Down Club Hurling & Football

[Cuan12]

Reading these posts about Down s current position and it's all negative, not one poster has suggested how we improve it, Derry has come from Div4 and look an outfit with considerable potential.
We have to look at our connect with all schools , get coaches into every school, look at what our county coaches do, who are these coaches and are they delivering value for money.
I think that in the past appointments to these post have been on a basis of who you are and not what you can deliver.
Our schools record in Ulster competitions has been abysmal in comparison to when we were top of the pile in the 90 s, but we need to look at our shortcomings and fix them.
It's time we called out some individuals who are to blame starting with those who sit on our county executive, some of who have and still do great work but in this area have failed miserably.
Time to oust those responsible for setting up programmes that have failed, that have made appointments to full time county coaches that haven't delivered and have not engaged with clubs to get the best players to represent Down.
Maybe a start could be made with the chairman and his QUB old boys club, who have clearly not delivered.
Replace Jack with Rodger , install a Kilcoo wining attitude from juvenile to county senior level and see where we go, clearly works at club level, can't see why it would fail at county level.

[Mourne Red]

Few ways we could improve our fortunes would be to know that  Good players don't make good managers - Far too many ex players involved in our coaching who just aren't up to the standard. We have many an influx of coaches from outside the county but bar Jerome Johnstone Sr have we any one leading a team outside of Down?

Overhaul coaching development - You sit through the basic 3 stage course put on by Ulster GAA and suddenly you're qualified to manage a team. Perhaps could line up something with IFA/FAI and IRFU and see how other sports do coaching and take bits from there also help expand our coaches knowledge.

Permanent S&C coach to over see Minor Upwards. Some of the fellas coming out of the other counties at that ages are all physically on another level to some of ours. Don't know if it's the breeding or what. Also there was a couple of videos on YouTube of Dublin and New Zealand rugby were they identified specific exercises for their sport why they both were so physically ahead of other teams.

Schools need to be met with especially the ones with a history of doing well in Gaelic Schools comps ie St Marks/St Mald and discuss putting back to forefront of the PE curriculum, in exchange some coaches could be given to take a few sessions a month if feasible. Only some suggestions which I'm sure someone will pick apart lol 

[Cuan12]

Mourne Red, you are right when you say good players don't necessarily make good coaches, we need as you say to engage with schools, we have to send in coaches to take after schools clubs, make our sport the no 1 choice, might take a bit of time but it will work, most heads of schools would welcome our assistance , our county chairman and secretary should be forefront in setting up meetings with school principals and ask how we can help not demand we get in, we are already way behind other counties but we need to radically change our thinking or we are never coming back to past achievement levels.
There must be someone out there with the managerial, administrative and technical know how to oversee this radical rethink , preferable not an ex player from the 90s or a member of the QUB old boys brigade.

[thewobbler]

Cuan, out of curiosity, is your passionate disgust for the small QUB connection most directly related to:

A personal hatred of one of this connection?, or

A hatred of QUB Sigerson?, or

A hatred of QUB?, or

A hatred of third level education?, or

A hatred of education in general?


I can't work it out. Go on, be honest.

[imagine]

Cuan, out of curiosity, is your passionate disgust for the small QUB connection most directly related to:

A personal hatred of one of this connection?, or

A hatred of QUB Sigerson?, or

A hatred of QUB?, or

A hatred of third level education?, or

A hatred of education in general?


I can't work it out. Go on, be honest.

Cuan is a man of the Tools and not a lover of the white collar man.

[manwithnoplan]

Cuan, out of curiosity, is your passionate disgust for the small QUB connection most directly related to:

A personal hatred of one of this connection?, or

A hatred of QUB Sigerson?, or

A hatred of QUB?, or

A hatred of third level education?, or

A hatred of education in general?


I can't work it out. Go on, be honest.

Cuan is a man of the Tools and not a lover of the white collar man.

