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Have u been at any of the matches thus far??

Have y heard what james has said about Liam Doyle

I would say it is highly unlikely that McPolin or Doyle will start

Thought down were decent ( no better than that) in the first half and abject in the second.

Lavery and Murtagh won every ball in the first half with Lavery particular impressive and then they get taken off in the second half when they were starved of posession.  Marty Clarke is an unbelievable player but he isnt that good that he doesnt have to follow his man up the field.  They seemed to be coming in 3's and 4's in the second half.  Carr wasnt as near impressive as last saturday.  Hughes very good in first half but quiet in second, maginn flatters to deceive again.

Could badly do with garvey, rooney and rafferty back for 2 wks saturday as we do not seem to have any backup.  Has anybody any updates on any of their injuries.

Thought young Devlin had a decent game has the ability for sure and will be a good addition when he develops physically. Some positives for Down but none in defense. What was the idea with McPolin at corner back? That wont work, as for Lavery I think its time to go back to the drawing board and plan without him. Re Billy Joe if he get rid of the mullet he should lose at least half a stone.

lol noticed the mullet on billy joe myself, i wonder does he have insurance for that!!!

u r a clown

POR has done more for down football than u could ever dream of doing.  Because he celebrated a winning score he cant call himself a down man again?!?  Perhaps he is a man under pressure this year, perhaps he thinks a good positive start to the year is essential for how the rest of the year is going to go.  It was apparant that Armagh were looking at this game in a more serious light than down, hence his celebration at the end.  He has a job to do with Armagh, let him get on with it and anything he does with them shouldnt detract from what he did for down.

Basically agree with all of that.  None of the fringe players did themselves any favours to make the panel, could have played their way out of panel if anything.

Carr and Poland could have a great battle for the 11 jersey.  Clarke was absolutley hopeless in the first 20, as bad as i ever seen him, improved thereafter to have a big influence.

last years back 6 have nothing to worry about going by 2night but its early days

Positives from 2nite, carr and murtagh put their hand up for places, murdock did alright in nets, fitzpatrick was alright, bennys finishing was superb although if they are going to play him wing forward he is going to have to learn to follow his man( Armagh 2nd goal ), still unbelievable finishing for the 2nd goal and he is some threat under the high ball.

Negatives from 2nite, defence was worse than hopeless, kevin mckernan corner bacl WTF, is paul mcpolin not a corner forward.  Could aidan brannigan not have taken one of these 2 positions?  Subs added very little, lavery particular frustrating.

Ahh its only a glorifed challenge match, il try not to get too worked up about it even though it was those orange c**ts lol

both teams werent anywere near there first 15 so wouldnt judge the game too much, it was more like an under 16 match at times, u have the ball and try and score and then we will have the ball and try and score.

As the scoreline suggests both defences were destroyed, rony murtagh and Aidan Carr destroyed McKenna and Toner and every armagh forward destroyed every down defender with michael o rourke particularly impressive.  Brian Mallon had an impressive first half too.

Massive crowd for a mckenna cup match but £9 in is a disgrace.

I think thon boy should be taken as a WUM and should be largely ignored.

A couple of questions for bridge posters on here.

Firstly is Francie going to bring a coach or is he going to do it himself.  I always seen him as more of a motivator/selector rather than a coach looking from the outside.  ( could be completley wrong on that one )

Secondly every time i watched the bridge last year i was wondering why one of the best defenders Down have got and arguable ur best defender was playing wing half forward.  Now im in no position to tell Eamon McEnaney how to manage but it just made no sense to me why Conor Garvey was not the spine of ur defence marking the best forward on the oppositing team.  I no he was injured in the championship but he came back and played at wing forward in the league final.
If he is good enough for James to put on Sean Cavanagh then surely he is good enough to put on downs best individuals.

Was it because kilcoo minors were in ulster this last 2 years that they didnt enter.  Out of interest how many of the minor team from this year would get on ur under 20 team?

Would bridge and Kilcoo have been rated as the 2 top minor teams for this current under 20 age group?

Cant for the life of me understand why the ulster minor couldnt be completed at this stage, any particular reason for this?

That is quite an impressive record for burren at that level alright, alot of credit must go to sean ward for that as he seen them through them all as far as i no, a bit of an edjet on the field but has the midest touch on the line by all accounts.

Next years championship should be very interesting indeed.  Burrens winning there first title with this team will give them a massive amount of confidence and dawson will keep their feet on the ground.

Bridge will be massively up for getting the title back for the first time in 3 years and francie will want to show the county who is still top dog.  Will be interesting to see if they still have it in them to go to the next level.  Important players such as woods arent getting any younger but on his day coulter can beat teams on his own.

kilcoo will be wanting to show that they arent one hit wonders and will be sure to have any hunger that they lost from winning their first title back with a bang.  Remains to be seen if they have enough quality to give bridge and burren enough trouble.

Byrnsford will feel very unfortunate not to be the county champions and looked like they could win the final for long stages only for some strange decisions along the line.  Some very tidy players and along with kilcoo will push burren and bridge all the way.

Add to that the likes of clonduff, kingdom, stone and rostrever could beat any teams on their day...............interesting year ahead!!!!

Eamon Toner was my MOM in county final so if that is who he was marking then he certainly was given the runaround!!!!

With 5 defenders out im not sure the management have much choice other than to experiment.  Other than aidan brannigan who is fit and available to go into that defence tonight that was around last year.  Not sure if McKernan was registered for Mckenna cup as he was to be given a rest after a long season last year.

Having been at uni myself I wouldnt have much faith in being on a freshers team meaning much in terms of ability. Boys in their first year down in belfast tend to turn up for the gear and then make an odd showing at training as a social outing rather than a serious football competition as they have other committments such as the union, the bot or the hatfield.  University football only gets serious at sigerson level IMO.

I dont remember him in the county final, was he corner back??

Also dont remember Magee getting much game time in the league under Ross, u sure about that one.

With no disrespect to James Colgen, IMO last year showed he simply doesnt have the pace for county football, lovely footballer with a lovely pass but pace in the modern game is essential.

Aidan Carr also has alot to do, i thought he did better as a wing back under his da but james seems to see him as a forward.  As a playmaker he will have his work cut to get in ahead of poland and clarke and dont seem him as a working wing forward ala danny hughes

yes have heard of that one myself, i wouldnt be that fussy when it comes to that type of bar so that will do me.

Does the gate still be the place to go to for bars and clubs and what about down by the quayside.  its been a while since i have been so cant really remember.  Staying in jurys which i always remember as being good craic in the residents bar

what clubs are bonny and duggan play for??  I take it they are from the lower divisions.

Has anyone seen them stand out in their respective divisions as i have never heard of them but am willing to give them a chance as james and the boys must have seen something in them or else they wouldnt be wasting their or james time!!

agree on the later ones u mentioned, if any of them are to dislodge any of last years defence then they need to make a quick and impressive start to the year.  Good chance especially for mccardle to stake a claim for the problem position.  Interesting to see if he has matured and strengthened since the last time he played for the county under ross.

IMO there are maybe only 4/5 max positions up for grabs in the championship team, corner back, full back, poss wing back, full forward and that is being extremely harsh on any of the above who played a major part in the magnificant run last year.

was thinking there not too many irish bars about myself.  that irish centre isnt much to write home about either.

Guess its gonna have to be the ti**ybar instead then, devastated