Down Club Hurling & Football

[DownFanatic]

Damien Turley started this season in the senior panel although he does not seem to have featured recently. Was he not on the 2011 minor team ?

You are thinking of Declan Turley of the RGU.

[Mourne Rover]

Thanks DF, that 2011 minor side will go down as one of our great might have beens. To score five goals at such an early stage and still manage to lose to Armagh took a bit of doing. The defence might not have been great, but Mooney and McCartan up front would nearly have been capable of winning an All Ireland on their own. With both of them missing, our u21 prospects are not great. However, if we are in trouble next week, we could do worse that switch Harrison from goals to midfield. He plays there at club level, and he is well capable of winning the ball and taking a score or two.

[Gabriel]

Great win today, excellent recovery from last week's setback. We are doing rightly with a fairly depleted squad. Whether or not we win promotion, we could be heading to Tyrone feeling quietly confident, providing we work on improving and tweaking a few things from now until then. We might have beaten Donegal by more, but our defensive display was excellent. Keeping a clean sheet against that forward line is some going.

  There were a rake of excellent performances on the Down team, but the best came from Mark Poland, Peter Turley, Benny McArdle and Conor Garvey. McArdle did a superb job on Michael Murphy and should be nailed-on at full back for the championship; Turley is quickly emerging as a first-rate midfielder (the odd wayward pass aside) while Garvey was exceptional both in defence and going forward. Aidan Carr was also brilliant at 6. To be fair to the team, questions were asked after last weekend, and they've answered a lot of them in style today.

[5 Sams]

Good to hear it. In the wilds of West Kerry so didnt get to the game.    Always rated Garvey. Great player. Any word of Ambrose or Dan?

[whitegoodman]

Ambrosevwas on the bench, have heard Dan is back training with the club, not sure if he on panel at min but will hopefully be back soon.

[Town Gael]

Decent performance today but still room for improvement. A few wayward passes and a return to blanket defence in the second half were negative points but outweighed by guts and determination. Turley impressed as did Garvey. Poland had his usual great game and I thought McKernan was vital. Still cannot understand how Johnston gets near the team. By my reckoning it was the 34th minute before he got his hands on the ball. I think Madine is going well and very mobile for a big man. Add Ambrose and Dan to the mix and we could have a decent summer- hopefully!

[Pangurban]

Donegal scored 10 of 30 chances, 12 wides, 6 short, 2 blocked
Down scored 10 of 21 chances, 7 wides, 2 short, 2 blocked
Decent performance with some outstanding individuals,Mc Kernan, Poland and Garvey, but i still feel we are flattering to deceive, still very lightweight up front, lack of consistency etc. We have the makings of a team, but are still a way off being a good team nevertheless we have consolidated our position in Div.2. with a chance of a promotion challenge and thats not a bad place to be at this stage

[Dubh driocht]

Have to pay tribute to James, Moyna and Jerome senior; their team selections and tactics are constantly superior to the opposition management teams. Man for man , Donegal are probably better than us but as a team, yesterday we were better.
Jerome was always a cute, hard player who saw things other players didn't- just like James. I think Jerome reads the game very well and  the current style of play suits both of his lads. They are good, honest players and certainly deserve  panel places but for me they are not yet ready for a place in the first 15. There is some excellent forward talent in Down- some out of the panel now but should be brought back in- and the return of Ambrose and Dan will raise morale but they are not going to be back to all their power for a while.
I don't care about the results in Laois and Navan- like Moyna said today in the paper, they played very well in Galway but got nothing.
The most pleasing thing in recent games for me has been the performance of the unsung men- Owen Costello, Conor Garvey and Peter Turley for example. They have made the difference in tight encounters and allowed the class acts to blossom- Mc Kernan, Carr and Poland have been playing super stuff.
Probably the most interesting statistic from yesterday was that 2,625 people were in Healy Park. At the start of the year I thought Down would be lucky to get close to Tyrone as they seemed so professional- from the whole Garvaghey hype where they are given facilities/food/treatment like premiership players to their huge support.I would like to think Down supporters would never be so fickle to abandon the team in such numbers after one defeat and I know that James, Jerome and Moyna will never be intimidated by any challenge so it will be interesting 

[redandblackareback]

Have to pay tribute to James, Moyna and Jerome senior; their team selections and tactics are constantly superior to the opposition management teams. Man for man , Donegal are probably better than us but as a team, yesterday we were better.
Jerome was always a cute, hard player who saw things other players didn't- just like James. I think Jerome reads the game very well and  the current style of play suits both of his lads. They are good, honest players and certainly deserve  panel places but for me they are not yet ready for a place in the first 15. There is some excellent forward talent in Down- some out of the panel now but should be brought back in- and the return of Ambrose and Dan will raise morale but they are not going to be back to all their power for a while.
I don't care about the results in Laois and Navan- like Moyna said today in the paper, they played very well in Galway but got nothing.
The most pleasing thing in recent games for me has been the performance of the unsung men- Owen Costello, Conor Garvey and Peter Turley for example. They have made the difference in tight encounters and allowed the class acts to blossom- Mc Kernan, Carr and Poland have been playing super stuff.
Probably the most interesting statistic from yesterday was that 2,625 people were in Healy Park. At the start of the year I thought Down would be lucky to get close to Tyrone as they seemed so professional- from the whole Garvaghey hype where they are given facilities/food/treatment like premiership players to their huge support.I would like to think Down supporters would never be so fickle to abandon the team in such numbers after one defeat and I know that James, Jerome and Moyna will never be intimidated by any challenge so it will be interesting 

Just one of the many reasons this board has completely lost its credibility in the last couple of years!

[Brick Tamlin]

Explain.
Not that I disagree, just curious.

[downjim]

Is it true Kilcoo are entering a fourths team???

[Mid Down Gael]

Is it true Kilcoo are entering a fourths team???

Yes that's correct

[bridgegael]

who will you be playing for this year mdg??

[downjim]

If your seniors did not play for your seconds week in week out surely you will have enough football for all the lads in Kilcoo.Or will Jerome and the Red be making a comeback

[Mid Down Gael]

who will you be playing for this year mdg??

Seniors looking a water boy so might take that up lol