Down Club Hurling & Football

[NP 76]

Brendan mc Veigh
Niall Brannigan  Liam Doyle  Kevin Anderson
Niall Mc Parland  Mark Doran  David Mc Kibbon
Ambrose Rodgers  Donnacha o Higgins
Kalum King  Mark Poland  John Mc Areavey
Ciaran Brannigan Arthur Mc Conville Eoin Mc Cartan
subs
Connor Gough for Ambrose
Aidan Brannigan for Liam Doyle
Ryan Brady for Eoin Mc Cartan
Marcus Miskelly for John Mc Areavey
Aidan Carr for Arthur Mc Conville

[PAULD123]

Wow, when you look at it it is no wonder they were so bad. In fact it was a pointless selection with so many players out of position and not suiting the roles they were playing. Having said that they certainly created enough chances.

[knockitdown]

team v Derry

Mcallister
Quinn
Gordon
D McCartan
McParland
Doyle
Duffin
Gough
Turley
King
Carr
Poland
Miskelly
E McCartan
Coulter

[dundrumite]

team v Derry

Mcallister
Quinn
Gordon
D McCartan
McParland
Doyle
Duffin
Gough
Turley
King
Carr
Poland
Miskelly
E McCartan
Coulter

Who is Quinn? Longstone??

[John Martin]

team v Derry

Mcallister
Quinn
Gordon
D McCartan
McParland
Doyle
Duffin
Gough
Turley
King
Carr
Poland
Miskelly
E McCartan
Coulter

Who is Quinn? Longstone??

Keith Quinn. Mayobridge

[dundrumite]

excuse my ignorance

[Lecale2]

excuse my ignorance

We've been doing that for a while. 

[DownFanatic]

excuse my ignorance

We've been doing that for a while. 

Smiley face.

[western exile]

http://louthgaa.ie/index.php/component/content/article/67-latestnewsevents/1038-louth-retain-mcgeough-cup-with-victory-over-down

[whitegoodman]

Pretty putred stuff.  Only beaten by 2 points but were more than 2 the worse side imo.

Defence did reasonably well but midfield area was poor and forward line was worse.  Just cause you have 3 big men inside doesnt mean u just hump the ball in which is what we were doing today.  We had a lot of big men around the middle today yet we were destroyed in that area.  Turley, Gordon and Gough were all very poor.

Difficult for young Brannigan to be marking a player like Bradley at such an early stage of his county career but hopefully he can learn from it.  Keith Quinn did well in first half but struggled a bit in 2nd half when Gilligan got a lot ball.  Dan McCartan did reasonable on big 14 in the first half and Bradley in 2nd half and it looks like that is where he will play at the start of the national league.  Felt sorry for Turley, although poor on the ball, he is being asked to do 2 jobs.  He is playing midfield yet when the opposition are on the attack he is picking up the CHF and our CHB is covering.  Very difficult to try and do this and requires a very high level of fitness and a very intelligent player.

My biggest fear is that we are nowhere near knowing what our best team is.  Maybe James knows what is but I dont think any of us know what the team will be or what players will play where in 2 weeks time.

[Dubh driocht]

In James we trust and Aidan O'Rourke comes well recommended but Down's team selection, tactics and subsitutions were baffling today.While Paddy Bradley is still only half-fit, it is a big ask for a raw, inexperienced player like Niall Brannigan to take on the marking task and there is always a chance that the lad's confidence could be dented-now he wasn't disgraced but he was far from the job and the half-time subsitution was inevitable after about ten minutes.Don't think Dan Gordon knew where he was playing while no team should deploy two players like Kalum King and Eoin Mc Cartan in the same line.Eoin called ashore also at HT but when Danny Hughes eventually came on WTF was he doing at FF ?Peter Turley laboured away in what was a general wipe-out at MF yet he,rather than Conor Gough, gets called in?Aidan Carr showed well in patches, as did Benny, but bad day all round. Worrying that Ambrose and Doyler saw no game-time and King now out for Donegal- at least. We have gone backwards not forwards since Armagh-Monagahan but maybe that was the master-plan ?

[goldenyears]

Lads please wise up? James and aor won't give 2 fks about McKenna cup! It's about game time and trying things; some people on here are totally melodramatic! Half the squad are in throes of getting fit for a start; expirements are the key so stop panicking!

[NP 76]

Not a bad thing to be out of Mc Kenna cup . Gives us 2 weeks to re group instead of only a week with also the risk of injuries in a competive game next week . James got 2 competive games this weekend which he will know more of whats going on than all of us . Think P Turley was called ashore today because he was tired maybe mpre so than the others nothing else . I think he put in a good shift today as did A Carr and K Quinn who tried very hard . At least if we learn nothing else from today we now know that Dan is not invincible at mid field as alot of people think he is

[whitegoodman]

Of course James wont care about results at this time of year but what may concern him is the lack of standout players to come out of the McKenna Cup.

Down came up well short last year and a change of coach, Ambrose back and the possibility of Dan coming out the field may help this but also finding a few new players is necessary imo.

From the last few wks only Keith Quinn and possibly Peter Turley are going to make any inroads on the league team imo.  Donal Ohare seems to have impressed for Queens so he make also come into contention but other than that things are thin on the ground.

Anyone willing to put a guess on what the 15 will be for the Donegal game.  Rooney is injured and McKernan isnt back for that game, not sure on the fitness of Garvey at this stage.  McCumisky is also injured I think.  Didnt see much of Lavery this month, is he injured??

[thewobbler]

To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone was expecting a few new faces to jump up from the McKenna Cup. The Down squad has been right for much of muchness for many years now. I'd have preferred James and co used the McKenna Cup to test out a few squad players with the first team, but that's just me.