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Clubs got official notification last night. Apparently a few clubs were giving out about the starred games even though it was in the fixture list from the start. So they have pulled games this Friday and starred next Friday's games as county are playing a challenge game.

Not too many chances of rubbing shoulders against county players in Kilmacud anymore. This competition is dying a death over the past number of years. Down are actually the biggest contributer of teams to it although that changed last year with the 'if you don't play in county 7s you don't play in kilmacud rule'. It was always a great GAA day where you met up with old college mates or former all Ireland players, enjoyed the football and off course the socialising. The gaa calendar has definitely affected it with a lot of club teams still playing championship at that time of year. As regards the Down 7s I think they are dead at the minute which is unfortunate and they will be difficult to revive as there doesn't seem to be an appetite for them. If they could get a sponsor like O'Neills maybe they could have incentive's for the winners like sets of jerseys for club or something although it is maybe not a good road to start going down either. Its a pity as 7s football was always a good days craic when you had the big teams playing in them.

The scoreline yesterday probably was a fair reflection on the game. Down went in at HT 3 points down and that in itself didn't do justice to Roscommon. Down did play a very defensive game especially in the first half and on many occasions only had one player over the half way line. They did limit Roscommon to long range efforts which mostly went wide in the first half and were just not able to break quick enough on the counter attack when they did overturn possession. On at least 4 occasions we had chances for scores in the first half and we couldn't kick the ball 25 yards over the bar which is just not good enough at this level. In the second half Roscommon stretched Down a lot more and were able to get in for scores that little bit easier. Down did hit the crossbar in the middle of the half but after that didn't go in the heads did seem to drop and Roscommon ran out easy winners in the end. It was a better performance from last week, Turley worked hard, Barry O Hagan showed well at times, Ryan Mallon made a few telling runs and the full back line were a lot tighter than last week. We know we are going down but we can definitely work on improving at least a few things in our play and whilst it wont save us it may give us more scores on the board then the poor return we got at the weekend. We need a more reliable free taker, Harrison misses too many scoreable frees. Paul Devlin got some good points when introduced simply because he was prepared to shoot which we don't do often enough. As things are at the minute anything less than a 10 point defeat by Dublin would be a big improvement.

I think a bit of realism is what is needed here. Down were never going to beat Kerry and anyone who thought they had a chance are deluded. We can argue til the cows come home about defensive systems and yes they would help curtail scores to a degree but for me the biggest problem is our attacking system. Fair play to Eamon, he is at least trying to get faster, longer ball into our full forward line but the reality is that we do not have forwards that are the standard required for division one. Who are our go to men in the forward line, who are our prolific scorers? We don't have any. A previous poster spoke about times when other Ulster counties won All - Irelands, look at the forward lines they had. Look at our own forwards in the early 90's, even the forwards we had in 2010. We just simply don't have enough of that quality at our disposal. Its not Eamon Burn's fault, he can only work with what he has. And I am not trying to put players down, I am simply being realistic in terms of the level they are at compared to other teams. In the past when we were light up front we would have had Benny Coulter for example, we don't have any real stars available anymore. Look at our club football, its no different. Armagh are in the same predicament only at least they are in Div 2. Unfortunately we will be relegated and I say unfortunately as I am a proud Down man and hate to see our teams in that position. We will not win anything championship wise this year either. But that doesn't mean we just give up. As supporters we must get behind our team, difficult at times as it may be. There will be the odd great Down win when we will all get our hopes up but until we get a new bunch of top class players together at the one time then the few is all we can hope for.

I might have missed this but is there a date out there yet for the start of the Down leagues this year?

Supersub wind your neck in, I personally abused no one or can you not read!!! I made two distinct points, one regarding blood testing players and the other regarding a seven year appointment of our county secretary in which I questioned a performance review or the lack of. Before you jump on the bandwagon of tagging every comment people make as personal abuse take a bit of time and read what is in front of you.

So coaches now are going to have to inform kids that if you want to play this sport at a high level make sure you are prepared to give blood tests whenever demanded. Thank god I no longer play. In my opinion this is just a step too far. We can all talk about the great facilities, administrators, county and club boards, managers etc etc that the GAA has but without players there would be no GAA. Now according to our county secretary they are being told if you want to play for Down that you must put your life on hold, oh and by the way we are going to blood test you as well just to make sure your not cheating when your doing your six or seven times a week sessions before or after your days work. This has got out of control. So our county secretary has received a 7 year employment contract from croke park, does there be any reviews on his or any other county secretary's job performance or is it once your in your in? By the way I'm not saying they don't have a hard job or don't work hard or that the blood testing is anything to do with them, I'm merely venting that it always seems to be players that get s**t upon when it comes to crossing t's and dotting i's in our sport. A lot of things I just shrug my shoulders at but this to me is definitely a step too far.

Management Appointments

Rostrevor - Shane Mulholland
Saval - Gareth Thornton
Longstone - Keith Kelly
Mayobridge - Frank Dawson
Castlewellan - Shorty had added Mark Doran to his set up
Burren - Sean Ward has added Mark Copeland to his set up
Banbridge - Gary Farrell

That's what I have been told by a club person from the Town

It appears Shorty Treanor has walked from the Castlewellan job, player power at work again??

According to Q Radio yesterday Benny Corrigan is in with St Johns and Ross Carr is in with Clonduff

Can someone please explain what benefit these proposed changes are going to make to all stakeholders ie. players, clubs, county teams?

I'll throw in my 2ps worth, might only be worth 1p when you read it, regarding who I would select as managers for vacant positions. Worth pointing out that this are on the assumption that we are building for the future, putting emphasis on youth and at least holding our own at U21 and senior.

Minor - Liam Hardy - have seen how he is with players, his coaching is great and he along with a good backroom team would be a great man to encourage young players to progress in the county jersey.

U21 - Connor Deegan - looks like he wants to get involved though for me he knows no one at club level in Down. He has worked with a lot of teams in Dublin and I think this could be a good introduction to management in Down.

Senior - the poison chalice - we need someone who is willing to work under enormous constraints and I don't know if anyone would accept what we actually need. For me I think that the likes of a joint effort, where the workload could be shared would be the best approach and people like Cathal Murray, Barney Mc Aleenan, Brendan Mason, Paul Higgins, Shorty Treanor etc. might just work. These guys have all coached and played at a very high level. They hopefully would all be about the £££'s and if they can maintain Down at or around Div 1 or top Div 2 for a few years then great.

I no people will completely disagree with this but hey, I have names out there now. 

Two decent games last night. In the first match Martin Clarke probably the difference between the two teams, man does he have a sweet left foot. Kingdom took their goal chances and St Johns didn't. It was a competitive hard hitting championship match.
The senior match was more tactical and if Rostrevor were able to convert their chances maybe they would be in the semi. That being said when Ballyholland got in front they were very hard to get past and left the Rostrevor lads snatching at chances. Should be interesting semi finals in both championships.

Wobbler I don't think anyone is really asking you to boot him to the ground. The chat was regarding his own ambitions as a county manager which he gave in an interview. I also don't believe that anyone can argue about his ability as a coach. It was simply being pointed out that, in peoples opinions, his antics along the line would certainly not be to the standard of that required of county management at any level and there is no point in him blaming the county board for his non selection of county management posts.
Generally I think you talk a lot of sense in your posts and for me this is not a keyboard warrior assault. Let me ask you this, knowing him as you obviously do, would you like to see him warts and all as our county manager?