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Think the bridge need to win one more game to seal automatic relegation for the Kingdom Goldenyears

Two absolute idiotic comments imagine, to suggest someone would fair better in Ulster than Mayobridge is absurd, they walked the Down c/ship this year and only had to play for 15minutes in a game to see a team off, its probably this lack of stiff competition that is the downfall of the bridge when it comes to Ulster!!! Yes it gets a bit monotonous when the bridge are winning year in year out but they are the best and its the rest of the clubs in the county's goal to try and reach their standard. Are St Galls a disgrace to Antrim football having only won 1 Ulster with the number of times they've been in the Ulster c/ship recently??...as Wobbler says it can all come down to a bounce of the ball and the bridge were very unlucky in the 2001 final not to win against the eventual all-ireland champions. Mayobridge pushed St Galls to with in a point yesterday even with and awful day at midfield and breaking ball!!! maybe they're just that bit lacking in some sectors but them boys still bust a gut yesterday and should be proud of their performance in the second half all the same!!! If thats the sort of comments u have u'd be safer to just keep them to yourself

Thought Benny's statement was more or less that he wouldn't be back given the state of the international rules series at that time and the kicking/beating matches on the field!!! u couldn't blame him for sayin he was finished with it either (the game was descending into somethin more like Bare knuckle Boxing), its gonna be a make or break year for the the whole series, if there is the same level of violence even with this new structure it's gonna be difficult to argue for its continuation....tho i hope this isn't the case for it provides boys with a rare opportunity to represent their country!! (plus the streakers are a rare spectacle )

O'Neills would get my vote hands down, was never that fussed with any off the Gaelic Gear stuff, it never seemed to fit right. O'Neill's have a firm hold over the whole business but they still produce high quality gear, have been impressed with some of the newer stuff they have produced for both club and county although it does tend to be a bit pricey, i wouldn't like to be kitting out 3/4 children

to be honest at the end of the day the standard of football in Down is poor. Mayobridge won the c/ship this year and basically played none in any of their 4 matches except for 10/15 minute spells of good football after half time in 3 of their matches which meant they had the game wrapped up without having to exert much effort. The Down c/ship isn't going to prepare the bridge for the hard hitting, fast paced games they will encounter in ulster and to some degree this has been their downfall. i think they have the potential to give Ulster a crack but st. Galls is a hell of a step up from anything they faced in down, a win against a team like st. Galls who are arguably in the top 3 in ulster would inspire some confidence and maybe bring them back to the form they showed in 2001/2004. it's going to be very difficult for them but i wish them all the best in Ulster!!
Also after a dreadful week, congratulations to St.Johns on winning the Junior c/ship, you could sense at full-time just how much this meant to them and i wish them all the best in Ulster and on a speedy repair of their club rooms

SFC Final
Mayobridge v Loughinisland; Mayobridge

IFC Final
Annaclone v Darragh Cross; Darragh cross

JFC Final
St John's v Bright; St John's

PRFC Football final
Mayobridge v Burren; Burren

RFC Final
Rostrevor v Castlewellan; Castlewellan

MFC Final
Bryansford v Mayobridge; Mayobridge

MFC (B) Final
Ardglass v Longstone; Longstone

islandchampions08 How is your Half-back Turley, did he break his Collar bone in the semi? Will he be fit to play any part in the final??

Point taken Super dupe, my comment may have been a bit over zealous. i suppose what i should have said is that Rostrevor have difficulty developing their under age talent into senior players. yes they had 7 players on the minor team in 2005, yet they only had 1 as far as i know on the u-21 panel this year which is a shocking turn around. on the same token Mayobridge had 5 players on the minor team of 05 and 5 again on the u-21 panel of 2008, all of whom played some part in the u-21's run to the all-ireland semi-final.
Colm Murney didn't even start that minor final in 04 as far as i can recall yet he has come on leaps and bounds since whereas other players have fallen by the wayside.

Tyrone are gunning for it on Sunday, but when is the last time the Senior and Minor double was done in Down???
Mayobridge are attempting it this year and also had a go at it 2004 but came up against a very good Rostrevor minor team (would have to agree with T O Hare though, the bridge still have a number of that '04 minor team with at least 5 being important figures in the c/ship over the last 3 years whereas were have all those boys from that great minor team gone for Rostrevor??)
Did Mayobridge do the double in 1999???

I don't know if there has been a conclusion to the curiosity about the possibility of a change of jersey's for the senior final though my guess would be that both teams will be able to play in their normal kit without any need for a change. There was no need for a change of jerseys last year when Mayobridge played Dromore in the Ulster c/ship so I'd presume the down co. board will take the same line as the Ulster council and allow both teams to play in their normal colours!!

islandboy- im not a Burren fan, i was merely noting as a neutral that Burren were very poor compared to the performance they displayed against Kilcoo, in actual fact i was glad to see yourselves win, it'll bring a bit of hype to the final as loughinisland havn't been there in 19yrs.

