Down Club Hurling & Football

[thewobbler]

Or alternatively there is no way heavy favourites Burren would have risked injury to their key players in a rather meaningless (to them) league game against their SFC final opponents.

Extra time, what you're missing the point on is that a league is the tally of 18 games of activity. Hanging your season on the last result is a risk-laden strategy.

[whitegoodman]

As a neutral at yesterdays game have to agree with MDG.  When Kilcoo needed him Johnston was there in the 2nd half.  Although young he needs to add some consistency to his game even at this level.  As was with St Colemans he seems to come in and out of games too much, when he is on he is very good but this maybe only happen 3 or 4 times a game.  As I said he is young and may develop on this.

O'Hanlon was very impressive, didnt realise he had the shooting prowess that he has, some wonderful point taking by him.  It will be interesting to see how he develops as he moves to seniors and whether he is seen as a half back or a half forward.  One of his big attributes is that he is a very strong and powerful runner at minor level and very hard to stop.  This may not be the case come senior level but he has still has the attributes to be a very fine footballer.

It is some achievement for Kilcoo to win 3 in a row but IMO if they dont get at least 6 players out of these 3 teams who are seen as front line players for their senior team over the next few years then this will all be wasted.  Underage football is about development IMO and  I would hope to see for Down's sake if not Kilcoo's, some of these boys kicking on and becoming established senior footballers.  There has been a lot of wasted underage talent in Rostrevor, Kingdom and clonduff over the years, lets hope Kilcoo are more like the bridge in how they developed their great underage teams.

As for the point the lad McCartan is a gem and l have no doubt if he keeps his head right will go on to become a down senior player.  If Warrenpoint can get 2 or 3 players out of this team then it is a job well done.  A club like theirs shouldnt  be languising at the bottom of division 2 and hopefully this team can give the club a lift and help towards putting an end to some of the in fighting that appears to be going on.

Finally, Ned quite ur winging.  Sure you had John Clarke and Colgen from June onwards so how many games did these fellas actually miss in the league,4/5?  Even when yas got these players back your form was very suspect so like Wobbler said you need to take a look at yourselves before the county board.

[redandblackareback]

Wobbler, to an extent I have sympathy with the kingdom and extra-time on this one, maybe not so much the head to head issue but certainly the fact all final league games (of significance) were not played on the same day, this to me is absolutely astonishing! The advantage it gives Clonduff is crazy. Out of interest why was the game put off? Are clubs actually allowed a weeks grace before championship? Interesting to hear Supersubs opinion from the Rostrevor camp??

I know the ford played friday night but that was meaningless.

[whitegoodman]

i think a few posters on here are missing a very important point. all the relegation related games in div 1 should have been played on sat at the same time. i,m not predicting the s.f.c result, but if burren win, then a meaningless league match to them agst clonduff wud be well down their list of priorities. Had they played last sat no way wud they want clonduff winning before their final meeting.

Burren put out a "2nd string" team against Longstone and would be  likely to put out an even weaker side against Clonduff if they had to play them pre championship.  Would you really want to put your full team out against your championship opponents a wk before playing them??  Kingdom should be happier they are playing them post championship.

I dont fully understand the advantage this gives Clonduff.  They would have known they most likely needed to win the game anyway so what is the issue.

[extra time]

advantage or no advantage, 18 game league, 7 game league (nat lge), 38 game lge (epl), 46 game lge(eng championship), all the last round games played same day, same time. In our case the games with decisions pending should be played at the same time.

[thewobbler]

WGM, it's mostly a case of people looking for someone to blame other than their players.

The 18th league game is no more or less important than any of the other 17, which tend to get chopped in around championship matches, cemetery masses and weddings, and even stag dos.

If anything, given that the 18th match happens when a lot of teams have given up the ghost, it's the biggest lottery of any of the series.


One of the things that these last few threads highlights to me is the unusually high stock we have for league football in Down. In many counties, league football isn't just second best to Championship ball, it's of little importance at all. It's just something you do until the Championship comes around.

Like most Down football fans, I get tremendous enjoyment out of our leagues, but that is largely because the system of starred games and play-off deciders, together with Championship rankings, helps ensure that is played out quickly (most of the time), and competitively. When clubs and members start giving off about how these structures are against them, it does point to a thankless task for the county board.



