Down Club Hurling & Football

[passedit]

Hooliganism at a Down game?    

Who said anything about hooliganism. What age do ye boys think I am. Indeed what sort chap do ye think I am. 

Got separated from the oul fella on the hill and dandered the mile or so back to the car and hung around for a couple of hours oblivious to the 'manhunt' going on in town. Said he'd never take me back there and indeed he never did. Next Down game I got to was the AISF in 78.

[T O Hare]

It was a good draw for the Bridge last night, Annaclone will be toughbut i hope we can come through!!! The premier reserve tie v Kilcoo should be a great game, It is always hard to get a a result on Centre court. 

[gaahead2008]

Can anyone confirm the rumour that Cole has been dropped from the county?
Any super reds shed any light?

[DownFanatic]

Down team to face Offaly from downgaa.net

Brendan McVeigh
Ciaran McGovern
Aidan Carr
Luke Howard
Damian Rafferty
Kevin McKernan
Conor Garvey
Declan Rooney
Stephen Kearney     
Brendan McArdle
Brendan Coulter   
Daniel Hughes
John Boyle
Ronan Murtagh
Paul McCumiskey

[Mid Down Gael]

No Dan? massive loss. Murphy dropped i take it? Benny the next man being tried at centre half forward. If we loose this one it will be nothing short of a disaster.

[DownFanatic]

No Dan? massive loss. Murphy dropped i take it? Benny the next man being tried at centre half forward. If we loose this one it will be nothing short of a disaster.

Id presume Murphy and Gordon must be carrying knocks. If they arent injured it is a very big risk not starting them.

[Pangurban]

Both recovering from injury, no point in risking them

[Mourne Rover]

Dan should never had started against Cavan when he was plainly not ready, and he seems to have picked up another knock. Ambrose was even further away from match fitness when he was thrown on early in the second half of the same game, and he has also suffered a setback.

Those judgment calls did not work out for Ross, so he really needs a decent result against Offaly. His son is a fine player, but it is a big gamble to switch him to full back where he was previously tried but did not look comfortable.

Murphy is either dropped or injured and Cole also seems to be out of the picture. With Clarke inexplicably omitted, we are going into a crunch game without some key men who could have made a big difference.

Trying Benny at CHF would have been an idea in the McKenna Cup, but this is not a match for undue experimentation. Free taking without Fegan is also a concern, and there is an air of uncertainty about the entire line-up.

However, we beat this team by almost 20 points in Tullamore last summer and it is a little hard to believe that we could both be heading in opposite directions so quicklly.

A win will put us very close to promotion, and, at this stage, we should take any points which are available and worry about the performance afterwards.

[Trevor Hill]

However, we beat this team by almost 20 points in Tullamore last summer and it is a little hard to believe that we could both be heading in opposite directions so quicklly.

A win will put us very close to promotion, and, at this stage, we should take any points which are available and worry about the performance afterwards.

Offaly can never be as bad again as they were in Tullamore last summer, they will be a much better team tomorrow night. On the other hand this is a much weaker Down team than that which played Offaly last year. Last summers line up was, B McVeigh, L Howard, M Cole, D Rafferty, A Carr, K McKernan, P Murphy, D Gordon, J Colgan, A Rodgers, B Coulter, D Hughes, J Clarke, R Murtagh, J Fegan.  7 of that team are not starting tomorrow night for one reason or another.
It is time that the best players in the county were back on the panel.

[Mourne Rover]

Trevor Hill's conclusion is qute right, although Colgan did not feature in the actual team in Tullamore. Let's hope that we can celebrate a win in Newry rather than look back on missed opportunities.

[Trevor Hill]

Who started in place of Colgan? I cant be bothered to go hunting through programmes at this time of night.
On the subject of Colgan, isnt it time he was on the panel and given a fair chance at a place on the team. His only start last year then was against Armagh and I thought he did ok that day. Ross more than anyone has to get his act together and soon. Another year in the third division is simply not good enough, in fact if Down are in the third division next year I will buy Ross and DJ a pair of season tickets, they will need them.

[wobbller]

Who started in place of Colgan? I cant be bothered to go hunting through programmes at this time of night.
On the subject of Colgan, isnt it time he was on the panel and given a fair chance at a place on the team. His only start last year then was against Armagh and I thought he did ok that day. Ross more than anyone has to get his act together and soon. Another year in the third division is simply not good enough, in fact if Down are in the third division next year I will buy Ross and DJ a pair of season tickets, they will need them.

Would they even use them if they weren,t the Managers?

