Messages

I think Gerard McCartan has done enough to deserve a starting place, I think he would be our best option for picking up Jamie Clarke. It is good that we strength in depth in this position now though. If a corner back picks up an early booking or is getting a rough time of it, there is a replacement ready to come in.

You hit the nail on the head their joe, ive had to miss down games occassionally due to weddings, work etc. very rarely championship however. The game is on the sat evening, I wish people could just accept that and choose to watch whatever game is more important to them. I still expect a big crowd there, the fact its a derby game, 1st game in the new morgan athletic ground and a championship match it will mean much more to the majority of supporters from both counties that the utd v Barcelona game. Im not naive enough to suggest the cl final wont effect the size of the crowd but I think it is being exaggerated that the crowd could be down by 6 or 7 thousand.

Personally I have no problem with the game being on the Sat night, Im looking forward to it. If you want to go to the game, go to it. If you want to watch the united game then do that. Its just a matter of prioritising what means more to you. I would be surprised if there wasnt a big crowd at it I think supporters from both counties will be out in force.

On the game itself, the favourite tag that Down are carrying into this game does not sit easy with me, if ever there was a team to give us our comeuppance and bring us back down to earth it would be Armagh. On the other side of the coin im hoping its our watershed moment similar to Armagh in 99 when they hammerred us in Clones and went on to dominate ulster football along with tyrone. This Down team still hasnt won anything but heres hoping we correct that this summer.

As far as I know No 1, the push came from the county board itself, with Eddie Harney prompting things from this side, I could be totally wrong though. Most of the players knew little or nothing about it on sat night. On the whole people in Ardglass are positive enough about the whole idea and are willing to give it a good lash. What is the reception to it in kilclief? my gut feeling is it wouldnt be as well received with some of your more hardcore followers.

Couple of the players I spoke to were happy enough to go along with it but I wouldn't say they were exactly chomping at the bit to get at it.  Getting Kilclief back into Division 2 is what it's about for them. F**k knows what way training and managing will work?

Personally, I wouldn't agree with it. Sure how could you share a changing room with boys who stink of fish all the time?   

As for our hardcore, yiz have plenty of your own to be worrying about.  Is Ellie still barred from Arsehole Ardtole Memorial Park?   

I wouldnt have been 100% behind it myself no1. But can you tell me when is the last time a player from our region started a sfc game for Down(bar dpk) . I would love to see Ardglass compete at sfc on their  own but its not likely to happen in the near future. I saw at 1st hand how proud Kilclief men were when Ricky Kerr won his all ireland minor medal and similary Ardglass people were proud to see Mick Magee play in an all Ireland U21 final. But these are few and far isolated incidents.
Kilclief have to amalgamate with Bright at underage level and they still operate in the bottom east down divisions. Ardglass have  no u-16 team this year due to lack of numbers. So what does the future hold?.
I was as suprised as you to hear about the amalgamation this year, but if it helps the better players in our clubs get exposure to county football then I think we should support it. we both know there are players from both clubs who over the past 20 years  if they were playing at a higher level were capable of playing county football. It gives me no pleasure to say it but at present there is an apathy towards gaa games in east down and definitly in ardglass, and if this experiment raises the profile of football in our area I will support it. I am looking forward to watching Rosie and Stevie Deegans compete against the elite in Down and show the juveniles in our clubs that we have players they can look up to.
As for sharing the changing room with fishermen there have been quite a few underage players transferring from kilclief to ardglass in the last few years and none that I know of going the other way.

If Ardglass and Kilclief can amalgamate, believe me, carryduff and bredagh can amalgamate also. From what I hear there will potentially be a few more of these amalgamations proposed for next years championship. I can understand the dundrum posters arguement that the origional 16 teams have qualified for the sfc and lecale have not and I probably would have been of a similar opinion myself. I remember 2 years ago watching Ardglass v Ballymartin in the Ifc semi-final, and I stayed on to watch the Burren v Kilcoo game and to be honest the gulf in standard was enormous.
How the amalgamated team gets on is anyones guess, nobody expects them to win it but if they get their act together in the next week or so they would be well able to provide a shock or 2.

Ardtole, do you know who proposed this ASK team or where the idea originated?

As far as I know No 1, the push came from the county board itself, with Eddie Harney prompting things from this side, I could be totally wrong though. Most of the players knew little or nothing about it on sat night. On the whole people in Ardglass are positive enough about the whole idea and are willing to give it a good lash. What is the reception to it in kilclief? my gut feeling is it wouldnt be as well received with some of your more hardcore followers.

Regarding the amalgamation for this years sfc, apparently Bredagh and St. Pauls were willing to amalgamate with Carryduff but Carryduff voted against the proposal. Seemingly at the county board meeting it was the junior clubs in general that passed the ask lecale team and apparently we could see more of these amalgamated teams next year.

I dont think the ardglass boys will be fighting with their new teammates joe, if no1 is picking the team their will only be 2 of them playing.

Downfanatic, as a neutral looking on, and as someone who would have a good insight into all 3 teams, if they were to get their act together, train collectively for the next 3 months etc, how do you think they would get on. Mick Magee, Liam Mullan, Rosie Sloan, Ricky Kerr and possibly his cousin Neil Teggart if he was interested would be a very decent forward line.

I didnt hear of any ask amalgamation. If the county board were discussing it, id imagine it would be in relation to next season. It would probably take a year for people to get their heads round it ,I could picture Marty Bang Sharvin and Sherlock Brady from Kilclief on the phone to Hugo Duncan right now condemning such proposals in total outrage. I dont think it would sit to well with any of the Sharvins  or Dee King or anyone in Kilclief for that matter. Ive only ever heard one person associated with Kilclief suggest an amalgamation before and he is origionally from Belfast so he probably doesnt even get a vote down there.

Just the 2 Deegans hopefully. Chris Teggart and Barry Kearney have retired and maybe Neil Teggart as well. Philly Gill is in England working as is Chris Laird. Marty Curran and Marty McVickers are in Austrailia and Stephen Rooney is going out there soon. Stevie Smith got married recently and is living in co Leitrim. Chris Armstrong is home from college in England at the moment and Im not sure when he is due back. Aaron Beattie and Paul McCargo retired last year so if the 2 Deegans take a year break this year we will be down nearly a full team in a couple of years. Most of the players mentioned would be key players as well. Mick Magee is injured at the minute as well. Big Mark Smith had to pack it in as well due to injury and he was turning into an effective midfielder for us. That would be a big loss for a large club never mind a relatively small one.

I hear glasssdrumman have lost a good few players this year and mightnt be as strong this year as in previous years. Ardglass were beat by 6 points at home to bosco, we have lost an awful lot of players in last 2 years and are struggling this year,

Il go with

Div1  Burren
Div2  Castlewellan
Div3  Tullylish
Div4   Saul

what happened exactly?

I would say Glasdrumman, Atticall and Darragh Cross will challenge for the play-offs in div 3 this year as well. Do the top 3 or 4 make the play-offs this year.