Down Club Hurling & Football

[rosskarr]

  Never mind the Clubs but have a read at these comments from Connaught in todays Irish Independent--does the cap fit in Down?
"'''
John Prenty, Connacht Council secretary, predicts that up to 90pc of the counties could be in danger of going bust if they don't curb team costs.
Citing Connacht as an example of the soaring expenditure, he said it was "financially unsustainable" that team costs in Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim were almost five times the gate receipts for last year's Connacht senior championships. They totalled €747,000 while €3.8m was spent on county teams.
"That's not sustainable. The ratio between games and training is totally out of line for county panels. An industry has grown up too around teams. There are so many involved now that two buses are need to bring everyone to games.
"While all this money is being spent, club players are being left idle for long stretches. Any wonder they're becoming so disillusioned. If this continues we'll lose them to soccer and other sports," said Prenty.
He believes that many of the problems stems from a lack of leadership at county board level.
"Decisions are taken at Congress and Central Council but are they implemented? It comes down to leadership and taking responsibility by county boards. It's the only way this can be taken on and sorted out," he said

The hat probably fits very tightly but no different from most Counties.

[cut the crap]

All clubs within Down have to submit accounts to the county treasurer which may or may not tell the story has to how much it is taking to run teams every year, where the waters get muddied is when managers are getting cash payments and depending on the size of the club and the desire for success within a club , these payments can vary between a few pounds in diesel money to hundreds of pounds per week.
There are managers who regularly change clubs to line their pockets, and that leads on to counties who pay exorbitant amounts to coaches, managers etc etc to guarantee success and in order to keep up with the neighbours these amounts have spiralled out of control.
To stop these under the counter payments to managers of both club and county the revenue commissioners in the south and the tax inspectors in the north would have to be called in to ensure fair play, but as we know there are ways around every problem!!!!!!

[Mourne Rover]

Saturday is as big a league game as we have had for a while as a defeat would leave relegation almost certain while a win would give our season a huge lift. Most people are writing us off but it is worth remembering that our NFL record under the Newry lights is reasonable and we have actually beaten Donegal on their last two visits. While our squad is fairly inexperienced, they are also rebuilding so nothing can be ruled out. The team Ed Hardy suggested has quite a few probables but Dee Turley, Gerard McGovern, Ryan Mallon and Ryan Johnston are also very much in contention. We apparently lost a friendly against Antrim last week, which is hardly encouraging, but our new manager is likely to have targeted this fixture from an early stage.

[thewobbler]

The figures quoted by Prenty are wildly misleading as it doesn't even consider gate receipts from AI qualifiers, the National League, or Mayo's quarter final, semi final and replay - let alone secondary income sources.

It's annoying because I fully agree with the point he's trying to make. But presenting figures in such a way doesn't help the argument IMHO.

[Lecale Gael]

is Danny Hughes Shamrocks manager ?

[Lecale Gael]

Down v Donegal named starting 15 (subject to tweaks)

1. Stephen Kane
2. Darren O'Hagan
3. Gerard McGovern
4. Malachy Magee
5. Michael Hughes
6. Conaill McGovern
7. Ryan Boyle
8. Peter Turley
9. Henry Brown
10. Joe Murphy
11. Mark Poland
12. Kevin McKernan
13. Ryan Johnston
14. Arthur McConville
15. Donal O'Hare

[super reds 99]

Only 2 kilcoo players in the line up for Saturday night !

[No1]

I know nothing about Henry Brown, can anyone enlighten me?

[east down gael]

Pretty sure he is the new shamrocks boss lecale

[SHEEDY]

I know nothing about Henry Brown, can anyone enlighten me?

plays midfield for clonduff, also plays midfield for queens. good club player not sure about county standard. big unit, hope he does well.

[supersub]

Pretty sure he is the new shamrocks boss lecale

100% correct

[wobbller]

Pretty sure he is the new shamrocks boss lecale

100% correct

Him and Benny did a great job in Armagh last year.

[east down gael]

Shamrocks would be an attractive enough proposition for someone looking to cut their teeth in management.good underage teams,good facilities and they are in a league where if they put in a good effort they have the potential for promotion.

[clowry13]

Who's michael Hughes? Never heard of him. Where mooney?

[OgraAnDun]

Who's michael Hughes? Never heard of him. Where mooney?

Giving off to the Irish News.