Down Club Hurling & Football

[Line Ball]

McGrath gets the Road from The County Minors after last night CB Meeting.
He is also due for the road out of Bryansford after numerous years of trying for Senior Honours with no success.
I often wonder where he went wrong, as the Ford have some of the best talent in the County...

Not before time.  He had an amazing team three years ago never mind the last two teams and did nothing with them.  We would have won an All Ireland U.21 title if he had made changes. He is in charge of the Down Development squads which is also a joke.  Bryansford should be contenders but have blown it consistently during his time with them.  His man management skills are pathetic and many of the players in his squads detest him.  Some will say he won us this or won us that, he stayed on as Down manager so long that he set us back ten years.  His arrogance cost us for years. Stevie Wonder could have won us the two All Irelands he managed us to.  It was the exceptional players we had at the time who won it for us, far from the manager. Pete Mc Grath is no big loss to Down football.

Jasus that's a bit harsh man. Two All Irelands as a manager, he owes us nothing. I don't know the man personally but he will always have my respect, that All Ireland in 91 was one of the best days of my life.

Scratch the surface and its very interesting what appears.

[SHEEDY]

McGrath gets the Road from The County Minors after last night CB Meeting.
He is also due for the road out of Bryansford after numerous years of trying for Senior Honours with no success.
I often wonder where he went wrong, as the Ford have some of the best talent in the County...

Not before time.  He had an amazing team three years ago never mind the last two teams and did nothing with them.  We would have won an All Ireland U.21 title if he had made changes. He is in charge of the Down Development squads which is also a joke.  Bryansford should be contenders but have blown it consistently during his time with them.  His man management skills are pathetic and many of the players in his squads detest him.  Some will say he won us this or won us that, he stayed on as Down manager so long that he set us back ten years.  His arrogance cost us for years. Stevie Wonder could have won us the two All Irelands he managed us to.  It was the exceptional players we had at the time who won it for us, far from the manager. Pete Mc Grath is no big loss to Down football.

Jasus that's a bit harsh man. Two All Irelands as a manager, he owes us nothing. I don't know the man personally but he will always have my respect, that All Ireland in 91 was one of the best days of my life.

I agree with line ball. 91 and 94 were 2 of the best days of my life and we'll always remember those days but time moves on and change was badly needed.

[Mourne Rover]

If people want to say that Pete McGrath did not get the best out of Down minors over the last three years, or could have achieved more with Bryansford, that's fine. The idea that he was never much of a coach in the first place is ludicrous.

We do not win many provincial titles in Down, and, at all three levels since the mid-1980s, we have managed a grand total of eight. Of those, six were lifted by McGrath's teams - two minor (86 and 87) two u21 (08 and 09) and two senior (91 and 94).

He was responsible for three All Ireland titles, and, only for a Cork goal with the last kick of the u21 final at Portlaoise in 09, he would have added a fourth.

All that is not taking into account his role with St Colman's, so he is either a person who has been exceptionally lucky year after year or he is one of the greatest figures in our history.

[Line Ball]

I do believe that he was a decent coach but a very poor manager.  From talking to lads he was never a manager/coach who got close to his players and who could communicate to players to get the best out of them.  His methods don't seem to have changed since he 'won' his All Irelands and he hasn't moved with the times.  I do believe he got lucky with the players he had to some degree and I am not even going to start naming the players he had at his disposal. He may have been successful as you identify and the fact that he never cost the County Board 1p in expenses over his tenure for any job made him a prime candidate for any County position.

[The Raven]

Pete stayed too long in the senior job playing men past their best,  a legacy we have never really recovered from

[umpire]

Carryduff only need a draw at home against Shamrocks to be involved in a play off with Liatriom for a place in Div 1

[Minus15]

Great day for Glenn yesterday with the U16s winning the B Final against Castlewellan and the Seniors winning the Div 2 title afterwards in Dundrum.

[befair]

McGrath gets the Road from The County Minors after last night CB Meeting.
He is also due for the road out of Bryansford after numerous years of trying for Senior Honours with no success.
I often wonder where he went wrong, as the Ford have some of the best talent in the County...

Not before time.  He had an amazing team three years ago never mind the last two teams and did nothing with them.  We would have won an All Ireland U.21 title if he had made changes. He is in charge of the Down Development squads which is also a joke.  Bryansford should be contenders but have blown it consistently during his time with them.  His man management skills are pathetic and many of the players in his squads detest him.  Some will say he won us this or won us that, he stayed on as Down manager so long that he set us back ten years.  His arrogance cost us for years. Stevie Wonder could have won us the two All Irelands he managed us to.  It was the exceptional players we had at the time who won it for us, far from the manager. Pete Mc Grath is no big loss to Down football.

This is a disgraceful slur; apart from his achievements with Down, Peter McGrath was also reckoned worthy of managing the international team, where he had further success. Lucky? As Napoleon said, "Give me a lucky general". I detect some jealousy

[centre 3/4s]

Have to agree this is getting very personal against one of Downs greatest if not the greatest managers of all time..

[Confused]

The small dealings I have had with wee pete were not positive. Very much his way or no way. But is that a good trait as a manager? Is that why he was successful? Either way he has left a legacy, good and bad.

[washed_up]

i agree because some of petes actions even the early days were questioable as an example a friend of mine told me that he was sent a goalkeeper to a trial and played him middle of the field and spent a second trial at warrenpoiint looking away from thje actual game-hardly encouraging even then 

[Confused]

It would be great to see cathal Murray get a chance with the minors

[umpire]

Have to agree this is getting very personal against one of Downs greatest if not the greatest managers of all time..

Pete McGrath is the  greatest Down manager in my time supporting Down from 1960 till now.
As Down CB thanks him for his time and effort, they have to move on with a new manager and we all hope he can be as half as good as Pete!!

[DaisyCutter]

Washed_Up, unfortunately this is true.
If its the same person that you are talking about, he made the keeper trial again although he was on previous years panel, but didn't have enough outfield players for the trial game and played the keeper outfield.
After the trials had ended, the keeper was not even selected for the panel, which was a disgusting insult to him by Pete.
Although the player has went on to have a great career since.
But it was one of numerous stories I've heard about the treatment of some of his players.

[Town Gael]

Heard a rumour that the league final may not be played for another 6 weeks- this is a complete joke. There is no reason Kilcoo and Burren can't play their semi-final this Wednesday and play the final this Sunday. Clubs play midweek matches and weekend matches at the start of the season and can do it now. Making Castlewellan wait several weeks for a game is ridiculous.  The championship final in a couple of weeks is no reason to delay the league final- I can guarantee that the training both Burren and Kilcoo are doing at the minute will be as intense and any match with lads busting themselves to get a place on the team. The county board need to sort things out.