Down Club Hurling & Football

[SHEEDY]

any other scores tonight

longstone 2-13 burren 2-12. brilliant match. Ryan kelly got 2 goals for the stone, ambrose got a long range free at the death to win it. Stone top the group,  burren are runners up.

[supersub]

Any sign of Caolan Mooney in the Rostrevor squad ?

He is in Australia!

[southdown]

Longstone burren game was epic last night, edge of the seat stuff.burren missed a lot of chances, ambrose sealed the 1 point win with a 50m free deep in injury time.Connor Poland man of the match.

[whitegoodman]

At last a championship match worth watching.  With Mayobridge and Burren finishing 2nd in their groups it should set up a few interesting quarter finals.

Kilcoo v Burren and Bryansford v Mayobridge would be interesting.

[ardtole]

Its a while since I saw Connor Poland play, but he always stood out any time I saw him, would he be worth a run with the county?

[our_fella]

Heard from a Kilcoo man on Thurs night that McCorry might be heading off to Armagh to be #2 to McGeeney?

Serious loss for us Down men if he does!

[Hedgehunter]

I heard Banty was being lined up for the down job?

[snoopdog]

Banty? surely not. May as well bring back wee pete if we are gonna go down the route of journeymen, Banty did nothing at Meath

[Line Ball]

Longstone burren game was epic last night, edge of the seat stuff.burren missed a lot of chances, ambrose sealed the 1 point win with a 50m free deep in injury time.Connor Poland man of the match.

Decent player but his performance certainly wasn't Man of the Match stuff.  He constantly tried to field from behind his man throughout the game and made just one outstanding catch from this position and it was same in Newcastle v Annaclone.  It takes a good man to field from behind so why wont he step in front to give him the advantage.  He's useful on the ground but doesn't impose himself on the game with runs like Mc Kernan did at times the other night.  I thought he was just average.

In relation to the next manager, will our money men (not county board who are broke) continue to pay the absurd amount of money which James and back to the Ross/DJ era all got.  They are bound to be sick paying big bucks for little return.  Would Mc Corry or Banty be looking anything less than the sums these others received as I hear both men are fond of the cash.

It will be an interesting draw for the quarter finals today as I am sure the group winners will not fancy either the bridge or Burren in the draw.

[SHEEDY]

big win today for clonduff and an even bigger win for castlewellan in last of group games.

draw for 1/4 finals;
SFC
burren v castlewellan
saval v longstone
clonduff v kilcoo
mayobridge v bryansford

IFC
an riocht v bredagh
warrenpoint v saul
attical v st johns
liatroim v ballymartin

[speculative]

Anyone got any idea why the County Board has taken the tie of the round (Bridge v  Ford) to Downpatrick?

[Brick Tamlin]

In fairness it is the tie of the round.
Gonna be a good game ye would think.
Daft taking it to the likes of there alright.

[downjim]

It's madness taking that game to a place with no stand or shelter.

[6th sam]

It's madness taking that game to a place with no stand or shelter.

On the surface Downjim your concerns seem reasonable, but to be fair, there is usually valid reason for the fixture makers choosing venues. They are better informed than any of us regarding all the variables that have to be taken into account. The only grounds in Down with covered stand/shelter are Newry,Dunavil,Ballyholland and Bryansford.  Given that Ballyholland and Dunavil have not hosted qfinals in recent years, I presume they may have been deemed logistically unsuitable eg h+s , traffic management.
There has been considerable investment in the Downpatrick venue, eg turnstyles, terracing, it is well recognised as a quality venue,  the RGU club have a reputation for being well organised for hosting matches, and it is the designated secondary county ground.
I also would imagine that the county board would be reluctant to leave themselves open to the accusation of Newry domination , by arranging all 4 Qfinals in Newry, therefore scheduling one of the 4 qfinals in the secondary county ground. In terms of promotion of our games, few would argue against at least one of the quarter finals being in East Down. Looking at the clubs involved in the qfinals , the Mayobridge v Bryansford game is the most suitable choice to go to Downpatrick.

[speculative]

6th Sam, honestly don't see your logic there. In terms of attracting neutrals I would argue that the Bridge/Ford game will have a bigger pull than all others if it was on in Newry. Placing it in Downpatrick reduces the neutral attendance considerably. I think there is another issue here that the county board hasn't considered, if you went and asked any of the ford or bridge lads where they wanted to play I would say 99% of them would have wanted the game to be in Pairc Esler. Bit of anti climax for these lads who have qualified for a 1/4 final and seeing all other teams get rewarded with a game in Newry apart from them.