Down Club Hurling & Football

[brokencrossbar1]

best of Luck to Jim and his backroom team, could be interesting to see if he wins Down with Kilcoo and they go on to an Ulster final and win that, not impossible.  what happens with the County i assume Shorty and Mickey Walsh will take the reigns until such time  which could be 17th of March. Looking forward to Feb 1st in Newbridge

Holy f**k!!!!!

[thebar]

To suggest that "any manager would have won with Kilcoo" is the height of idiocy. People have short memories, McCorry was an integral part in forming Mayobridge into the powerhouse they were during the 00's and was the man who broke their quest for 6 in a row (Mayobridge had won the SFC, MFC and PRFC the year previous). He has taken a team that on paper are not a world-beaters and made them a dominant force in Down. I would argue that Kilcoo have the 3rd/4th strongest panel within the county but yet have won 3 of the previous 5 Championships. McCorry's influence cannot be over estimated, if any of the top 5 teams in the county had McCorry as a manger they would win the Championship. A great appointment, as I said previously there is no better man for the job.

Your living in a dream world Speculative..Kilcoo have the 3rd/4th best panel in Down??? Would you name 3 better panels? Any of the top 5 teams would win with McCorry? Outside Kilcoo / Burren / Mayobridge there are no other serious contenders at the moment though the stone are in a semi and it would be great to see I just cant see them winning it...get real he may be a decent professional manager but without players you cant do much...when he was at the Bridge Benny, Ronan Sexton, Mickey Walsh, etc were all at their peak....the same thing happened at Kilcoo...fact.

[bridgegael]

Mccorry  without  a doubt laid the foundations for our sucess through the 00s.  The boys you mention above were 20/21 when he left so they were hardly at their peak. He brought all them lads onto the senior panel when they were 15/16. He wasnt afraid to go with the young lads, and change the whole team.   Good appointment for Down

[speculative]

Would you not say Castlewellan and Bryansford (3rd and 1st in the league) are contenders?? Talent wise - Kilcoo isn't overflowing with it. What they have is a good system of play and a work ethic instilled by their MANAGER. I would put Mayobridge and Burren both ahead of them in terms of individuals, but what they do have is a teamwork that is unmatched.

IMO if McCorry had have stayed with the 'Bridge throughout the 00's they would have at least an Ulster title if not an All Ireland.

[PAULD123]

Both Mayobridge and Kilcoo had spent years developing their squads before McCorry's arrival (I remember the bridge identifying those lads when they were only 12 years old as the future championship winning players for the club). Both clubs invested heavily their time and efforts to develop a collection of young players and bring them through to be a classy senior squad. It is true that Jim has not gone to club and developed a team from U12s and formed them. He has selectively gone to clubs where a rich resource has been available and he has then fine-tuned and honed it to be the best in the county.

Whats' the problem? He has not been appointed youth development officer for Down. As senior county manager he is being handed the very best talent we have. He will be asked to take a set of top quality players who have been developed by others (club, school, university, county, Collingwood!!) and fine-tune and get the best out of them.

Seems' to me that that is his primary talent.

[Agent Orange]

Is McCorry Downs first outside manager?

[angermanagement]

Is McCorry Downs first outside manager?

No, Jackie McManus in the late 80's is an Antrim man.

[Down Follower]

I cant see how anyone can argue with this appointment.  It is the obvious choice, in fact probably the only choice the co board could have made give the candidates available.  McCorry will bring huge appetite for the job and will demand the same, and more, from the players.  The King is dead, long live the King!!!

[imtommygunn]

Mayobridge two goals in first two minutes

[bridge fan]

Referee was a joke

[pauly2]

Decent game tonight - bridge started with a blast and then faded badly.  Kilcoo were settled after 10 minutes and from then dictated the pace of the remainder of the game.  In Niall Mc Evoy Kilcoo have the best defender in this county - Caolan Gallagher has been scoring freely for mayobridge in the last few games and tonight - nothing.  COnleth O'Hare found wanting again and again - carrying this through from his underage days.  Benny falling very easily when the slightest of contact was put on him was a joke.  Benny is 6 foot plus and don't need to be going down the Lavery route to get attention.  He caught a few kickouts which were more his style but huffed and puffed around the place - chalk put manners on him in first half with a chop.  Benny was a pale shadow of himself after that... Last ten mins and the game in the melting pot - put your best man marker on Laverty and stop him dictating the play and creating the links to the others around him.  But this shows Walshs inept managerial experience when he didn't spot this.  Mc Crorry was cool calm and collected all night on the line and Walsh got agitated a few times over silly things.  Kilcoo move onto the county final and they will beat the pick of both Burren and the Stone together.  Work ethic, Togetherness, system of play and good footballers - they will win down at a canter.  Unless the other semi finalists can do a Donegal!!

[bridgegael]

You must have been watching a different game than me. Conleth o hsre was one of tbe best players on the field. 

[guevara]

As a neutral Id say Pauly2 you are either a wind up merchant or blind. Scoreline didn't reflect the game in my opinion. Kilcoo kicked some brutal wides. Jerome Johnston disappeared in the second half and with that Kilcoo's scoring threat.
Mayobridge exposed how open Kilcoo are at the back & if Pluggy Barry had passed when through instead of blazing over then the game may have swung in the favour of The Bridge.

Benny caught two or three balls nobody else in the County would field. He was spoiled all night by Paul Greenan and a stronger Ref might have curtailed this blatant tactic.

Kilcoo were good in patches particularly towards the end of the first half when Jerome Johnston kicked some lovely scores. But The Bridge put it up to them with Sean & Conleth O'Hare causing problems.

Kilcoo's performance was workmanlike rather than vintage and on another night they could have been out of the draw.

[speculative]

A refereeing shocker from where I was sitting last night. Kilcoo's persistent and cynical fouling continued to go unpunished with Coulter receiving a torrent of late tackles, surely one of the top referees in the country should be able to spot these infractions and deal out the appropriate punishment (black card). Blatant penalty (foot block) on Conleth O'Hare as he took a shot at goal in 1st half that more or less swung the game, as Johnston scored from the resulting counter attack.

Having said that, the 'Bridge will be disappointed with their decision making at crucial points in 2nd half. They certainly rattled Kilcoo and effectively nullified the influences of O'Hanlon (who could have easily seen red on a few occasions), Ryan Johnston and Devlin. A few incorrect decisions from Ciaran Brannigan cost them a deserved spot in the final.

[Oglach]

A refereeing shocker from where I was sitting last night. Kilcoo's persistent and cynical fouling continued to go unpunished with Coulter receiving a torrent of late tackles, surely one of the top referees in the country should be able to spot these infractions and deal out the appropriate punishment (black card). Blatant penalty (foot block) on Conleth O'Hare as he took a shot at goal in 1st half that more or less swung the game, as Johnston scored from the resulting counter attack.

Having said that, the 'Bridge will be disappointed with their decision making at crucial points in 2nd half. They certainly rattled Kilcoo and effectively nullified the influences of O'Hanlon (who could have easily seen red on a few occasions), Ryan Johnston and Devlin. A few incorrect decisions from Ciaran Brannigan cost them a deserved spot in the final.

What a complete load of bawls the above biased opinion is. The Bridge got stuck into Kilcoo from the start and its what you would expect of Mayobridge, there was cynical fouling and rough play from both sets of players and on a different ref there could well have been 3 or 4 players from each side black carded. The game was as good as any I've seen this year.
As for Benny, yes the best player we've produced for 20 years but are you not allowed to tackle this man?
The best team won last night, to come from behind twice in the manner Kilcoo did was fantastic against a very good Bridge team.