 

[thewobbler]

extra time, in soccer, their league is the premier competition, and ultimately dictates the success of a club's season.

In our game, the Championship is master. If you try to make the league a master as well, then you cause more problems than you solve.

[extra time]

i,ve been around long enough to appreciate the importance of the senior championship, but all i,m looking for is a fair finish to the league. after all a lot of hard work is put in all year and 1st div survival is so important.Its easy to talk about earlier games being as important, and they are , but this is where we find ourselves now.

[TheClutch]

I personally think that the July break has been the main contribution to the problem with fixtures over the past few years. Especially this year, there was a break of nearly 4 weeks. Don't get me wrong I know that every one needs a holiday and time away from football, but is there really a need for such a long break? Fixtures seem to turn to mayhem after the break, that is the situation with Division 3 at the moment any way. Anyone else agree?

[thewobbler]

Why was there a four week break though? Was it not because of Down's involvement rather than a scheduled break.

The biggest problems most years are between forced postponements (funerals, weather related, abandonments) that don't get rescheduled immediately, and then teams being unable to play league fixtures due to championship commitments.

It would appear that our fixtures secretary forgot that D3 had an extra four fixtures when doing his master schedule, and instead of rectifying this early in the season, it was let run on and on.  There seems to be a unusually large number of postponements though this season.

Being a fixtures secretary wouldn't be much fun, but a zero tolerance policy on scheduling and forcing refixtures is the only way to get a league through. Last year, we were forced to forfeit home advantage and played a midweek game at Mayobridge to get the leagues finished on time. I've no idea why that hasn't happened this year.

[ardtole]

The last 4 weeks set of fixtures were never allocated for div 3 at the start of the season. It really does beggar belief, I think they got as far as round 17 and that was that. In previous seasons when the july holidays came, a set of fixtures would have been played on the thursday before the holidays, then a week off, then another round of fixtures the following weekend. You still have a 2 week break but you have games at the start of the holiday period and at the end, usually we only have 1 weekend off but this year we had 3.

I accept that mistakes can be made, but I would hope that the same mistakes are rectified for next season. I can remember Ardglass playing a playoff game against Glenn the day before Down minors beat Mayo in the All Ireland. I think this is an ideal time to have the leagues wrapped up, it should also give the Down teams that qualify for Ulster time to concentrate soley on these competitions.

When you consider that half of the teams in Down only play one championship game per year, it shouldnt lead to chaos like it has this year.

[RadioGAAGAA]

When you consider that half of the teams in Down only play one championship game per year, it shouldnt lead to chaos like it has this year.

Why?

How does that change things?


Its the slowest animal in the herd that sets the pace.


Unless you advocate (a) some teams finishing their league program far in advance of others or(b) playing the entire league before a ball is kicked in the championship (with a corresponding move of the league start forwards in the year and very early finish to the year for the majority).

[supersub]

Wobbler, to an extent I have sympathy with the kingdom and extra-time on this one, maybe not so much the head to head issue but certainly the fact all final league games (of significance) were not played on the same day, this to me is absolutely astonishing! The advantage it gives Clonduff is crazy. Out of interest why was the game put off? Are clubs actually allowed a weeks grace before championship? Interesting to hear Supersubs opinion from the Rostrevor camp??

I know the ford played friday night but that was meaningless.

I do agree that it is extraordinary not playing the final round of games at the same time especially when the game that wasn't played is probably the most important as a team involved can still be automatically relegated. Having said that I do not hold anything against the CB or otherwise for this, simply put you are in the position for a reason and that is because you haven't accumulated enough points over the previous 17 games to stay clear, thus bringing about the conclusion that the team simply hasn't been good enough over the year. I believe this is the case with us, just too many games got away, a classic case being the game v clonduff last week! However it is the first time in a while we have been involved in such a situation and teams who are regularly finishing in the bottom few have to look at themselves and ask are they equipped for div 1, county players or not, because that is in reality what it comes down to.

[redandblackareback]

Could someone confirm the times for the intermediate and senior finals for saturday evening please?

[SHEEDY]

ballymartin v kilclief is at 5.00. clonduff v burren throws in at 7.00