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What teams that played/won their championships and played in league two of their counties?

Seems nowadays that clubs much prefer to hang back, or drop down to get a run at a provincial championship or all Ireland run

Needs to be looked at in Croke park, if a club wants to drop down and win their county championship in either intermediate or Junior they can't be playing div one football and then represent the county, it should be a div 2 team for intermediate and a div 3 or 4 for junior

You'd soon see a lot of teams cutting their cloth differently

Can't say I've ever heard a club or players say they want to go down to get a run at a championship in a lower grade. From my own experience lads hate getting relegated.

Me either, but I know that Cullyhanna used it as a kick up the hole to motivate themselves to today. By their own admission standards had dropped to the floor within the squad and they found themselves down. They got themselves organised and committed and look where it got them.

The Armagh grading system is about as equitable as you could get. It's based on performance over the course of a season and linked to League position. It's fair to say it probably hampered Cullyhanna having 3 county players which was a big part in their League form dipping. But there were other factors as well and they most certainly didn't manufacture a situation to get themselves relegated. They were there because they simply lost too many games but it was a perfect storm as they were always too good to be playing intermediate. However you only get one chance to make hay at the lower grades and they took it with both hands and that can't do Armagh football any harm.

Cullyhanna had a number of players who weren't available to them who started today.Mccooey, Donnelly, Murray and Connell would not have been playing whenever they were relegated.In addition to that 3 county men. If you put 7 players of that quality into any team they are going to improve it significantly. Would agree the system in Armagh is fair and the circumstances with cullyhanna was probably a one off.  The Armagh intermediate championship was been the most competitive championship in Armagh for as long as I can remember outside of this year.Before this year I can't remember an Armagh team actually winning a game in Ulster.

There was no relegation in Armagh over Covid. To remedy this three teams were relegated in 2022 from Senior to Intermediate league instead of 2, of which Cullyhanna were one.

They would have played almost all of the league without the county men and others listed above didn't play at all. I don't mind the keeper playing either. That's 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 from today's side.

Cullyhanna were beaten in an Armagh Senior final in 2016. 9 of those who played a part today started in that game. 

To be fair to Cullyhanna they submitted a proposal to change the relegation structure in Armagh to a play off style system where county commitments would be over and clubs would have a full deck to choose from (which almost certainly would have kept them in senior football if it had been in place in 2022). But they have made the most of it and fair play to them.

Too many missed chances early on might have made for a better second half for down. Surely better suited to Tailteann Cup than All Ireland series for development purposes.

Bug bear of mine by Eugene Brannigan wearing different shorts than the rest does my head in.

Where does Newry start and end? Nobody knows.

When anyone mentions Glenn as a Newry club then I'd wonder why not Saval and Mayobridge too?

When anyone mentions Saval as a Newry club then I'd wonder why not Glenn and Mayobridge too?

When someone says "Mayobridge isn't Newry". They're right in my mind. But then neither is Glenn or Saval either.

——

Anyways Lotto's point that Newry doesn't deliver is fair - even if blaming the county board for this situation is bizarre and bizarre again.

And it's an odd thing when you look at it.

We'd all love to believe that coaching and culture make the difference. But you still need raw athletic talent if you're talking about a county standard player, let alone a county stand out.

Can anyone name some raw athletic talents in the last 10 years that have emanated from Newry (and as wide as you can reach from Newry). ?

You won't be naming too many. That's all i know.

It's close to a statistical abomination at this point.

John McGovern

Lurgan and Newry are two similar size towns. Newry probably bigger and unlike Lurgan is probably 95% Catholic.  But where are the Gaelic footballers?
Yesterday Armagh had
Conor Turbitt
Tiernan Kelly
Barry McCambridge
Stefan Campbell &
Andrew Murnin.  All Lurgan Men.
Down have nobody from Newry and have been under represented in Newry for decades.  Surely this is a big failure by the Co Board.

How many gaa clubs are there in Newry?

Killeavy
Thomas Davis
Saval
Shamrocks
Ballyholland
Bosco
Mitchels
And maybe Burren taking in forest hills?

That's a serious amount of clubs. A lot of cities are like this - junior type clubs but should have a stronger senior representation.

As mentioned about Lurgan (including surrounding area) there is Clann Eireann, Clan na Gael, St Peter's and Sarsfields all playing senior football, St Paul's and Wolfe Tones at the upper end of Intermediate and then Eire Og. Also in the outskirts is Aghagallon playing at the top end of Antrim football and Magheralin who are very small.

Lurgan would face similar if not worse social depravation than newry, have a 50% potential GAA population and also a lot of soccer in the town but the GAA scene is flourishing. The clubs have been doing serious work to drive that. It is not anything to do with county boards. And for all that club coaches can be brilliant but if you haven't the raw materials to work with you'll go nowhere.

Very difficult to change cultures etc but the work has to start at the very bottom. 4 5 6 year olds. Get them playing and a ball in their hand. Ignite and interest and build proper coaching structures. Ulster GAA have done countless workshops on this but it needs people on the ground to drive it. Schools coaches can help a bit but unless their work is backed up by clubs coming in behind them it's a waste of time. All of that isn't even a 5 or 10 year development. It could take 20+ years to reap the real rewards.

