Down Club Hurling & Football

[sabhallphadraig]

A problem this year is the fact that minor games are played the evening before U-16 games.Players should be able to play for their own age group first in the week and then if they are fit play for the older teams,which is important in smaller clubs.Our minor team would be made up of mostly u-16s and often this year one or two pick up a knock and cant play for the 16s the following evening.Without our 16s we would not have a minor team.
I heard it was the minor county management who requested the nights of minor football be changed,I would say alot of clubs will be looking for this to be changed back.
Alot of these teams not being able to field though i put down to laziness,Saul?Drumaness?RGU?The mentors cant be bothered half the time.
U-16 football in the East Down A section is off a good standard and is much better than Minor B section.

Just a bit of a generalisation there Bitta don't ya think? Prior to leagues being drawn up this year, Saul submitted a request to the ED open mtg that minor games be switched back to start in Feb (Sundays) so that they were clear of the exam period plus didn't overlap with U16s on which most clubs are dependent for players. This was rejected by a number of clubs and so the games are slap-bang in exam phase (which is obviously what most others wanted). We're seeing the knock-on from that decision now and ED really have to handle this differently next year.  In terms of mentors not being bothered, that certainly wasn't the case in our club as we had a motivated management team in place but the commitment to turn up to training/coaching from enough of the minor players wasn't great enough to field without large nums of U16s (who as you've pointed out were going to have their own games the night after the minor ones) and so decision (unfortunate but right in the end) was taken to withdraw well before the league started. Sad but true ....

[off the laces]

A problem this year is the fact that minor games are played the evening before U-16 games.Players should be able to play for their own age group first in the week and then if they are fit play for the older teams,which is important in smaller clubs.Our minor team would be made up of mostly u-16s and often this year one or two pick up a knock and cant play for the 16s the following evening.Without our 16s we would not have a minor team.
I heard it was the minor county management who requested the nights of minor football be changed,I would say alot of clubs will be looking for this to be changed back.
Alot of these teams not being able to field though i put down to laziness,Saul?Drumaness?RGU?The mentors cant be bothered half the time.
U-16 football in the East Down A section is off a good standard and is much better than Minor B section.

Bitta you will find that the So Called BIGGER clubs asked for the league to stay as is and subsequently the saul motion was voted out, not sure what their reasons where but it's the smaller clubs who are now suffering because of it.

Just a bit of a generalisation there Bitta don't ya think? Prior to leagues being drawn up this year, Saul submitted a request to the ED open mtg that minor games be switched back to start in Feb (Sundays) so that they were clear of the exam period plus didn't overlap with U16s on which most clubs are dependent for players. This was rejected by a number of clubs and so the games are slap-bang in exam phase (which is obviously what most others wanted). We're seeing the knock-on from that decision now and ED really have to handle this differently next year.  In terms of mentors not being bothered, that certainly wasn't the case in our club as we had a motivated management team in place but the commitment to turn up to training/coaching from enough of the minor players wasn't great enough to field without large nums of U16s (who as you've pointed out were going to have their own games the night after the minor ones) and so decision (unfortunate but right in the end) was taken to withdraw well before the league started. Sad but true ....

[DownFanatic]

There are a number of solutions to the problems that are inherent within the East Down Minor Leagues at the moment. Some are more radical than others.

The best solution would be to start the Minor Leagues in mid February. This was the case a number of years ago and in my opinion it worked really well. Games were played on Sundays and the Leagues were usually wound up at the end of April. This left the rest of the Summer for the MFC.

Some of the smaller clubs rely on a lot of U-16's to make up their Minor teams. With U-16's on the following night from Minor games, this is severely reducing the chances of a player combining both.

Although I believe football is a great respite during exam time, the increasing pressure on young fellas to concentrate wholly on their studies from teachers and parents inevitably leads them to opting for studying over playing matches. The exams stretch from mid May until the end of June and usually there are 6 or so games during this period which a sizeable amount of GCSE and A Level students wont play in.

Also, with the Minor Leagues not starting until April, this means that the majority of players from the smaller clubs are having to combine Minor, Reserve and Senior football all in one week. Ill give you an example of a player in our club: Sunday: Reserves game, Monday: Minor training, Tuesday: Minor game, Wednesday: Senior training and then Friday: Senior game. That leaves Thursdays and Saturdays as his only free days off from football.

The bigger clubs such as Carryduff, Kilcoo and Bryansford etc dont face half the problems that the smaller clubs face. Their Minor teams are generally made up of players who are exclusively of Minor age. Also, only a small handful of their Minor players will be playing Reserve football or even Senior football for that matter.

Hopefully at the next East Down convention some of the bigger clubs will see sense and vote for changes to the Minor Leagues. There is no doubt that proposals from the smaller clubs will be put forward. If the status quo remains then we are going to see a similar pattern of teams withdrawing and not fielding.

[umpire]

Senior
Rostrevor 0.5 Mayobridge 2.8
Cathal Magee got 2 goals

[supersub]

Senior
Rostrevor 0.5 Mayobridge 2.8
Cathal Magee got 2 goals

2 goalkeepin errors for the two goals. Bridge had Barry sent off in the first half. Weird game, we played well but somehow ended up getting beaten by quite a bit in the end!!

[DownFanatic]

An Riocht  2-11 0-9 Glasdrumman  in Div 2

[Mid Down Gael]

Div one Results

Loughinisland 1-11 Bryansford 4-11
Kilcoo 1-9 Warrenpoint 0-12
Saval and Burren also drew.

[dundroma]

dundrum beat Drumaness

[dundroma]

glenn beat st johns by 14 points

[DownFanatic]

Friday 12th June 2009

O Neills Down SFL Division 1
Team 1 Score Score Team 2 Venue Comment   
Loughinisland  0-11 4-11 Bryansford  Loughinisland Round 10 
Kilcoo  1-9 0-12 Warrenpoint  Kilcoo Round 10 

O Neills Down SFL Division 3
Team 1 Score Score Team 2 Venue Comment   
Ardglass  6-17 1-6 St Pauls  Ardglass Round 10 
Saul  1-10 3-10 Tullylish  Saul Round 10
Drumaness 0-11 0-14 Dundrum  Drumaness Round 10

[norabeag]

RGU bt Darragh Cross by 1pt.
Poor enough game 7-6

[DownFanatic]

Drumgath beat Teconnaught by 5. Also heard that Carryduff turned over Ballyholland by a point.

[mournerambler]

glenn beat st johns by 14 points

That'll bring them back to this planet with a bang, if it's true

[general]

glenn beat st johns by 14 points

That'll bring them back to this planet with a bang, if it's true

Glenn 3.15 St Johns 1.7

massive win for Ardglass. We travel there mon nite, should be intresting

[DownFanatic]

glenn beat st johns by 14 points

That'll bring them back to this planet with a bang, if it's true

Glenn 3.15 St Johns 1.7

What did Matty Bagnall get of Glenn's total?