Or he just thinks giving these fella's roles repeatedly is not the way to go for success?

[Cuan12]

No hatred of QUB or Sigerson, players or third level education, but can you honestly put your hand on heart and say current chairman has delivered, James and Aidan oRourke have failed miserably , Jack Devanney has been an abject failure, he now has entrusted Mr Oakes to revamp our juvenile structures , all part of the QUB fraternity, which hasn't worked, I have offered an alternative rethink which would entail an overhaul, what's your suggestion wobbler, I just want to look forward to a Down match with eager anticipation not dread, present thinking and strategy just not working, by the way I have attended the Dub on many occasions supporting QUB.

[thewobbler]

No hatred of QUB or Sigerson, players or third level education, but can you honestly put your hand on heart and say current chairman has delivered, James and Aidan oRourke have failed miserably , Jack Devanney has been an abject failure, he now has entrusted Mr Oakes to revamp our juvenile structures , all part of the QUB fraternity, which hasn't worked, I have offered an alternative rethink which would entail an overhaul, what's your suggestion wobbler, I just want to look forward to a Down match with eager anticipation not dread, present thinking and strategy just not working, by the way I have attended the Dub on many occasions supporting QUB.

Here's the reason why Down senior football is currently in a mess: we didn't produce a single crop of competitive players at u17 or u20 throughout the noughties.

If you're looking for other reasons - like blaming a chairperson who inherited one of the lowest performing juvenile structures in the county just as Covid hit - then you're not being objective.

[Cuan12]

So the minor panels of 2004,2005 and 2009 plus the u20/21 panels of 2004,2005,2008 and 2009 didn't produce any players?
My thoughts are they did and whatever the county was doing right has been abandoned in favour of some strategy that's plainly not working. I only wish some one could put their finger on it and formulate a plan that will work.

[thewobbler]

So the minor panels of 2004,2005 and 2009 plus the u20/21 panels of 2004,2005,2008 and 2009 didn't produce any players?
My thoughts are they did and whatever the county was doing right has been abandoned in favour of some strategy that's plainly not working. I only wish some one could put their finger on it and formulate a plan that will work.

My bad, I meant during 2010-2019! (What do we call that decade, the "teens"?)

Minors of 2009 (like Mooney) are 31 this year. That's the youngest of those teams you've mentioned above.

The full drought started immediately after that. And it correlates with Down's nosedive in senior football.

[covid20]

Reading these posts about Down s current position and it's all negative, not one poster has suggested how we improve it, Derry has come from Div4 and look an outfit with considerable potential.
We have to look at our connect with all schools , get coaches into every school, look at what our county coaches do, who are these coaches and are they delivering value for money.
I think that in the past appointments to these post have been on a basis of who you are and not what you can deliver.
Our schools record in Ulster competitions has been abysmal in comparison to when we were top of the pile in the 90 s, but we need to look at our shortcomings and fix them.
It's time we called out some individuals who are to blame starting with those who sit on our county executive, some of who have and still do great work but in this area have failed miserably.
Time to oust those responsible for setting up programmes that have failed, that have made appointments to full time county coaches that haven't delivered and have not engaged with clubs to get the best players to represent Down.
Maybe a start could be made with the chairman and his QUB old boys club, who have clearly not delivered.
Replace Jack with Rodger , install a Kilcoo wining attitude from juvenile to county senior level and see where we go, clearly works at club level, can't see why it would fail at county level.

Cuan12,you are really caught up with this agenda against QUB and various members of the County Board.

[Cuan12]

Co vid , do you think the present county hierarchy has worked, is working and will work in the future because this Down Gael doesn't and I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

[covid20]

Co vid , do you think the present county hierarchy has worked, is working and will work in the future because this Down Gael doesn't and I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

Are you the alter ego of Truth Hurts?

[Cuan12]

So you think everything must stay as it is?

[covid20]

So you think everything must stay as it is?

I asked were you the alter ego of Truth Hurts?