Down Club Hurling & Football

[Mourne Red]

Thought it would have happened a few years ago, Mickey Harte in with Kilcoo.

[MourneMaverick]

Down Hurling championship

SHC, Portaferry. I can see portaferry walking away comfortable winners. Ballygalgat could have been best by ballycran if they were more clinical in front of goal.

IHC- Clonduff, Can see Clonduff edging the final. Shamrocks solid team but think they caught warrenpoint on a potentially off day from what iv heard.

JHC- Warrenpoint, I think warrenpoint will have a point to prove here as they let a intermediate final slip threw thier hands. They will have to much depth and strength across the pitch for castlewellan to handle.

What players expected to stand out for each team in the finals shot away 👍

[johnnycool]

Down Hurling championship

SHC, Portaferry. I can see portaferry walking away comfortable winners. Ballygalgat could have been best by ballycran if they were more clinical in front of goal.

IHC- Clonduff, Can see Clonduff edging the final. Shamrocks solid team but think they caught warrenpoint on a potentially off day from what iv heard.

JHC- Warrenpoint, I think warrenpoint will have a point to prove here as they let a intermediate final slip threw thier hands. They will have to much depth and strength across the pitch for castlewellan to handle.

What players expected to stand out for each team in the finals shot away 👍

Based on current form it's hard to argue with that sadly.

If we are to have a chance we need some lads to regain their form, something they haven't managed to do in the 6 games leading up to this. Wishful thinking on my part.

Our defence will be under serious pressure and we'll need to get our match ups right to keep Portaferry at bay. There needs to be more flexibility, not x is fullback and stays there no matter who's full forward etc, instead lads will need to be assigned a player to follow wherever they go.
To help our defence our midfield and half forwards need to put in a serious shift in making every ball stick up there and not allowing Portaferry the time to get their heads up to pick out a forward.
And we need to make every goal chance count.

Ports have a few weaknesses in terms of short puck outs and I'd pack the defence and make their keeper try and hit 40 to 50 yard puck outs, and also one or two of their defenders lack pace, but our forwards need to get the right ball to expose that.

A big ask, and we'll travel in hope rather than expectation.

[downgael2065]

Is there no other clubs in south down that field hurling teams? Ive lived abroad mamy years now, it Seems warrenpoint, clonduff the only two, would benefit the county if hurling could grow in these areas but maybe its a hard thing to try create

[johnnycool]

Is there no other clubs in south down that field hurling teams? Ive lived abroad mamy years now, it Seems warrenpoint, clonduff the only two, would benefit the county if hurling could grow in these areas but maybe its a hard thing to try create

Newry Shamrocks as well

There are amalgamations like Clann Mhúrn who pull from An Riocht, Ballymartin, Longstone etc who are fielding in the primary school blitzes regularly but the trick will be fielding at U12 and beyond.

I was told that Burren were starting hurling fundamentals, now that would be a bit of a surprise if it takes root.

[MourneMaverick]

Prediction for friday night warrenpoint by 4-6 points

[TW2464]

Probably the last dance for Kilcoo. The last roll of the dice. An area as small as that will unlikely get a generation of footballers like this for a long time, so they're dead right to try maximise what they have left of it. Any chance Mickey can tempt Dylan Ward back from Australia? Would be a massive boost for them.

[marty34]

Probably the last dance for Kilcoo. The last roll of the dice. An area as small as that will unlikely get a generation of footballers like this for a long time, so they're dead right to try maximise what they have left of it. Any chance Mickey can tempt Dylan Ward back from Australia? Would be a massive boost for them.

They'll be thinking it'll be Mickey Moran 2.

[Splash]

Down Hurling Championships underway tomorrow night. Stsrting with a repeat on the 2022 Junior Final. Don't think anybody would have been too surprised by this pairing, with the only caveat being it would have been in the Intermediate Final. Don't think anybody expected Castlewellan to be here, and plenty of people were backing the Point to top the group.
Nonetheless, will probably be the closest game of the weekend. CPN seem to have Castlewellan's number, but Castlewellan have beat the same teams that Warrenpoint beat to get here by bigger margins (albeit the sides have two distinct styles of play). Logically the Point should edge it, but have a feeling Castlewellan may do the back to back, even if they aren't as primed as last year. Interestingly Point manager was on the losing side with Castlewellan in the 2022 fixture.

The novel pairing of Clonduff and Shamrocks in the Intermediate came a bit out of nowhere. Don't think anybody would have been surprised had Clonduff gone out in the group stage based off of form.
Shamrocks have massively regressed from their golden years of 2020-2022ish, but should still probably have enough for Clonduff.
Clonduff will have no fear though, and I have no doubt are backing themselves to grind Shamrocks down and keep the ball off the men who can do the damage.

Senior it's very hard to see past Portaferry. They've won every game in this championship at an average of 25 points, and never looked like they got out of second gear. Ballygalget are the team that came the closest to them (10 points) in the round-robin, but it's very hard to see Portaferry getting caught at the minute. Going for 5 in a row, which to my knowledge, hasn't been done since Kilclief about 100 years ago.
It is all set up for Ballygalget to ruin that, but the Ports will take some stopping in Down.

Should be some good match ups. Some great hurling will be on show.

RE the South Down hurling clubs- there's a few. Point, Clonduff, Shamrocks, as well as Ballela and Ballyvarley.

As has been mentioned, Clann Mhúrn, a hurling club covering An Riocht, Longstone, Attical, Ballymartin, and Gladrumman. As JC says, the trick will be getting them beyond U12. Wouldn't it be great to see?

Couple other clubs this side of the water, although would be considered 'East Down.'

Burren did indeed start up hurling this summer, and by all accounts, it's going well. I know of at least two clubs in South Down who are looking to introduce hurling shortly, and know people in a few more clubs who are talking about going down a similar path, for whatever that's worth.

I don't actually think it's that difficult to start hurling up in clubs at the moment. There is plenty of support available through Hurling Starter Packs, etc., and it is hard to see the downside of clubs offering hurling.

The County Board probably should be taking a more proactive approach to growing the game.
It's great to see individual people and clubs putting the work in, but the Tyrone County Board took the steps to establish 3 hurling clubs in the county.

Something like that done by Down would be unbelievable.

6 clubs have introduced hurling since 2020, if things keep going at that rate it'll be great to see.