Down Club Hurling & Football

[T O Hare]

reserve football at seven on a sunday again.. does anyone think this is the worst time ever for reserves players.. trying to keep the bridge thirds off the beer on a hot sunday with a big match on a gormans on tv is a disaster

[DownFanatic]

Totally agree T O'Hare. 7pm on a Sunday is the worst time imaginable for 2nds games. I think Midday or around 1pm would be an ideal time. This may keep boys off the beer on a Saturday night knowing that they could get a big session in from 3pm onwards on a Sunday.
On another note, the East Down Reserve League is a complete joke and has been for the past few years. Postponed games are never refixed, referees hardly ever bother to turn up and usually just a handful of teams get to fulfill all their fixtures.

[stpauls]

never mind the times of the reserves matches, how about the fact the season is now a full 2 months longer than it was last year, and even it seemed to drag along towards the end, imagine what this year is going to be like!! 

[No1]

  There is no date down there for the final round of Premier Reserve games.

 It is hard to know what to do about the timing of reserve games.  By 7pm a good lot of the team will be steamin drunk but trying to get boys on a pitch for 12pm after a night on the sauce is virtually impossible.  Only the most dedicated man in the world will stay in the night before a reserve match.

 I think 2pm is as good a compromise as we'll get.

  Regarding ACFL Div 2, why all the Saturday fixtures in October?  There is a gap of nearly a month between the last fixture in August and the first in September, could some of the October games not be played then?

[T O Hare]

just read an intersting article in the Outlook.. apparently the down hurlers trained in pairc esler and ruined the pitch.. a few schools matches were called off last week in it but the hurlers trianed and a large part of the pitch has to be relayed.. it goes on to say how the hurlers refuse to play matches in newry and use casement for their home championship matches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lecale2]

just read an intersting article in the Outlook.. apparently the down hurlers trained in pairc esler and ruined the pitch.. a few schools matches were called off last week in it but the hurlers trianed and a large part of the pitch has to be relayed.. it goes on to say how the hurlers refuse to play matches in newry and use casement for their home championship matches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please tell me it wasn't Jerry Quinn wrote that!

[stpauls]

No1,

i know what you mean but it looks like that is going to be a championship month, with no league games at all!

[T O Hare]

Think it was, dont think it will go down well with the hurling contingent in Down

[Leo]

just read an intersting article in the Outlook.. apparently the down hurlers trained in pairc esler and ruined the pitch.. a few schools matches were called off last week in it but the hurlers trianed and a large part of the pitch has to be relayed.. it goes on to say how the hurlers refuse to play matches in newry and use casement for their home championship matches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That ANY team should be allowed to train on Park Esler at this time of the year after all the work that has been done there is LUNACY especially immediately after 4 hard competitive senior football games in less than 2 weeks and the foulest of weather (to which it stood up remarkably well). We spend millions to provide a state of the art ground including expensively laid turf pitch and selfish idiots insist on training on it. We really are amatuer!

And who is in cahrge of the maintenance of the ground - is it Shamrocks or the county board? Either way it is a disgrace - brand new toilets that are NEVER cleaned out - no toilet paper for the ladies - debris among the seats in the Stand - and at the recent games no effort was made or facility available to dry the water off the open-air seats immediately before the game.
I guarantee the place will degenerate into the typical GAA shammbles of a ground begore the year is out with seriously damaged pitch to complement the ill-maintained spectator facilities.
Those Club Down boys have wasted their money if the place is left to the backwoodsmen to run.

Big rant, I know, but pissed off with this lunatic behaviour.

[OakLeaf]

I've added a new Live Scores feature to GAA Radio. If you're at any Down club games it'd be good if you could text score updates to 447624804328. This service is free for everyone to view at http://www.gaaradio.com/scores/liveScores.jsp . Thanks.

[downredblack]

Joe Ireland mentioned on HS ,

[downredblack]

Danny Hughes has been voted Tennents Merit award winner for January .
Fair play to him he has been outstanding so far , hope he has a great year for Down .

[johnneycool]

just read an intersting article in the Outlook.. apparently the down hurlers trained in pairc esler and ruined the pitch.. a few schools matches were called off last week in it but the hurlers trianed and a large part of the pitch has to be relayed.. it goes on to say how the hurlers refuse to play matches in newry and use casement for their home championship matches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If the pitch wasn't fit to play on, no one should be allowed on it and if whoever is responsible for the pitch said that it wasn't fit to play on the hurlers wouldn't be on it.

As for the hurlers refusing to play on it, that's pure bollocks as I've personally asked the then county chairman directly after Down hurlers drew with Antrim in an Ulster final a few years back to get the replay moved out of Casement to Newry or Newcastle. He said he'd do his best and I'm not doubting the man but Ulster council make these calls not the hurlers.
As for NHL and Christy Ring fixtures, that is normally the county boards call probably in conjunction with the manager and considering that last year was the only year we've had a manager from the Ards in yonks.
On the few occasions the hurlers have played a competitive game in Newry they were treated very badly by the county board. In a game against Westmeath the hurlers arrived 2 hours too early, weren't allowed on the pitch for a puck about and were given a mars bar each to stave off the hunger pangs. It's not a reason not to play games in Newry but it can cloud peoples judgement a bit.


On a similar vein I suppose the Ards clubs are going to get it in the neck over the recent debacle of how the two minor teams were split with the Ards side of the minors playing in Div 1 of the Ulster league with the non-ards side playing in Div 2. Considering that for the last few years there are lads well capable of making the first 15 in the non ards section it doesn't make sense to have them in Div2 and likewise there are lads from the Ards who'll be playing in Div1 won't get within an asses roar of a first 15. Surely to god it's time these decisions are based on ability and not geography.

[Pull Hard Hes No Relation]

Johnny whoever worte the article in Outlook is stirring,the pitch isn't ruined at all. To be honest it did take a hammering when the Mc Kenna cup was being played and in fact all that running across the pitch DJ does probably did more damage!

I think what the real issue was that the hurlers booked the pitch for a "challenge game" but it then transpired that the "challenge game" was among themselves and as such was a training game. In my opinion the hurlers are as entitled to the pitch as the footballers and I will certainly be raising it at the club if we are going to start this nonesense where the footballers have access to Pairc Esler but the hurlers don't. On that issue I'd have thought that the county board should have played the Armagh V Down hurling match in Pairc Esler this weekend given the local interest probably would have boosted the crowd.

I wouldn't necessarily blame the Ards clubs over the minor debacle as I think the way this was communicated is the real issue and not the actual idea in terms of getting a look at everyone by utilising both the A and B league. Something similar was done for the past two years with the non Ards players playing on the A or B team as required and everyone getting their chance, communication as always in this county the big fall down.

In saying that best of luck to Dutch and his fellow mentors for teh coming year although I feel they will have an uphill battle given the strength of the current antrim minor team who are significantly better than in 2007.

[5 Sams]

Has anyone else heard that the kangaroo shaggers are talking to young McComiskey???