Down Club Hurling & Football

[Lecale2]

Well done the hurlers for a good, hard earned victory in the Christy Ring final on saturday, pretty decent support down for them as well, a couple of buses from the ards as well as the point and Liatroim.

It was a great day out and a great match!

[5 Sams]

Harps had a good win in Hilltown despite an umpire and a ref who might as well have been wearin Yella

[ardtole]

Surely Mickey Kearney would have evened it up 5sams, is he still umpire with you.

[pauly2]

Are mass defences ruining our game?? We will see it in just less than two weeks when we entertain Donegal. Is success that important that we don't coach people to be spontaneous instead of robots?

[5 Sams]

Surely Mickey Kearney would have evened it up 5sams, is he still umpire with you.

Mickey hasn't officiated in quite a while He was some boy alright....but there's blatant and then there's BLATANT

[NP 76]

Was at that game last night 5 SAMs and I don't think I ever saw a worse decision in my life. It near tipped alot of players over the edge in an already tension filled second half. Murtagh rolled back the years to make up near 3/4 of a pitch to get on to the end of that great pass by the sub for the last score. Great result for Harps

[johnneycool]

Well done the hurlers for a good, hard earned victory in the Christy Ring final on saturday, pretty decent support down for them as well, a couple of buses from the ards as well as the point and Liatroim.

It was a great day out and a great match!

It was a close and entralling match, but a lot of the Down lads were below par IMO, Woods was outstanding at centre back and kept Down in the game for most of the first half when Kerry looked to be pulling away. A few other lads started to get into the game before half time with Micky Ennis starting to get on top of his man when swapped with Finty. Donal Hughes is a son of his Da's alright, might lack a bit of Dannys speed though, but similar stride that eats up the ground. Cougie moving into the halfback line also steadied the ship and helped stem the flow into a struggling fullback line.

Would like to have seen Sheehan brought out a bit for Danny Toner as Dannys best work is always inside the 21 yard line, and Sheehan would have given us another option from puck outs. The two corner forwards never got much ball, well intended ball, maybe the odd scrap. At the other end the kilkenny lad was putting the ball on a plate for the two Kerry corner forwards who caused problems all day. Ben Toner got lucky a few times and his fitness was always a worry as you don't puncture a lung and recover properly in 3 weeks..

In all that's a pretty young team, Dule is 29/30 at a push, Cougie maybe 30, Magic is 28, Woods, the Toners, Nicholsons, the Hughes (from the alley and Bredagh) would all be in their early to mid 20's at best.
McGarry and Jonny McCusker, who came on and scored a great point, would probably be a bit older, but not much, so hopefully their better days are ahead of them.

Down minors were in Dublin as well that morning, played a dublin development squad and got beat by 2 points AFAIK. Good experience for them as Dublin are very strong at these age groups now.

[downup]

Was at the game in Hilltown last night and it was hard to watch. The score was 0-6 to 0-6 with about 5 mins remaining. It was a dire affair with Ballyholland playing with 14 men in their own half and Clonduff countlessly unable to penetrate it. Now off course Ballyholland will say they got their win which is what they wanted but from a supporters point off view it is horrible to watch. Down and Derry showed how it should be played. Would much rather see teams go toe to toe and give an honest account of themselves. On another note I think some referees are just not fit for senior football and this was very evident last night. He totally lost control of the game. And then we had your man who trains Ballyholland, he spent more time running about on the pitch than some of the players. I really do think his antics are an embarrassment to any team he is with. All in all it was a poor game played by 2 poor teams.

[Rodders88]

Downup...another key board warrior! If your gona slate a man on here you might as well go the full hog and name him instead of referring to him as  "your man who trains ballyholland"

[Leonardo]

5 Sams - I thought the ref was very biased in favour of Ballyholland. They seemed to win frees a whole lot easier, and some very cynical fouling went unpunished, particularly in the first half when Ballyholland played against the wind.
I dont think I have seen this ref officiate in Div 1, and agree with previous poster about his ability to keep control of the game.
Regarding the point that never was - agree with 5 Sams that this was wide, but surely the Ballyholland players shouldnt be rushing in and pushing an umpire - it looked at one stage like 3 players were man-handling him.
Was there a similar incident involving the linesman on the Clonduff side as well?
Pretty poor game, but I'm sure Ballyholland are happy with a deserved 2 points

[5 Sams]

Downup...another key board warrior! If your gona slate a man on here you might as well go the full hog and name him instead of referring to him as  "your man who trains ballyholland"

His name is Stephen Poacher and "as for his antics"...he was only doing what Jerome Johnstone does for Down and Paddy Tally does for Derry. Perfectly within the rules.

[Rodders88]

Downup...another key board warrior! If your gona slate a man on here you might as well go the full hog and name him instead of referring to him as  "your man who trains ballyholland"

His name is Stephen Poacher and "as for his antics"...he was only doing what Jerome Johnstone does for Down and Paddy Tally does for Derry. Perfectly within the rules.

Totally agree 5 sams.... Poacher wasn't doing anything wrong!!! Seems a lot of people in the county love getting in wee digs at him whenever they can!!

[Rodders88]

5 Sams - I thought the ref was very biased in favour of Ballyholland. They seemed to win frees a whole lot easier, and some very cynical fouling went unpunished, particularly in the first half when Ballyholland played against the wind.
I dont think I have seen this ref officiate in Div 1, and agree with previous poster about his ability to keep control of the game.
Regarding the point that never was - agree with 5 Sams that this was wide, but surely the Ballyholland players shouldnt be rushing in and pushing an umpire - it looked at one stage like 3 players were man-handling him.
Was there a similar incident involving the linesman on the Clonduff side as well?
Pretty poor game, but I'm sure Ballyholland are happy with a deserved 2 points

Leonardo - the ref last night is probably the worst ref in the county. The amount of rows he causes with some of his decisions is laughable. As for the umpire, he brought it all on himself. If he's not gona call the thing right then he shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Good job Ballyholland went on and won the as if they had of been beat or drew the game id say all hell would of broke lose.

[Brick Tamlin]

Catch yourselves on lads.
The behaviour and language of some 'managers' or 'coaches' along the lines at club games these days leaves alot to be desired.
If ye cant behave yourself along the line without acting the maggot then ye shouldnt be there, simple as.
Some people have previous form and leave them selves open to criticism.

[downup]

I must have another look at the rules again - on the pitch at every opportunity, running up and down his own line like a maniac, running 50 yards into opposition umpire to give him a mouthful (yes the umpire was most definitely wrong), taking balls off young fellas behind the goals to the dugout so time could be wasted at a score or wide. My understanding is that the actual rules are in place for county football at dedicated breaks in play where Jerome overdoes it and our county bring these rules in for our club championship matches and that's it. A man like that running about the pitch like that will only lead to confrontation in league matches. I am commenting on what I seen. I do agree that a lot of side line managements behaviour leaves a lot to be desired but I think this mans behaviour takes the biscuit. And 5 SAMS if a lot of people are getting wee digs in at him then there must be a reason for it. I don't see too many other people receiving those digs.