Clann Eireann had a plan a long time ago called "Clann Eireann 2020" to win a senior. They eventually did it in 2021 which was built around several groups of brilliant minor teams including some of the players listed above. Other clubs in Lurgan have started getting themselves sorted in the same manner. It's not a short term fix but where there is a will....

12 training sessions with an under 17 team already seems like a-lot considering the school season was/is in full swing

We are an antrim club and we don't have any lads on the county and St. Ronan's are out of the McCrory cup already. We have 4 or maybe 5 playing some sort of school football. No one in the squad is being flogged! And our season is starting 4 weeks this Sunday.

An Antrim club commenting on a Down forum about an Armagh school. Not hard to guess your club JS.

Not a bad pitch they had, whatever came of it?

Armagh Ladies bought it and use it as their home

It is leased. Killean still own it and are trying to restart with underage coaching.
Could be sticky if they even get up and running properly but not sure if they will.

Ward had Gilligan by the throat at half time in the ulster final
Fair play to Gilligan for taken him off
Players can't be doing that
Gilligan and Thornton were on borrowed time when laverty and choc demanded Moran back
Mark Doran the front runner

We have been left to scramble now for a manager

Some boy Laverty from Tyrone now the front runner

Frank Laverty? Formerly Loughinisland goalkeeper coach?

Is Frank Lavery not an Antrim man from Aghagallon

Maybe not your lough, but he'd be close to Carlingford Lough.

A June birthday shouldn't be the year "above" so to speak. There shouldn't be a scenario currently where a school kid is a year older than his peers...

However I was first year at queens so was Cormac McAnallen and he was playing minor whenever there were upper sixths too old to play minor so there are exceptions to every rule...

My wife is August and her friend is June, they were in the same year in school, why I'm asking, and I know it was a few years ago (and then some) but if it still applies then you'll have a few kids that physically will be a year 'bigger'

I'm not sure if that was the reason for the dates falling in January that suited some but not others

Sure if it's a calendar year cut off you can have a 1st January kid playing a 31st December kid so same issue. Its swings and roundabouts really, works itself out in the end. Playing with school age is a better solution I think as it is easier to tie in to school competitions.

The difficulty is what happens across county borders and in the 26, as their school age is slightly different. County team age grades also a factor. Say you have u16.5 and u18.5 but county is u17, or even u18, there are lads across 2 club age brackets affected and games being put off or finding an acceptable training schedule while factoring in two nights of club football becomes a headache. The provincial underage comps could be tricky too if there are counties operating different grades.

I've seen counties that do primary school age groups at go games level and then change to year born for competitive ages.

I'd be worried if underage teams weren't doing some sort of stuff. What else would they be at in November and December?
Great to see so many clubs continuing to offer stuff for clubs whether it be gym basketball circuits it's great to see
Why would young players want a break?

Young players are now under pressure 12 months of the year to meet targets or complete specific training/gym sessions. Pressure that in most cases will have a negative impact on young people, as they have other pressures at that age with education or choosing a path for employment. Sport is supposed to offer a release. Expectations placed on young players by their clubs should be reasonable and balanced against whatever else is going on in their lives at that age. Many will be playing schools football, let them focus on that as it doesn't last long, any extra club training on top of that is no good for anyone.

There are some lads who don't play for their schools. And there are some schools you wouldn't want your young lad playing for. If clubs don't offer activity at this time of the year the alternative is sit in the house on the latest gadgets.

Very best of luck to the green machine today! Hopefully all fans can find amicable spaces to watch the match and the refereeing a much higher standard outside the county than in it.

[Antrim County committee voted to exclude 18 year olds from adult football]

Tweet from Joe Brolly.

Antrim County Committee just voted overwhelmingly (90%) to restore the under 18 grade. The main argument was the amount of players being lost to the games as a result of the u17 grade.

Does this mean it will go back to u16, 14, 12, 10 etc?

My understanding is , there will still be 13/15/17  for one year (2023) but Counties can adopt additional 12/14/16/18 competions through a county bye law endorsed by Croke Park . Any subsequent changes to even only years would be voted on at Congress in February and implemented in 2024.

Antrim County committee voted to exclude 18 year olds from adult football

Not true.

Antrim County Committee voted to change the age groups back to U12, U14, U16, U18

They voted for decoupling for the FIRST year of minor. A player in the second year of minor can play senior hurling IF this proposal is passed by Congress.

As a result Antrim County Board have been mandated by the clubs to vote for this option at Congress.

Cork, Kilkenny, Tyrone and now Antrim are in favour of changing to the original format.

However at Congress, the top table will not want to be left with egg on their face as it was them who proposed the age group change. As a result there may be a lot of horse trading with overseas votes where there is not any underage structures, with the exception of the US, Canada and Britain.

The present structure will remain in place for 2023. If Congress votes to change back to the original age groups that will be in place for 2024.

An Aghagallon man told me Armagh will also be voting the same way.

Going to head to Corrigan Park at the weekend to watch the Ulster Club game. Where is the best place to view the game? Is there areas segregated off for each group of fans?

I'm so glad that the Aghnagallon lads managed to play and not need medical attention after the playoff games seeing as player welfare was a big thing according to some. They looked brave and sharp on Friday night

I'm so glad the Antrim Senior football championship gets to remain within the county.

Relegation yes.i would say Aghagallon are in trouble this year

Big trouble. As are Clann Eireann in Armagh. The North Lurgan football has died off after last seasons successes.