Down Club Hurling & Football

[cut the crap]

An Riocht beat Leitrim minors by 5 points last night , so its Div 2 for the Island next yer, bitterly disappointed in the guys who run our county, they have shafted our club for the second year running, its ironic tht when they want financial support they come running, our club down through the years have always supported our county and this is how we are treated, at the last count 7 clubs had not paid their player ins, there are several clubs who owe thousands in back fees, do these clubs receive sanctions ? , course they dont.
There are no rules or by laws regarding fair play within the Gaa , its something that should be looked at, good luck to Downpatrick in Div 1 next year, An Riocht ,you reap what you sow!!!!

[johnneycool]

Would agree wobbler , those that criticise our fixture makers must have little knowledge of the goings on in other counties. Also they can have no appreciation of how many factors that CCC have to take into account when organising fixtures eg pitch availability, referee availability , floodlit availability, dual clashes, minor/reserve clashes, all Ireland Intercounty and ulster club fixtures, county commitments at various levels , and that's just for starters. Jarlath Tinnelly has the toughest job in the county in many ways, and like every club we have had issues over a small number of fixtures over the years, but At the same time it's hard not to respect how CCC does an almost impossible task , very well. Whereas I respect loughinislands position, Perhaps only a rigid application of a 10 day rule around re-fixtures Can avoid these problems in future years.
Wobblers suggestion of a 10 team league seems the simplest solution, but for most clubs that does not satisfy the Gaa guidelines of at least 22 fixtures for senior teams.
I think the key thing is that we must aim to provide all players with weekly games, the current system does not allow for that . Sport should be about enjoyment and competitive games are essential for that. Weekly games are absolutely vital , for club and county players. The current system where county players can spend weeks with no county games, is part of the problem . I think if players are with the county and unavailable to clubs they should be playing county games, while club games should go ahead without them. However when they return to their clubs there should be weekly games, as opposed to them being inactive again, if they are knocked out of the club championship. The GPA would gain real credibility, if they drove a national club and Intercounty fixture plan, providing regular games for club and county players.

Bloody hell, the hurling clubs in Down really are getting short changed in relation to fixtures. I'd be surprised our Div1 or Div2 hurlers got half those games a year in Down!!

That's because there are only three proper Hurling Clubs in Down playing in that place called Antrim plus a gather up of others playing each other at least three times a season at a level associated with Divisional reserve football.
   In the Div2 fiasco, it should never that got to where it has landed.Ccc should have foreseen all this at the end of June and planned accordingly as now we're at the stage of cutting the sh-te out of everyone and in-fighting.Sad.

And if we didn't play in a place called Antrim, we'd be sorted by our CB?  I'd very much doubt it and its one of the reasons other hurling clubs in Down are forced to look to Antrim for proper hurling fixtures.

[outinfront]

Say the match had been refixed for next week. If an riocht win on Saturday it's irrelevant any way is that correct?

Would it not have been better to just play it on Tuesday and hope that a loughinisland win would put some pressure on an riocht to slip up in remaining games?

I understand that home advantage is a big thing etc and totally sympathise. Not getting at anyone or either team, just wondering.

[Mike Tyson]

Say the match had been refixed for next week. If an riocht win on Saturday it's irrelevant any way is that correct?

Would it not have been better to just play it on Tuesday and hope that a loughinisland win would put some pressure on an riocht to slip up in remaining games?

I understand that home advantage is a big thing etc and totally sympathise. Not getting at anyone or either team, just wondering.

If we had played on Tuesday and won, presuming we beat Annaclone and An Riocht beat St Johns & Liatrom we would both finish level on points.

[outinfront]

Ah right ok. Well in that case would it still not have been better to play it all be it not the ideal scenario? An riocht would still be ahead on score difference if it was a tie at the end.

[Mike Tyson]

Ah right ok. Well in that case would it still not have been better to play it all be it not the ideal scenario? An riocht would still be ahead on score difference if it was a tie at the end.

Yea it probably would have, but sure it's done now and we'll be in division 2 for another year. Maybe we'll get up next year, 3rd time lucky and all that...

