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Armagh should win this by 2-3 points at least. However last week Monaghan were well down but didn't give in. For me iit will come down to Monaghan's ability to score. Armagh WILL score quite a decent amount. Though I wonder how Armagh will react if in the last ten minutes Monaghan are ahead and they are staring at a fourth straight defeat and zero league points?

It would be interesting. But in all honesty my prediction is that the game will be still fairly close going into last fifteen, giving a false gloss of excitement. But then Armagh will gently ease ahead opening up a 3-4 point lead and the last five minutes or so will peter out. I'll come back on Sunday to hodl my hands up if i'm wrong.

From what I saw if Mayo can play with their tails up like they did against us I think you have a serious chance of beating Kerry. I was not impressed at all with the intensity of the cork/Kerry game. I think Mayo/Down had a far higher level the night before. I think Kerry could be the surprise big team to struggle this year. They didn't do great last year although Tyrone was the surprise strugglers. I think Kerry could be that team this year. They are in transition after winning 3 titles and will use the league to try to discover a championship side which means they will be vulnerable.

Throw in is 2:30pm in Park Esler. The Armagh game the week after is on Saturday at 7:30pm.

There is a load of old hype going on here, and a load of old tripe being spoken. I was at the game. There was loyal and enthusiastic chanting from both sets of fans. Young lads getting excited about our national game. Showing support for their schools and their fellow pupils. It was great to see this support and reminded me of my days there when my love for the sport was kindled.

The first bottle landed a few feet from me after bouncing either off or near to a girl. That was wrong and sad but in total it was two or three that were thrown, a couple of bad lads. There are always some. It was sorted quickly and there were no mass brawls, or riots or blood soaked spectators to be carried out (because that's what some of these posts make it sound like).

There must have been around 2,000 people at that game, fantastic for a match between two high schools. (Mayo only raised 5,000 to watch their county seniors the week before!) Great support and a couple of bad eggs should not allow people to denigrate what was otherwise great support by both sets of fans.

As for the game, anyone saying the Abbey were close is dreaming. The College were cantering for the whole second half. At any stage they could have upped it. The Abbey shot from crazy angles because the College defence pushed them out there, hardly poor shot CHOICES! The Abbey threw the kitchen sink at St Colmans and came up ten points short and that was a fair reflection of the ability in the two teams. The Abbey only scored their first point from play with eight minutes to go!

The College will beat St Mary's so long as they don't show the arrogance their forwards displayed in the 2nd half against the Abbey. But Dungannon or St Micks will be a whole other matter on St Patricks day.

please stop the daft talk about being happy with a draw against Mayo, if you are really happy with losing a lead like that,then division 2 will be too glad to welcome you back.

I never said I was happy with the draw. We could have been out of sight by half time. Although in the end we were lucky enough to get out without a defeat. I said I am happy with the point. The fact that we are one step closer to survival. Every little bit helps and I'm glad that at least we came out with that much. But of course we all desire that Down build and improve, no one is thinks that the level last week is what we are aiming for. So, no, we are not happy with the performance or the result, everyone (most importantly the players) wants more. But in light of a poor second half performance, yes, we are grateful for a point.

Thanks for posting this. If you ever come across the information on venues I would appreciate you letting us know.

[Won 2 Sigersons]

James McCartan being left out is a joke - All-Ireland champion at School, won every age level Ulster title a school, Won 2 Sigersons, Minor all-Ireland champion (Man of match), 2 all-Ireland senior county championships and 2 time all star. he was  a football genius who single handedly took teams apart.

I also can not for the life of me understand the exclusion of Tohill

I agree about the value €13 for a match is fantastic. I don't want to hear about other sports being professional and so you expect to pay more. These lads are athletes, they give 100% and train every day. Just because they have other jobs doesn't mean their performance is less worth watching or less entertaining than rugby or soccer. And you don't get to top class rugby or soccer for €13.

I have a season ticket and I intend to go to every match except one that's 7 matches (including the first championship game) for €75 or €11 per match. Simply great value fro what was really top class GAA.

The Marty Clarke column has been taken out of context. How many people read the original text?

The article was about being tired and frustrated at the end of a disappointing result. Asked do you miss Australia, Clarke was saying that at that moment he did, but by the time he'd calmed down and was back in Newry he didn't. Overall it was a positive article about actually deeply wanting to be here playing for Down. He was saying that despite all these things that someone could obviously say in support of him being in Oz he was in the end happy to be here. The comment that he wished he was over there is intended to show immediate frustration and how immediate frustration eventually fades. The final line is that when a boy in Newry asked the same question his answer was now "No I don't".

