on performance and we need a full team one.

Downjim, as a fellow Burren man, would you give the bullshit a rest, tonight will be a real test of both teams credentials. It will all come down to performance on the night. The break ball is going to be crucial and we need a bigger emphasis around the middle. Like Burren the bridge have taken in a couple of good players from their u21 set up and this has increased competition within their squad, so we need a big performance from all our players. There will be no hiding places tonight, big field, big game but I still believe Burren are starting to raise their game just at the right time.

Both sets of forwards are extremely dangerous and I don't think the bridge will be naive enough to just hoof it in to Benny. We need to go man for man and limit the frees we give away. If we play early ball in then our forwards can really test the bridge defence. Its going to be a battle but one I believe we can win. Good luck to Burren tonight.