Was very disappointed with the Burren performance at the marshes last nite, they only played football for about 15minutes in the first half when they hit 5 good points in a row to draw level before conceding a third terrible goal. it was a totally different performance from the one against Kilcoo in the replay. Eoin McCartan was nowhere to be seen and McGovern hit some bad wides from free kicks. Big 'magic' caused awful problems for the Burren defence, Dan McCartan never got to grips with him at all, was surprised to see loughinisland take him off though i assume he was suffering from cramp or some other injury niggle.
My man of the match though has to go to Alan Molloy without a shadow of a doubt, he was excellent for the blues all nite and swept up an awful lot of ball in the loughinisland defence and moved it forward effectively and also kept McKernan very quiet. Big Dan had a bit of a shocker, i think he gave away almost every ball he received in the 1st 20min and was blown-up for drop kicking a free. He performed a bit better in the 2nd half and caught a couple of good kick-outs.
Loughinisland's victory could be awarded more so to the very good performance of their defence as their forwards never looked threatening (except under the high ball) and quite often played very deep resulting in loughinisland having no one to hit when moving the ball out of defence. 4 points in a c/ship semifinal is a very poor return.
Loughinisland have to potential to cause Mayobridge a few scares and i hope they make a game of it in the final but i think the bridge have to much quality for the result to be in any serious doubt. Mayobridge's midfield is a weak link on paper but their defence won't gift the same slack goal opportunities as Burren did last nite and they definitely have the forwards to grab a few goals themselves if need be. At the minute i still don't think their is any real threat to Mayobridge in the Down c/ship, if there were i think it would prepare them better for the Ulster title which they long to achieve!!!

Darragh Cross v Kilclief; Darragh Cross was very impressed with these boys in their 1/4 final victory over a Shamrocks side full of county players , they seem have a few dangerous forwards and have a high work-rate. the introduction of the young lad Mageean back from America will help them if he can stay injury free

Eh Dulaney whats with the smile face in relation to Mageean and being injury free? If its Padraig you are referring to then someone suffering a cruciate injurys far from a laughing matter!

Sorry Whitehair, was more of a private joke, didn't mean to cause any offence, i know Padraig and i know the long list of injuries he's had. it'd be good to see him stay injury free for they've good chance for c/ship

[Mayobridge]

Any chance fordsupporter you're on the Bryansford minor team??
I watched the bridge minors come through 2 hard games against Kilcoo, they have a right team with some talented footballers who will be pushing onto the seniors in a year or two (Ryan Brady already is), those close encounters might stand to them if the final is a tight affair (which on previous history it should be). How has the fords run to final been like, i know they didn't get it to handy in their semifinal win over Bredagh!!
I'd say it will be a close and hard fought final, both teams have talented men up the middle, it might come down to how the less notable boys react to the big day!! i think the bridge might shade it by 1/2 points in the final simply due to their determination which they showed against Kilcoo and maybe the revenge factor from the u-16 final 2 years ago!!

Senior Championship Predictions:
Saval v Mayobridge; (Mayobridge by a bag full, i don't mean to be disrespectful to saval but Ballyholland and Liatroim could been seen as an easy pathway to the semi's and i dint think their defence will be able to cope with the mayobridge attack. Danny Hughes won't get as much freedom from Gavin Barry as he has enjoyed or any of their other forwards for that matter, the entire mayobridge defence was impressive against Bryansford.

Loughinisland v Burren (Burren to come through after a bit of a scare, previous to watching Burren's annihilation of Kilcoo i would have been uncertain which way this would go but Burren seem to be peaking at the right time and McGovern, McCartan and co. should see the game out. However if Loughinisland are wary of short kick-outs (I'm sure burren will have some method to take big Dan out) and pressurise Mckernan on the ball for he is the main person who carries the ball out of defence and delivers it into the forwards, then likes of the 2 O'Reilly's definitely can cause trouble for the Burren defence

Intermediate Championship:
Annaclone v Glasdrumman: Annaclone should win this one, they finished well against Drumgath and on paper are favourites for this intermediate c/ship, although they should have had Drumgath beaten well before the final whistle but let them back into it. they mightn't as lucky if they give Glasdrumman that opportunity!!

Darragh Cross v Kilclief; Darragh Cross was very impressed with these boys in their 1/4 final victory over a Shamrocks side full of county players , they seem have a few dangerous forwards and have a high work-rate. the introduction of the young lad Mageean back from America will help them if he can stay injury free

Junior Championship: can't say i know alot about any of the the teams but I'd go for
St Pauls v St Johns; St Pauls
Aghaderg v Bright ; Aghaderg

Amallon any word on how the minor replay went tonight???