Messages

I hope next year the leagues begin in the first week of march, the weather recently has been excellent for football. Even if the weather is not as good next year and some games are postponed at least you would have the whole summer to rearrange them. The way the fixtures are planned this year the play-offs could drag into late october or november again this year. They have a few games squeezed in on saturdays which can lead to conflict in a lot of clubs, instead of playing them on sundays for the first 4 or 5 weeks before the friday night games can commence.

Their next best player must be close to 40, having said that we always seem to struggle in dundrum its a bit of a bogey ground. But i would expect dundrum to finish in the bottom half of div 3 this year and without mccommisky they would be no better than drumaness or teconnaught.

Even in div 3 mccommisky is a much bigger threat in the ff line. Having said that dundrum are the most cliched "one man team" you will ever meet, they would be candidates for relegation this year only for him.

i have to agree with you, its getting expensive to watch football at present. A fiver would be plenty for the mckenna cup games, it would attract bigger crowds as well, at a fiver. There couldnt be a huge expense in staging these games either,its definitley pricing people out of going to matches. Times are a lot tighter than 2 years ago and iv found myself having to pick and choose what games i go to.

i see a few counties began their leagues today, i think its strange that we have to wait 7 or 8 weeks for our first league game. I seem to be in the minority but i reckon the first week of march would be an ideal time to begin the season, this years fixture program looks like being chaotic again at the end of the year, lessons never seem to be learned.

The first 11 league games take place over 7.5 weeks, it takes  a further 17 weeks to play the next 11 games. I realise there is a round of championship games and the july holidays in the 2nd half of the season but the difference is huge. Over the last 5 years my club has been involved in the promotion play offs 3 times so i have seen the effects of the league dragging to its conclusion at the end of the season. Matches being postponed, cancelled for all sorts of reasons its very frustrating and i can see it happening again this year.

I can understand  div 1 starting on easter monday. But div 2 and 3 have an extra 4 games to play in their leagues could they not have started 2 or 3 weeks earlier, the end of the season is going to be a potential disaster again. Instead of starting in mid march these teams start their leagues with 4 games in 11 days, which is a bit much. While their last 3 crucial league games are spread over five weeks which is ridiculous and two of these games are crammed in on a saturday which is problematic for a lot of clubs. If a team happens to win their championship and also are involved in either a promotion or relegation playoff these will clash with ulster championship fixtures. This is going to mean that the playoffs could be delayed until the end of october or even november which is crazy for such important games, especially when it can be avoided. If a team wins either div 2 or 3 this year it will mean from the 20 of august, to the play off finals in middle of october {if everything goes to plan and no games are cancelled} these teams have only 2 competive league games in 8 weeks before their most important game of the year.

I dont think anyone wants to criticise any member of the team after such a good victory at the weekend but some posters are just highlighting a potential weakness further down the line. I think most down supporters were genuinely surprised to see dan included in the first 15. But if we keep winning James has no question to answer, on a personal level i believe we have better corner backs than dan.

King played for down against offaly in the league 2 final when paddy orourke was manager, he stopped playing football altogether for a couple of years he has been about a while.

i was in kerry at the wknd so i missed the game, but i seen mccartan playing for burren against kilcoo in the championship last year and he was dreadful, i was very surprised to seeing him in the starting line up, he didnt play much in the mckenna cup either.

i wonder if james will start with the same 15 again on saturday evening or if he will make a few changes and use some of the the other lads on the panel.

when would the bookies release the prices for this years club championships. I fancy ardboe in tyrone, bryansford in down and rhode in offaly. I would want 2 do a treble, it would be a nice lift if it comes through, and would keep a bit of interest during the summer.

for the past 5 to 6 years damien rafferty has been downs best defender. He would be one of the first names on my teamsheet,. I dont know him personally, but his atitude on the field is exempelary, no back chat, no moaning, does his job, selfless worker, an excellent player in my opinion

Does McCartan have to trim the squad before the start of the nfl and if so, when is he expected to name his revised squad.

any word on how down got on this evening, when is wee james expected to announce his panel for the national league.