Down Club Hurling & Football

Mourne Rover · April 06, 2008, 01:54:47 PM

St Malachy's hammered Bandon of Cork. I think it finished 1-12 to 0-5. They looked very impressive in the TG4 coverage, and apparently most of the team is eligible again next year. After the St Columban's win last year, the Abbey's Hogan Cup success in 2006 and the emergence of St Louis, the standard in our schools looks good.

lisdoon1 · April 06, 2008, 02:52:40 PM

Game is on live on shannon radio

http://shannonside.ie/index.php

Mourne Rover · April 06, 2008, 05:57:13 PM

Didn't make it to the game, but, barring a miracle, it's another season in division three for us. Wexford have a 15-point scoring difference advantage, so we need to win our last two matches by big margins and hope that Wexford lose heavily in their last fixture (which I think is at home to Louth), but it's effectively over.

Realistically, our league form has been unconvincing. The three games we won against Sligo, Louth and Longford might all have gone the other way, so we could just as easily have been in a relegation struggle at this stage. I think we still need one more point to be completely safe.

We have clearly improved from last year, but we always look vulnerable when the pressure is on. While Tyrone are not going particularly well, we probably needed promotion under our belt to travel to Omagh with real confidence.

Ross sounded fairly downcast on the radio after today's game, and the next few weeks will be a real test of his management capabilities.

5 Sams · April 06, 2008, 07:23:38 PM

Fair play to Pete and Mickey and the lads....and a special congratulations to Joe Murphy from our own club. Great result. Looks like a v useful team. Looking forward to the AI series. Another notch on Pete McGrath's bedpost.....jaysus I'm getting old cos I remember the last time we won the U21 All Ireland....1979....

Dubh driocht · April 06, 2008, 07:41:47 PM

Is it a confidence thing ?
The seniors could learn something from the Under 21s.Boys like Connor Garvey, James Colgan, Ciaran Brannigan and Paul Mc Cumiskey have a strut about them, as if they expect to beat the Tyrones and Derrys in tight scraps.Over the last few years I have seen the seniors either drop their heads or lose them in tight games. No disrepect to Leitrim but we have twice the number of clubs and players with All-Irelands at minor and schools levels so we should expect to win and win well .
Bad setback on the road to Omagh.Presumably another year in Division 3 means another year of the threat of Tommy Murphy.

mournerambler · April 06, 2008, 07:56:14 PM

After watching todays debacle in Carrick-on-Shannon i would say that this has to rank among the lowest points in Down footballing history & i can't see how Packie Downey can justify being selected ahead of John Clarke

Colonel Cool · April 06, 2008, 08:21:27 PM

Minor hurling result

Portaferry 0-03 1-04 Ballycran. Conditions weren't good but that's the worst game of hurling I've seen played in the Ards for years. There are serious problems to be addressed at juvenile level IMO..

Pangurban · April 06, 2008, 08:22:39 PM

Quote.....Is it a confidence thing ?
The seniors could learn something from the Under 21s.Boys like Connor Garvey, James Colgan, Ciaran Brannigan and Paul Mc Cumiskey have a strut about them, as if they expect to beat the Tyrones and Derrys in tight scrap
Think this is a management issue, try playing confident football with DJ roaring at you like someone demented

spiritof91and94 · April 06, 2008, 09:17:52 PM

Awful set back for Down today but if we dont get out div 3 (and it appears we wont) then the management have failed as they stated that their main aim was to get back to div 2 football. Leitrim beating Down on the back of yesterdays U21 win and then the scenes of celebration in Castlewellan square last night makes a very bad conclusion to the weekend..

amallon · April 07, 2008, 09:26:41 AM

We saw the best and worst of Down football over the weekends. The U21's put in a great performance against a very good Derry team. They play Kildare in Navan on the 19th of April.

Then we saw the worst of Down on Sunday. Bad conditions, bad pitch, a Down team thinking all they had to do was turn up and a brutal performance led to a Down defeat. This is a disaster for Down football. Very few players produced the goods.