[gaaman2016]

From my understanding Loughinisland requested for the CCC to postpone the fixture following their match on Sunday on Sunday afternoon when they learnt that An Riocht vs Leitrim had not gone ahead. Their concerns being that An Riocht had more preparation time and that  An Riocht vs Leitrim would be played after 8th given that An Riocht where playing on Tuesday night and Leitrim on Wednesday and that it would be unheard of for a team to play two matches in two days given the scheduled matches on Saturday, ruling out a Thursday/Friday match. With that being the case they also felt that they shouldn't have to give up home venue either then.The CCC told them they would hold a meeting on Tuesday evening to make a decision, which at that stage the match would have been played and it would have been too late. Also if An Riocht/Leitrim had of been played with the other fixtures Leitrim where still in danger of being relegated, but following Sunday's results that was no longer the case for the refixture

Another question is that as the  CCC made no indication to Loughinisland that An Riocht Leitrim would be palyed before Saturday where they hoping that An Riocht beat the Island and that would remove that problem? If the match had of went ahead on Tuesday and Island won would An Riocht Leitrim have been played last night?

All that Loughinisland wanted was fairness, and Loughinislanfd feel that they have been subjected to a witch hunt by the co board following what happened last year with their playoff with Longstone when they where forced to play a playoff whilst preparing for their Ulster Championship campaign when in previous years clubs had been allowed to focus on Ulster

[outinfront]

Yeah all a bit of a mess. As you say it's done now and third time lucky maybe. Like CPN and loughinisland I hope we can strive towards an Ulster title.

[Mike Tyson]

Yeah all a bit of a mess. As you say it's done now and third time lucky maybe. Like CPN and loughinisland I hope we can strive towards an Ulster title.

I agree, would be great to see a Down team win the title for the third year in a row. No reason why Bredagh cant, they ran us close last year & beat us well this year. I hope use go on tin win Ulster.

On that note, what are the downs team chances across the various grades? If Kilcoo get over Scotstown they'll surely fancy Ulster.

Who would be favourites for the intermediate & juniors?

[redandblackareback]

You must give An Riocht serious credit for the way they have played the system here, obviously calling a number of games off to suit themselves and refixtures at times when most clubs have nothing to play for, its very smart work, Loughinisland should have seen what was coming and demanded the game be played earlier which would have put pressure on An Riocht. The situation should not have occurred in the first place, far too many games this year across the board have been called off or switched for silly reasons. Heavier fines and points deductions wouldn't be too long sorting the mess out. 

[whitegoodman]

I don't understand why we don't have a system whereby the leagues are finished before the championship starts.  They do this in Armagh and you don't have any of these issues at the end of the league where there are fixtures in October where one team is playing for something and the other may not even be training.

The first division will end up a farce as well if Kilcoo do well in Ulster as they wont want to play a league final when they have more important games to think about.

[extra time]

You must give An Riocht serious credit for the way they have played the system here, obviously calling a number of games off to suit themselves and refixtures at times when most clubs have nothing to play for, its very smart work, Loughinisland should have seen what was coming and demanded the game be played earlier which would have put pressure on An Riocht. The situation should not have occurred in the first place, far too many games this year across the board have been called off or switched for silly reasons. Heavier fines and points deductions wouldn't be too long sorting the mess out.

What a load of bollocks. This game was called off by us originally due to the sad death of the mother of 3 of our players. Other than a match with St Johns, which we moved 2 days earlier and lost bth, we have not called any other games off. Loughinisland had a backlog of games and to their credit submitted dates and venues for their back fixtures. We just happened to be one of them and that was last Tuesday.

[gaaman2016]

You must give An Riocht serious credit for the way they have played the system here, obviously calling a number of games off to suit themselves and refixtures at times when most clubs have nothing to play for, its very smart work, Loughinisland should have seen what was coming and demanded the game be played earlier which would have put pressure on An Riocht. The situation should not have occurred in the first place, far too many games this year across the board have been called off or switched for silly reasons. Heavier fines and points deductions wouldn't be too long sorting the mess out.

What a load of bollocks. This game was called off by us originally due to the sad death of the mother of 3 of our players. Other than a match with St Johns, which we moved 2 days earlier and lost bth, we have not called any other games off. Loughinisland had a backlog of games and to their credit submitted dates and venues for their back fixtures. We just happened to be one of them and that was last Tuesday.

Extra time, would you not agree that asking Loughinisland to play Sunday and Tuesday would have given yourselves a physical advantage in the match and if scenarios had of been reversed you would have done the same?

[Blue Island]

You must give An Riocht serious credit for the way they have played the system here, obviously calling a number of games off to suit themselves and refixtures at times when most clubs have nothing to play for, its very smart work, Loughinisland should have seen what was coming and demanded the game be played earlier which would have put pressure on An Riocht. The situation should not have occurred in the first place, far too many games this year across the board have been called off or switched for silly reasons. Heavier fines and points deductions wouldn't be too long sorting the mess out.

