Down Club Hurling & Football

[No1]

Brilliant news.

[Overthebar!]

wonder what odds you would get on down for ulster this year? could be worth a punt!

[Lecale2]

Prayers answered! Good news for An Riocht as well.

[bikeflyer30]

Good news ,good for the county but a few people on hear had said this was going to happen! does anyone know what went wrong?

[Tomorrow is another day]

An Riocht are now a racing certainty for winning Div II and playing in Div I next year

[charlie stubbs]

wonder what odds you would get on down for ulster this year? could be worth a punt!

great player to watch but alot of people will have their tinted glasses on here.  the transformation from minor to senior is a difficult one to make for any player(colgan would be a prime example) and it will be unfair to expect 1 player to turn a team of also ranms in ulster into a winning team. 
marty will def make a difference to down and good luck to him, but it wasnt so long ago since the longford defeat and down will need to sort their defence out before there is talk of winning prizes again. 
him and coulter in full flight be good to watch though. 
wonder will john be on the team this year 2??

[thewobbler]

minor to senior is a difficult one to make for any player

He's not going from Minor to Senior. He's going from 3 years of professional AFL conditioning to County football.

I'd be looking at building the team around him at centre half-back.

[spiritof91and94]

i agree that pete should move on,the emphasis should now be on wee james and his management team as they begin their reign with all down supporters behind them-UP DOWN

Well said.
Unfortunately Pete is setting himself up for an even more embarrassing rejection by Armagh.

What about Bryansford? - he stated his intentions is to do another year as he took the job for two years initially.

[lfdown2]

minor to senior is a difficult one to make for any player

He's not going from Minor to Senior. He's going from 3 years of professional AFL conditioning to County football.

I'd be looking at building the team around him at centre half-back.

seriously wobbler, i would have thought he would be made for chf, one of 2 thing imo would happen if played in chb, either a gaping hole in the defence with him roaming forward or a waste of his attacking ability?

[amallon]

Great news for Down things are really looking up with an exciting new management team in place and todays news is the icing on the cake.

Working our where to play Marty Clarke is a nice delima to be faced with but I would have thought somewhere in the forwards would have been his best position. 

[Cúig huaire]

Either centre half forward or centre half back, but its a nice dilemma to have. I`d say Wee James is smiling today.

[DownFanatic]

minor to senior is a difficult one to make for any player

He's not going from Minor to Senior. He's going from 3 years of professional AFL conditioning to County football.

I'd be looking at building the team around him at centre half-back.

To play Clarke in any other position than centre half forward would be ludicrous. He is one of the most natural flair playmakers Ive ever witnessed. His direct running approach and long distance shooting capabilities would be wasted in the half back line.

[Cúig huaire]

minor to senior is a difficult one to make for any player

He's not going from Minor to Senior. He's going from 3 years of professional AFL conditioning to County football.

I'd be looking at building the team around him at centre half-back.

To play Clarke in any other position than centre half forward would be ludicrous. He is one of the most natural flair playmakers Ive ever witnessed. His direct running approach and long distance shooting capabilities would be wasted in the half back line.

Not necessarily, he has played in defence for Collingwood and we arent exactly awash with defenders. Himself, Liam Doyle and Kevin Duffin would make a hell of a half back line.

[thewobbler]

LF, centre-forward was definitely his natural position and probably is still his best spot.

But to my untrained eye, midfield in Aussie Rules seems more like a defensive role - with positional play and stopping more important than passing and movement – and if he has picked up these key skills, to augment his passing and athleticism, he could be an absolute phenomenon at centre-back in Gaelic Football. 

I'd also have high hopes that Conor Maginn might fulfil his promise at centre three-quarters as he fills out over the next couple of years. It would be a lovely prospect to have those two footballing brains in the engine room for Down.

[saffron sam2]

LF, centre-forward was definitely his natural position and probably is still his best spot.

But to my untrained eye, midfield in Aussie Rules seems more like a defensive role - with positional play and stopping more important than passing and movement – and if he has picked up these key skills, to augment his passing and athleticism, he could be an absolute phenomenon at centre-back in Gaelic Football.  

I'd also have high hopes that Conor Maginn might fulfil his promise at centre three-quarters as he fills out over the next couple of years. It would be a lovely prospect to have those two footballing brains in the engine room for Down.

Interesting, but is chb the pivotal position that it was in the era of Downey / Breen etc? Look at stand out chb at the minute (Canty) and how he totally nullified in the All-Ireland final.  Look also at Tyrone who won the AI in 2008 without a traditional centre-half back. The threat he offers could be neutralised more easily from chb than chf.

Just give him a jersey and tell him to do what he wants.