Messages

Gross nievete from the County Board yet again. Who in God's name makes the decisions to do this sort of thing. Surely not everyone on the Board is willing to be led by some smug, self-inflated smartarse whose perception of his own abilities is light years from reality. CB members it would be worth your while looking up "groupthink as a psychological phenomenon", because that's the territory you now inhabit.

OK, it's clear that the current management will take us on an express train to division 3 (& then Div 4 if God forbid they stayed on) so the question arises as to whether the CB have the courage & leadership to stop this spiral of failure. I would say no because that would mean admitting they made a grievous mistake (something that seems to be beyond them) therefore the only catalyst for change will be the players. Hope they press their club chairman to pressurise the CB into action. We're at the stage that anything is better than what we have now.

If McCorry was still in charge, we would still have been relegated but probably not with zero points. I expect we would have been a relatively competitive division 2 team. By all accounts the quality of his analysis and preparation was on a level light years ahead of the current management's. McCorry did make mistakes, eg not playing Peter Turkey against Derry in the championship cost that game. The qualifier against Wexford was a disaster, but part of that was down to the fact that the travel and accommodation arrangements were a mess.

Is there any GAA follower left in the County now who doesn't realise that the management team appointed by the County board is completely and utterly out of its depth?

Apparently Mark Poland isn't in the squad that travelled to Ennis. Don't expect him to be starting then.

In my view, Down 's most competitive performance in the last year was when they put it up to  Mayo in Castlebar in a game the latter had to win. That should have been the bulk of the team that lined out against Fermanagh and should be the team that lines out today (possibly with Madine also in the mix).

Sadly Ogra, that has been the situation this year.

OGRA you are incorrect in your assumption that the team know the real line out well before the match under this management. They don't, at most they are told in less than 60 minutes before the start.

That's the team Burns has named. If Down line out this way,I predict a Clare win by +6. Four of the rookies from last week plus two new rookies, even though the management admitted last week that starting 6 rookies was a mistake. That is downright bizzare decision making. If it's not the team that will line out, that is also poor management - how are players meant to focus if they don't know whether they're playing an hour before the throw in?

A fair old hike in pay, if he was a Grade 7 Principal Information Officer in the Civil Service his top whack salary would have been £52k. Good luck to him.

More of an ill judged compliment - "You don't sweat much for a big woman".

Yes, makes a mockery of the league and tarnishes An Riocht's now very likely final position as league champions.

An Riocht will win it if Gavin Corrigan is refereeing the final.

One puppeteer used for pull the strings for Sooty and Sweep; looks like two county board puppeteers are pulling the strings for PaudieSull1.

Are any of those who created the Burrenbridge financial catastrophe still involved with the County Board?

I would have been very much in the NO camp re Pete as well as I remember the last 3/4 years of his reign too as being disasters.  However, we cannot fail to look at what Pete has done since then.  Lets say he started managing in 2005 for example and had no record with Down prior to that.

He took Down to consecutive Ulster under 21 titles and an All Ireland final that was oh so close.  We havent got anywhere near competing at that level since he left it.  He managed An Riocht to a senior division one league title, Martin Clarke inspired admittedly, but still did it.  He took Bryansford perilously close to a championship which they threw away to Burren in Newry one night, and won an Ulster under 21 with them.  He has now taken Fermanagh to a level they havent been at in 10 years and is a level which at the least represents a positive return for the players and resources available. 
He appears to have adapted to the modern game this year as opposed to last year when he stuck to his old principles of simply playing football and which resulted in Antrim defeating Fermanagh in a high scoring game that would not have looked out of place in the last few years of his Down tenure.  This is probably his most impressive achievement since 2005 and illustrates a man willing to do what is best.

These points would indicate to me a credible candidate for the Down County job.

There are negatives, of course.  Pete has that Mourinho effect where he always seems to leave with some sort of discontent.  Nothing serious, just people generally being cranky, but I think that comes with Petes character.  He is a hard man to love if you get what I mean but without question, he can manage a team.  He has no club championships on his CV which I would say grates him but perhaps its the county environment that suits him best and perhaps he has shown with Fermanagh this year that he is willing to bring himself into the modern game in terms of team and player preparation.

I was at that U21 final, Pete lost it on the line by not counteracting (or probably failing to recognise the to counteract) a Cork substitution made about 15 minutes from the end.