As for questioning his commitment. Anyone who saw him running the length of the pitch to tackle then racing back up to start an immediate attack in the McKenna cup, let alone the league would have no reason to question his commitment.

Lets not be too hard on Marty based on potentially out-of-context comments.

Mchale park does appear to have been a very poor surface and a county ground should be better than that. Marty was tired and frustrated at the result.

As regards the tackle issue, there was one tackle in particular that ended in a Mayo point scoring free that was perfect. There was nothing wrong with it. Marty came in from the side and hooked the ball free with one hand. The ref was far behind play and awarded a free - FOR WHAT!!!. Marty was very upset about it. He is probably just expressing as we all do that we no longer really know what a "Tackle" is in Gaelic football. It seems as if refs make it up as they go along, in Aussie rules the tackle is very well defined, as for that matter it is in soccer, NFL and rugby. Aren't we all frustrated at refs blowing up defenders who seem to be doing nothing more than blocking a lad fairly, or at the other end seeing a guy hacking the ribs of our forwards only to be allowed to carry on?

The comment about the crowd size was inadvisable but Marty is a humble decent lad and would not have meant to offend anyone. He is not a big headed glory hunter. To be fair to the comment, the lads on the pitch gave 100% in this game and the All Ireland final - no difference. So why do 82,000 turn up for All-Ireland but only 6,000 for this game? So to be fair he is kinda right. No way would he denigrate the fans that travelled to support, but where are all those others that were greedily snapping for tickets last September? And to think only around 5,000 Mayo supporters turned up is an insult to their team.

I don't agree WhiteGoodman, King or Colgan are easily fast enough to cover a guy over a limited space. Full forwards have less room to move in than half forwards. If your really worried about your full back being drawn out then you play the zonal system where the full back only follows so far and then hangs back to defend his area.  The forward then runs into congestion. Down used this system exactly in the 2005 all-ireland minor final with Garvey as full back. It totally stopped Mayo getting anywhere near shooting within 25 yards of goal area.

But in General how far does a full forward sprint? 10-15 yards or so from the edge of the square? A half forward may be moving 20-30 yards in a run (Marty runs up to 50 at a time). So just cause you can't track a man at HB doesn't mean you can't track one at FB. King has no problem tracking people in midfield.

Midfield, Full Forward and Full back are interchangeable positions and many many top teams have moved players around these positions. Connor Deegan won two All-Irelands in both positions. But I would also be happy with Rooney tried in there.

Marty told his Kingdom team mates last year that he would spend this season in Ireland and then return to Australia. it will be a massive loss to our team but we have to accept it. I guess it would take something pretty special for him to remain beyond that. But have a very special group of players here and we have to belive they can win even when Marty has gone. I just hope his professional approach to the game will serve as a foundation for the team to continue to improve even when he goes

We need to remember Down are a team that has just come up from Division 2. Mayo are a well established Division 1 team. We should be expecting Down to be playing Divsion 2 standard football and developing into a better team not expecting them to be going away from home and beating an established Division 1 side. I think it shows just how special this team is that they have raised our expectations so much. The quality of Down is fantastic in patches and they just need to learn to sustain it for longer periods. But getting an away point in Mayo was a superb result. Sure we finished poor but we had played some fanatsic stuff beforehand. Like many experienced people have said, it's only February and evey game is another learing stage. Lets praise the lads for how far they have come

redandblackareback, I totally agree with you. I've been standing in the muck in rain sodden fields watching us play in the lower divisions and playing like we belonged there for years. It is an amazing treat to be back in the big time. We are lucky to be experiencing this sudden change in fortune for our county. many recent converts don't understand where we've come from. We have a young team still trying to establish themselves as one of the top contenders, we should be happy if we can just retain our place in Division 1. But you cannot help but see the enormous potential and the simple fact that we have a team that right now is in fact good enough to put it up to anyone in the country. And for all the praise they deserve, there is no doubt that midfield is and has been a problem. Yes it is great to be here but you can't just accept that as being enough, the boys want to push for more and rightly so. But Yes, I'll be happy just to avoid relegation, that will certainly be good progress.

Any team could get relegated at this stage. But after watching the games at the weekend I have to say that Galway look in serious trouble so that leaves only one relegation spot to fear. Basically I see it as a race to 5 points. Down got a good away point against Mayo and now play Galway at home. We would hope that we will win that and have confidence going in against Armagh. The first three results will be critical for all teams I can't see the relegate teams getting more than 4 points so 5 points should be the survival aim. But any team could beat any other.