[Mourne Rover]

The Colgan story is a strange one, as he did reasonably well after a shaky opening on his first championship start at Armaghi  July. He was then named to start against Offaly in the qualifiers, but was dropped as part of a couple of late changes before the throw-in. He was not used for the rest of the qualifiers, even as a sub, even though he was fit. He played for UUJ in the McKenna Cup and did not make our league squad, so we can be fairlly sure that he does not feature in the manager's plans at all.

No one is saying that he is an outstanding midfielder, and he clearly lacks some pace, but he is solid, strong, uses the ball well and can take a score. It is hard to believe that he could be rated such a long way behind Jackie Lynch, for example. Perhaps something happened behind the scenes, but Colgan is only one of a number of players who really should be in the squad.

Tonight is starting to look like a very big game indeed. If Ross get the win, and has his selections and tactics vindicated, promotion will be almost in the bag and we will go into the chamionship on a high. If things go astray again, questions will be asked.

[Trevor Hill]

Tonight is starting to look like a very big game indeed. If Ross get the win, and has his selections and tactics vindicated, promotion will be almost in the bag and we will go into the championship on a high. If things go astray again, questions will be asked.

Even if we manage a win tonight and get at least a point against Roscommon I do not think that this team will be on a high, in fact if we manage to get promoted it will be because other teams have tripped over each other. Down have been quite poor this year, with only one decent performance all year against Louth. Down were poor against Tipperary, the scoreline flattered Down in my opinion. We lost to Cavan and Limerick who were the two bottom teams in the division and we beat Longford, who were dire.
We cannot continue to field teams without the strongest players in the county. Why is John Clarke not on the team? Why was Michael Walsh sitting in the stand in Longford? What has happened to Martin Cole? What about Colgan? These are questions than need answered, if only because of the inept performances both on the field and on the sideline. If Down were winning we, the supporters, would not be asking these questions. Ross and Co are not doing a good job at the minute, the frustration from the supporters was clearly evident at half time in Limerick. Ross stood and watched Down lose a 3-1 lead after 10 minutes to what became a 5 point deficit at half time, he did not think of making a change until more than 34 minutes had been played. Down were second best all over the field, I could see it, everyone in the stand could see it, but the management ignored what was staring them in the face. Cast your mind back to Celtic Park in 1994. Joe Brolly was roasting John Kelly in the first few minutes of the game. He was taken off to be replaced by Paul Higgins, the rest as they say is history. You have to make changes when changes are needed.
We do not have the luxury of buying players when other players are injured, we must use the best players in the county. At present we are not doing that for whatever reason and it is clearly evident by looking at the league table. Defeat tonight will probably mean another year in Division 3 and that is simply not good enough.

[Mid Down Gael]

Tonight is starting to look like a very big game indeed. If Ross get the win, and has his selections and tactics vindicated, promotion will be almost in the bag and we will go into the championship on a high. If things go astray again, questions will be asked.

Even if we manage a win tonight and get at least a point against Roscommon I do not think that this team will be on a high, in fact if we manage to get promoted it will be because other teams have tripped over each other. Down have been quite poor this year, with only one decent performance all year against Louth. Down were poor against Tipperary, the scoreline flattered Down in my opinion. We lost to Cavan and Limerick who were the two bottom teams in the division and we beat Longford, who were dire.
We cannot continue to field teams without the strongest players in the county. Why is John Clarke not on the team? Why was Michael Walsh sitting in the stand in Longford? What has happened to Martin Cole? What about Colgan? These are questions than need answered, if only because of the inept performances both on the field and on the sideline. If Down were winning we, the supporters, would not be asking these questions. Ross and Co are not doing a good job at the minute, the frustration from the supporters was clearly evident at half time in Limerick. Ross stood and watched Down lose a 3-1 lead after 10 minutes to what became a 5 point deficit at half time, he did not think of making a change until more than 34 minutes had been played. Down were second best all over the field, I could see it, everyone in the stand could see it, but the management ignored what was staring them in the face. Cast your mind back to Celtic Park in 1994. Joe Brolly was roasting John Kelly in the first few minutes of the game. He was taken off to be replaced by Paul Higgins, the rest as they say is history. You have to make changes when changes are needed.
We do not have the luxury of buying players when other players are injured, we must use the best players in the county. At present we are not doing that for whatever reason and it is clearly evident by looking at the league table. Defeat tonight will probably mean another year in Division 3 and that is simply not good enough.

Very well put. everything you say is correct. we should be confident of beating offaly but there is a big worry of loosing tonight. lets just hope the boys can get a result but also give a performance to lift team spirits and confidence and give a feel good factor to supporters.