Messages

 Teachers are not what they use to be.

Down better going with 30 players who want to play for Down and not disappear to America, Australia or drop if the panel. Derry went through 107 players in less than 10yrs, it was a joke. Down beat Derry in Newry 2yrs ago. Gallagher got rid of maybe 8/10 players I have thought good enough to start / on the panel. Due to either attitude or couldn't commit. Down gonna go the same way. Derry keep Slaughtneil on board to backbone the team, Kilcoo seem to they too good for the county team.

Down are in a potentially strong position . Worst case scenario is they go to div 4.  Conor Laverty and his set up will look after emerging talent at u20. New coaching development pathway could be Dublinesque with GPO support in every club . Kilcoo's all-ireland success will hopefully convert to county spin-off over next couple of years( this usually happens with successful club teams). Ballykinlar due to start .
Importantly we will hopefully benefit from lowered expectations , allowing us to focus on development with mature realism . We are nowhere near a top football county for a variety of reasons. We are close to rock bottom . Let's get organised, get real and we have enough opportunities as listed above to be able to weed out those without the attitude required for the top. What have we got to lose anymore?
If players either can't or won't commit , move on with those that will ( no resentment towards those that can't/won't commit). There is no current Down player that is indispensable , and apart from Kilcoo , few are winners at present . Let's get behind a medium to long term plan, and sacrifice short term
Success to focus on getting our ethos right .

Let's get behind Conor & Karl in the revolution.On the subject of ethos- Conor is managing who this season for free?🤪

I think James is weeding out the bluffers, for Down to improve they need to create a culture of pride and not egos. A few lads think they are too good even though they have failed to perform. When you have a fall out with every manager you play for then you have to evaluate whether they are you are the root cause of the problem.

James hasn't weeded out the bluffers.Some players have walked out on him.Other than a few lightweights who were removed from the extended panel ongoing it's as you were.James should
have walked about three weeks ago when the discipline broke down.He showed weakness by coming
back.He has certainly gone down in a lot of people's estimation in his handling of the affairs. When he came back he should shown the road to the rule breakers.

It is also very clear that there is minority that doent want lavery to get the job.

The job is currently not available.

Waiting in the long grass? Claiming the credit?Who has done that?
We've been a disaster at Minor level for years.No credit to be claimed anywhere.

He is a Burren man now who has never managed a team prior to this.A Yes man to the CB.Why was he appointed?

Minors in knockout action against Monaghan today.

Best of luck to them.

Would be nice to see a good performance & something positive.

Down 0-12 Monaghan 5-13. Another hammering, Down football really is at an all time low, shocking stuff.

Predicted  all of this for 2021 and 2022.Cunningham completely out of his depth as a Manager.
Wondering did he attend QUB? Probably not but part of the Burren Mafia.Should have never been appointed.More depressive as the weeks go on.

 Let's enjoy the Club matches and forget about the County set-up for a few weeks.

Personally I'm enjoying the wee bit of clarity coming from O'Hagan and Brannigan.

It's a much better starting point than rumours or platitudes

Some of the sniping above on Eugene Brannigan is all sorts of bizarre. He was absolutely outstanding in an All Ireland winning season and boys are queuing up to put him down. I don't get that.

There's a dozen lads have been involved extensively with Down the past 5 years who've got nowhere near that level of performance. Nowhere near.

Enjoying? Care to name the dozen?

 "Those darn pests" from Kilcoo.

Has anyone a list of refs and what clubs they are from. Are there many clubs not contributing?

That's a bit of a loaded question.What's the issue?

Any official word (results) of the two games last week that were or were not abandoned?

Can't see why An Riocht can't be awarded the win in their game

I heard about this one and by all accounts, Darragh pulled a stroke and the Kingdom are appealing the decision. Are we going down that route of feigning serious injuries to get games abandoned? We need to cop on.

Was there not a DC player badly injured which led to game being called off?

Was only 'seriously' injured for 35 minutes when the Darragh Cross doctor told him he was allowed to get up. Police had already arrived and they tried to call off the ambulance. He wasn't injured enough to get off the field. Only was hurt when DJ told him to get back onto the pitch and lie down again

Police?

Any official word (results) of the two games last week that were or were not abandoned?

Can't see why An Riocht can't be awarded the win in their game

I agree with you but not our decision.

Any official word (results) of the two games last week that were or were not abandoned?

Some bad press for us over the last week and I hope everyone can knuckle down now and concentrate on Monaghan. If the players have anything in them then they should be chomping at the bit to get going. I have just listened to John Fegans South Down football podcast for this week and there were some good points from Sean O'Hare about people blaming others and he stated that the clubs got rid of McCorry and Tally. Pete jnr in a Burren top though 

Onto the club scene, there are some humdingers on offer tonight and I still am unsure where to go to. Where would be the best game to go to tonight?

Most people go to their own Club's fixtures during League and then go to various other games during the Championship.