Down Club Hurling & Football

[TORGAEL]

Any word of whom the new Mayobridge manager is yet ?  Apparently he has been named

[downredblack]

Is the Marshes getting lights as part of the revamp ?

[johnneycool]

Anything interesting up for discussion at the County Convention?

I think there is only one position up for debate, the county chairmans position, Gerry is facing a challenge from Kevin Bell and some other lad. I don't even know the lads name but he can't be as bad as those other two.

I'm not going to use any more profanities in relation to the other two.

Will the Inner circle be broken??? Where's thegael when you really need the shite stirred?

[Lecale2]

The other candidate is Michael Cole a local councillor from Kilkeel. He's a well known football referee.
He put his name forward last year, but following advice from the Pope, he withdrew at the last minute. He'll probably do the same again this year leaving a straight fight between Jerry and Kevin. Has anyone seen the motions?

[Bacon]

I attended the hurling convention last night. As usual a tame affair, but there are a couple of things that were discussed that make me fear for the coming year.

Firstly on fixtures. Seamus Walsh is taking over as County secretary and will be missed. The Assisant Hurling secretary Dermot Stewart stood down and no replacement could be found. Dermot was in charge of juvenile fixtures and while there were a few problems, (eg minor championship) he did an excellent job with more games played than in previous years. The fact that he can't be replaced is worrying.
There is also a severe shortage of hurling referees in the county. Apparently there are 21 hurling refs registered in Down. 3 of them have never refereed a single match and 1 only did one game in the whole of last year. 2 of the older guys are retiring. Some of these refs still play or manage teams so it leaves very few to cover u14, u16, minor and adult leagues & championships. If new recruits can't be found games will not be played.

[Colonel Cool]

Ballycran supply 5 of the countys active hurley refs. Portaferry have 2. Its time the other clubs stood up and were counted.

[off the laces]

Should the clubs who play in the hurling leagues not be punished if they do not have refs who are active and referee at least 2 games in each section every year.this would then put the power back to the clubs as to what their representatives do for the year/club.

[MadMick007]

As we all know the usual dead wood has been elected for the Hurling Board. While no one may want these jobs what is the point in a separate Hurling board? All activities relating to Hurling should fall under the County Board which would help remove the split.
The Hurling Board is a convenient tool whereby the County Board shove any Hurling issues too as they cant be arsed dealing with. All the Hurling Board do is arrange fixtures, surely this can be done by county Board. What does the secretary do? read out the teams at a county match, bravo! The treasurer has given his service but all he does is take a statement from Hugh John and try and read it out, no need, duplication.

Lets get rid of the Hurling Board and introduce a Hurling Development committee where by they report directly to county board. If they reported to Hurling Board any progress would get lost in a talking Shiite shop.

One County Board and development committee's for both football and hurling.

Howe about that! 

[redandblack4ever]

Is there any chance that Gerry Quinn will be voted out as County Chairman?? Just wondering because I know the man personally and I have no respect for him whatsoever. He's a pompous ass, pure and simple.

Mrs. redandblack4ever

[Lecale2]

Good idea Mad Mick. The current hurling Board only looks after juvenile fixtures. The GAc deals with adult fixtures, football & hurling. I'm not sure what else it does. I think they also need to look at the role of the divisional boards, East & South Down and over haul the whole administration.

[Bacon]

Jerry Quinn will not be defeated on Sunday. He has been running around licking up to club delegates for the past month and has no credible rival. 
The hurling board is the only forum where hurling clubs get together to discuss hurling matters. If all the issues discussed at hurling board went to County Board, the meetings would last a full day and the football delegates would fall asleep or walk out in protest. Brian McAvoy was a good chairman who brought hurling issues to the County Board and delivered a fair bit. Same for South/East Down. The county Board doesn't want to be bothered with organising the East Down Reservse league or the South Down u12 Go Games.

[Cloc Mor]

I believe that any club not providing a referee for senior games will be fined £500 next year.  Not sure if this has always been the case.  Does the same penalty apply to hurling clubs playing senior hurling?

[stpauls]

Lads,

looking for a new manager for the up-coming year and hopefully longer than that!! Does any one have any names of people that would be interested to take up the position in an up and coming newly promoted Division 3 team, and how would I go about getting in contact with them?

Thanks in ernest!!

[johnneycool]

Jerry Quinn will not be defeated on Sunday. He has been running around licking up to club delegates for the past month and has no credible rival. 
The hurling board is the only forum where hurling clubs get together to discuss hurling matters. If all the issues discussed at hurling board went to County Board, the meetings would last a full day and the football delegates would fall asleep or walk out in protest. Brian McAvoy was a good chairman who brought hurling issues to the County Board and delivered a fair bit. Same for South/East Down. The county Board doesn't want to be bothered with organising the East Down Reservse league or the South Down u12 Go Games.

Whilst I agree that the hurling board is the only forum where the hurling clubs could get together to discuss hurling matters there's no point if its a toothless monster who can not make any impact on hurling related matters. What great initiatives have come out of the hurling board especially in relation to juvenile hurling in recent years?
Why did the hurling board refuse to meet with the Ards clubs in two seperate occasions when it was blantantly obvious that we are slipping well behind Antrim, Derry, Armagh and Tyrone in juvenile hurling structures? Why did Ronan Sheehan stand up and say he got more out of the one meeting held in portaferry to discuss juvenile hurling than he has on the hurling board in the last two years?

Someone talked about the deadwood and by god was he right: Willie Johnston has served his time and is of no real benefit to the committee, Jimmy Keenan needs to look at what the role of a secretary actually is and stop farming out his roles to other people and then playing the ignorance card when it suits. Brian McEvoy is a good leader but didn't have enough vision on hurling related matters. I've always found him to be a genuine lad but wasn't helped by the morons round him. Kevin Bell is too devious and looking after his own little empire and IMO doesn't have the best interests of Down hurling at heart, telling lies to everyone he meets because he thinks that's what they want to hear. I actually attended a few of these meetings in my time and had to stop going before I lost my sanity and its always a struggle in our club to get someone to go to the meetings because of the futility of the exercise.

Time for change, either let the full county board run it or give it real powers and hopefully a lot of the young blood involved in hurling will take it more seriously and f**k the old farts out.

[Square Ball]

JC what initiatives have the hurling committee come up with for juvenile hurling in the last, say two years? what about the vaunted "Ring fenced" U14 team to stay together until minor. what are the other counties doing, putting time and effort into the juvenile set up. the Hurling council couldn't even be bothered to sent a rep to the U14 B final, and as for the U14 Academy squad match, that was a complete farce.

So what next?