Uladh · April 07, 2008, 10:47:35 AM

Bring back wee Pete. He should never have been so disgracfully dispensed with...

Down Gael · April 07, 2008, 11:03:59 AM

Ditto for Large Joseph

Uladh · April 07, 2008, 11:11:22 AM

touche!

Leo · April 07, 2008, 11:20:40 AM

Quote from: amallon on April 07, 2008, 09:26:41 AM
We saw the best and worst of Down football over the weekends. The U21's put in a great performance against a very good Derry team. They play Kildare in Navan on the 19th of April.

Then we saw the worst of Down on Sunday. Bad conditions, bad pitch, a Down team thinking all they had to do was turn up and a brutal performance led to a Down defeat. This is a disaster for Down football. Very few players produced the goods.

Disaster is right.
Leitrim, with the smallest population in Ireland and heading for division FOUR beating the so-called aristocrats of Down football. Our minors, U21 & schools show that there is talent in Down but when we get to senior level it goes pear-shaped.
Longford away in 2003, Sligo away in 2006, Leitrim away in 2008 - is this where we now are in the football world?
No amount of logistic vans, Portuguese training sessions or other gimmics can hide our failure to address key central positions on our team and the tactical nonesense that fails to capitalise on the ability of forwards like Benny Coulter.
Never felt so low in over 40 years of supporting Down.

Down Gael · April 07, 2008, 11:48:07 AM

Leo mentions key central positions and this is were we are seriously lacking.
First and foremost we dont have a goalkeeper of sufficient standard. McAllister has played 2 games for the senior side this year and been very poor in both. Brendan McVeigh isnt really any better, though Ross seems to favour him over Declan Alder, who would be my first choice keeper.
Gary McArdle, though a decent enough defender is not an inter-county full back. Time and again he stands off his man and lets catch balls uncontested before trying to put a tackle in, we need a full back willing to challenge in the air.
Liam Doyle is NOT a centre half back. Liams skills would be better utilised in the half forward line. Yes he can set up attacks from CHB but he cant defend. He has been found out on too many occassions in the league and this is only division 3.
In midfield we have one of the best fielders in Ireland in Dan Gordon, but he didnt catch one clean ball yesterday and like the rest of the team I think they all thought it was just a matter of showing up. On his day he is a joy to watch buy yesterday wasnt one of those days. We have nobody to play alongside him. Ambrose is living off his name. Declan Rooney is eh, well the best I can say about him is that he is suspended. Jack Lynch is the best of a very bad lot and I would play him with Dan in the middle.
For some bizarre reason, Ross is continuing with Ronan Sexton at centre half forward. Ronan is a great wee player, he has a great engine, bags of skill, but he isnt big enough to play in the number 11 shirt. Liam Doyle is a perfect CHF, but time is running out to try him there.
Benny Coulter is the most explosive forward in Ireland on his day, but when you see him having to come out the field looking for the ball you know the others arent doing their job. He cant win games on his own and the other players seem to have fallen into the old trap that Benny is playing we dont have to do anything.

We have such a depth of talent at underage level, but something is going badly wrong between minor/U21 and senior. Why arent these players stepping up? Paddy O`Rourke took an awful lot of shit after Sligo, when in truth it runs far deeper than managment. Until we as a county sit down and work out what we are doing wrong then all the underage success is meaningless. James Colgan, the 2005 minor All Ireland winning captain and 2008 Ulster U21 captain has played less than 5 minutes for the senior team, he was thrown in against Donegal when the game was lost. He was the great white hope for Down football, but he seems to be forgotten. What of the other stars of that team? Why have they got such confidence at underage level, yet remain anonymous at senior. Paul McCumiskey, a match winner for his Uni, for every underage team he plays for, even for his club, is being used sparingly. Why? He ran a very good Derry team ragged on Saturday, yet even if he was tired, 15 minutes from Paul would have turned yesterdays game, it did against Louth. I could go on, buy we`ve heard it all before, someone within Down football has to stand up and say enough is enough.