Down Club Hurling & Football

[mournerambler]

Saturday in Longford of all places.

[Lecale2]

Hurling results

Div 1
Portaferry    0-6   3-12   Ballycran      
Liatriom    5-15   1-7   Newry      
Ballela    1-17   1-9   Point   
Ballygalget v Bredagh (Sunday)

Div 2
Warrenpoint v Clonduff OFF
Carryduff 1-4 5-4 Ballygalget
Ballyvarley    3-11   2-10   Castlewellan

[Mourne Rover]

Just a quick mention for Pete McGrath. Not counting his involvement with St Colman's, he has now managed Down teams to  six Ulster titles - two each at minor, u21 and senior. He has three AIs to his name and he is not finished yet. Pete made the right calls again tonight, and his tactics against the wind were spot on. Congratulations to him,and to Liam Murphy and Mickey Linden as well.

[Farrandeelin]

Will there be much of ye travelling to Longford on Saturday?

[johnneycool]

Word filtering through on the grapevine is that the hurling squad had a session with a sports psychologist the night before they played Carlow and a lot of negativity was directed at the manager.

For the life of me I cannot understand the 'benefit' these individuals bring to a team plus I think it's the easy option to berate the manager when a lot of the players just aren't up to the task. It isn't the manager who goes out the next day and doesn't mark his man or doesn't bother his hole to turn up to some of the training sessions.

now jingo has his faults but it's more to do with some of this 'support' staff and his strange expenses but some of his coaching staff are second to none in the north and highly rated by some of the better and dedicated hurlers on the team plus no one else wants the job, well anyone in their right mind that is.

some of the players need to get thier heads out of their holes in terms of their own abilities.

If used properly over the course of a season they can be very beneficial to teams in terms of goal setting, enhancing confidence and counteracting anxiety amongst other areas. The difference between athletes at the top level of sport where physiologically they are very similarly matched is often who has the stronger mental ability. However, as a one off session or a magical solution it can have a negative effect.

Spoken like a true sports scientist 

I didn't like to say 

On the subject of 'strong mental ability' or balls in gentlemens speak then they wouldn't need a conduit to vent their spleen at Jingo, they'd be man enough to say it to the lads face as surely honesty of thought and effort has to be the central core to any team.

We'll see on sunday when they have to beat Kerry to stay in Div2 how the team ethic is going..

[spiritof91and94]

Just a quick mention for Pete McGrath. Not counting his involvement with St Colman's, he has now managed Down teams to  six Ulster titles - two each at minor, u21 and senior. He has three AIs to his name and he is not finished yet. Pete made the right calls again tonight, and his tactics against the wind were spot on. Congratulations to him,and to Liam Murphy and Mickey Linden as well.

not forgetting Paddy Hardy

[behind the wire]

have got to hand it to pete, tactics were excellent in the second half last night. excellent performance.

as usual very shakey at the back although the lads defended for their lives in the second half. given the conditions the handling and long range point taking was excellent. this down side gave an exibition of what can be achieved when the ball is moved quickly out of denfence. no sideways passing at half back.

i thought conor maginn went through a mountain of work for the whole game and magee, while probably not a midfielder, proved to be much more effective when moved further up field in the second half. Peter Fitzpatrick was immense at midfield and in my opinion joe murphy epitomised what down football should be all about. he never quit from start to finish, battled continually and got up to support the attack when possible, even though he was marking jamie clarke who is probably armaghs best forward. he even got up to make a great catch in midfield at one stage and played an integral role in working the ball out of the defence for the down goal.

the whole team showed great fighting spirit and hopefully we will see more of the same against mayo on saturday.

p.s. great crowd last night, stand was full 15 minutes before the match. national anthem was a disgrace, reminded me of an ice cream van music.

[Our Nail Loney]

Just a quick mention for Pete McGrath. Not counting his involvement with St Colman's, he has now managed Down teams to  six Ulster titles - two each at minor, u21 and senior. He has three AIs to his name and he is not finished yet. Pete made the right calls again tonight, and his tactics against the wind were spot on. Congratulations to him,and to Liam Murphy and Mickey Linden as well.

Agreed, Pete is an absolute gent and has done tremendous work... Would be great to see his record broken down, including forrays into club football and the College...

[Our Nail Loney]

have got to hand it to pete, tactics were excellent in the second half last night. excellent performance.

as usual very shakey at the back although the lads defended for their lives in the second half. given the conditions the handling and long range point taking was excellent. this down side gave an exibition of what can be achieved when the ball is moved quickly out of denfence. no sideways passing at half back.

i thought conor maginn went through a mountain of work for the whole game and magee, while probably not a midfielder, proved to be much more effective when moved further up field in the second half. Peter Fitzpatrick was immense at midfield and in my opinion joe murphy epitomised what down football should be all about. he never quit from start to finish, battled continually and got up to support the attack when possible, even though he was marking jamie clarke who is probably armaghs best forward. he even got up to make a great catch in midfield at one stage and played an integral role in working the ball out of the defence for the down goal.

the whole team showed great fighting spirit and hopefully we will see more of the same against mayo on saturday.

p.s. great crowd last night, stand was full 15 minutes before the match. national anthem was a disgrace, reminded me of an ice cream van music.

How do ya think we will cope against Aiden O'Se given that some senior defences havent been able to the last few rounds in the league... 

[spiritof91and94]

Will the league games go ahead on Friday night?

[behind the wire]

Nail, going on last nights performance i dont think we will. im a big fan of petes but was surprised by his choice of defenders for this years panel. we have a couple of players in the club that would fit in well to that full back line. hopefully get past mayo on saturday anyway then who knows.

was proud to be a down man last night anyway.

[mournerambler]

Will the league games go ahead on Friday night?

Yes, but starred for U21 players AFAIK.

[dodgy umpire]

. national anthem was a disgrace, reminded me of an ice cream van music.

it sounded like a ring tone i used to have on an old nokia 

Not sure if the question has been asked before but was just wondering does anyone know the reason why the U21's play in the yellow jersey?

the red and orange of the respective teams might have been difficult to distinguish between under lights?

[Trevor Hill]

Not sure if the question has been asked before but was just wondering does anyone know the reason why the U21's play in the yellow jersey?

the red and orange of the respective teams might have been difficult to distinguish between under lights?

Down U21s have played in the yellow jersies in all three of their U21 games so far, maybe its a superstition like when the senior team used to play in long sleeved jersies, who knows but I wouldnt be changing them now.

[T O Hare]

Try and predict the correct score of the Bridge v point match tonight!!!! Correct score wins a goodie bag!!!!!