Nobody in loughinisland is blaming An Riocht. They have done nothing wrong. The blame lies completely with the county board.

Any ejit with even an ounce of objective rational thinking could see we have been royally shafted here. We had four games postponed during the year and not once was that at our behest.  During the lull in the summer we contacted both the other teams and county board to try and get them played, but try as we might they could not be arranged, through no fault of ours. 

An Riocht asked for the original fixture to be postponed, which we have no issue with. I notice another poster suggested we should have made them play it. I  must remember not to knock on your door it we are looking a fixture re-fixed if there is a death in Loughinisland. When all is said and done , we were being told to play away from home (which we actually considered, until the fixtures were later rearranged and would have given An Riocht an advantage, as referred to a couple of posts back) against a team we were directly challenging for promotion. Bear in mind they had the privilege of playing us at their pitch and we were being denied the same right when we requested it. 

The County Board were simply more interested in trying to meet their dead lines and to hell with any sense of natural justice. It was a case of run along boys and take your oil. Our committee had to make the decision whether to play the match, or not take the field and lodge a protest. You can bet every pound you have in the bank that had we played it, the county board would have then simply said, 'move along nothing to be seen here.' and they would not have given a fiddlers. Now we at least can shine a light on their duplicity.

Their big issue was that all fixtures must be played by the cut off date. If this goes to the Ulster Council how do they explain that they were /are willing to fix one game in Division two after the cut off and two further games in division three. How exactly will they explain that does not set a precedent boggles the mind.

IMO this high lights all that is wrong with out leagues. Get them over and done with and who gives a hoot about any sense of fair play.

With regards to the mathematics. Kingdom have to play Darragh Cross. If they lost and our match the Kingdom was rearranged we had every thing to play for (subject to is beating Annaclone). In the event they beat Darragh Cross we could still have got promoted by playing An Riocht, but would have had to have beaten them by 16 points, which is very unlikely, but not  impossible.

[gaaman2016]

You must give An Riocht serious credit for the way they have played the system here, obviously calling a number of games off to suit themselves and refixtures at times when most clubs have nothing to play for, its very smart work, Loughinisland should have seen what was coming and demanded the game be played earlier which would have put pressure on An Riocht. The situation should not have occurred in the first place, far too many games this year across the board have been called off or switched for silly reasons. Heavier fines and points deductions wouldn't be too long sorting the mess out.

Nobody in loughinisland is blaming An Riocht. They have done nothing wrong. The blame lies completely with the county board.

Any ejit with even an ounce of objective rational thinking could see we have been royally shafted here. We had four games postponed during the year and not once was that at our behest.  During the lull in the summer we contacted both the other teams and county board to try and get them played, but try as we might they could not be arranged, through no fault of ours. 

An Riocht asked for the original fixture to be postponed, which we have no issue with. I notice another poster suggested we should have made them play it. I  must remember not to knock on your door it we are looking a fixture re-fixed if there is a death in Loughinisland. When all is said and done , we were being told to play away from home (which we actually considered, until the fixtures were later rearranged and would have given An Riocht an advantage, as referred to a couple of posts back) against a team we were directly challenging for promotion. Bear in mind they had the privilege of playing us at their pitch and we were being denied the same right when we requested it. 

The County Board were simply more interested in trying to meet their dead lines and to hell with any sense of natural justice. It was a case of run along boys and take your oil. Our committee had to make the decision whether to play the match, or not take the field and lodge a protest. You can bet every pound you have in the bank that had we played it, the county board would have then simply said, 'move along nothing to be seen here.' and they would not have given a fiddlers. Now we at least can shine a light on their duplicity.

Their big issue was that all fixtures must be played by the cut off date. If this goes to the Ulster Council how do they explain that they were /are willing to fix one game in Division two after the cut off and two further games in division three. How exactly will they explain that does not set a precedent boggles the mind.

IMO this high lights all that is wrong with out leagues. Get them over and done with and who gives a hoot about any sense of fair play.

With regards to the mathematics. Kingdom have to play Darragh Cross. If they lost and our match the Kingdom was rearranged we had every thing to play for (subject to is beating Annaclone). In the event they beat Darragh Cross we could still have got promoted by playing An Riocht, but would have had to have beaten them by 16 points, which is very unlikely, but not  impossible.

Two of which where called of by the Co Board at short notice to facilitate County training and one of them they then tried to schedule during the July Holidays Problem for Loughinisland in rescheduling these fixtures was that all the teams that they had outstanding fixtures with made it to the later stages of the SFC/IFC