Down Club Hurling & Football

[True Blue]

In Kerry you would not wear the jersey of your local rivals. Rather you wear the jersey of the regional team - South Kerry, East Kerry, Mid Kerry, Feale Rangers, Shannon Rangers etc.

[/quote]

are you seriosly suggesting that we look at running for talks sake a south down, east down, mourne & west down regional teams for clubs outside the top 16 SFC clubs so that players in lower clubs can play a better grade of football. they would probably only get 1 SFC game and that would be it. i agree with guevera the county should look at some sort of development squad that runs along side the county for potential minors & u21 to develop physically, mentally and prepare for full involvement in the county set up. a much better idea than setting up regional teams. who is going to manage them? what about theses players own club committments?

[Pangurban]

There is no question about it our County players need to be playing senior club football, Maurice Hayes recognised and articulated this back in the 60s to good effect, but we seem to have forgotten

[thegael]

Agree that county players should be still playing club football .
But pangurban you are so servile and silly by using Maurice Hayes as an example to reinforce your point .
As good in the 60 s as Maurice was at organising could you outline what else he did for the gaa during the 70 's , 80's, 90's and in the 2000's? I genuinely would like to know.
we sometimes can give people the name of early risers and then they can lie to noon !!!


                                       the gael takes no prisoners!

[Tomorrow is another day]

True Blue  -

My point is that the previous contributor was factually incorrect in suggesting that a regional team equates to wearing the colours of your local rival.

However I do strongly believe that the Kerry system would be good for Down. In Kerry there are some 6 or 7 only senior clubs all the rest contribute to regions. So there are clubs in the Kerry first division that are not in the Senior Championship.

Newry could really do with a regional team - say Shamrocks, Bosco, Mitchels, Ballyholland, Glenn and Saval creating a Championship team. Then South Down could have a team and separately Mourne. Also North and East Down as one region etc so upto 6 regional teams. Senior clubs would then be say

Burren
Mayobridge
Clonduff
Kilcoo
Bryansford
Rostrevor

[Pangurban]

What a silly post Gael, with your usual negative posture. If Maurice Hayes contributed nothing else to the GAA, his contribution during the late 50s, early 60s was invaluable to our County. i was merely pointed out that one of the keystones of our development and subsequent success, was Maurice idea too take talented players from junior clubs and place them in senior clubs to aid their development. Now what in the name of God, is servile about that

[thegael]

Pangur as you are man of the world and have valuable experience i merely want to know what Maurice did for the gaa actively over the last 40 to 50 years? Please pangur no fudges just an answer.


                                            the gael takes no prisoners!

[Pangurban]

To my knowledge,very little, though there may have been contributions i am not aware off. i fail to see the relevance of this question, in relation to my origianal point

[batman]

I think the chance for lads from st johns, the finn, dundrum, ballykinlar, bright and ardglass to gat a go at the  senior championship would be great, not sure about a mourne team because ballymartin, an riocht and attical have played senior championship in recent years

[Mourne Rover]

Batman, don't forget about the two other Mourne clubs, Longstone, who took Mayobridge to a replay in the 2007 SFC final, and Glasdrumman, the reigning All Ireland Celebrity Bainisteoir champions.

[EagleLord]

Dont call that competition an All-Ireland....

Every club has their good times and bad. Mayobridge had a gap of 80years between championship wins, then went on to win 5 in a row. Same with Kilcoo, 70year wait between thier last 2 senior championship wins, them 2 clubs are among the top 2 (??) clubs in the county at present. Their championship wins are no doubt dedicated to all their previous members who played for the club in its barron years. The hunger is multiplied over such a period of time. Who knows, one of these clubs like Aughlisnafin or St Johns or any you have mentioned might be winning senior championships in 10, 20 years time. Theres no reason why that couldnt happen? It just takes one generation to come through, one group of lads, its no coincidence that Mayobridges success coincided with the careers of Coulter, Sexton, Grant, Walsh.. Kilcoo the same, lads playing now won minor and u21 county championships, Laverty, McEvoy, McGreevey, Kane, then the league, and it was no doubt progressing to a senior championship. Surely a proud day for any Kilcoo player in the 50s or 60s.

[supersub]

I hear down beat cork in their challenge match the other day - anyone any info!?

[Mourne Rover]

I don't know anything about a Cork friendly but, according to Hogan Stand, we beat Meath in a challenge to mark a pitch opening for the Oldcastle club today by something like 1-13 to 0-14. Anyone got some details on the line-up and/or scorers ?

[cabra_harps]

Aye, I heard it was against Meath at a pitch opening too. No word on who scored/done well though.

[DownFanatic]

Down 1-14
Meath 0-13

Meath lost their way after being the better side in the first half of Monday's senior football challenge game at Millbrook to allow Down finish up the winners by a margin of four points.

The game marked the official opening of the Oldcastle club's impressive facilities with Bishop of Meath, Dr Michael Smith, doing the duties. The Down management team gave the day off to most of their NFL Division 2 final team while Eamonn O'Brien also tried out a few players.

Of the Royal county players on trial, Bryan Menton showed more than a little promise at centre-back and the Gilsenan duo, Paddy and Eoin, shared three points from their corner-forward berths.

Meath were 0-7 to 0-1 to the good after 22 minutes but only managed one more point in the first half. Brian Farrell kicked four points before the break and his second from play was a spectacular shot from the wing.

Peadar Byrne, who captained the team, was Nigel Crawford's midfield partner before Conor Gillespie played alongside him after the switching of ends. Graham Reilly led the attack and sent over three points.

Davy Dalton's comeback only lasted half an hour with the returning corner-back forced to retire injured. Down centre-forward Mark Poland struck for the goal on 34 minutes to leave the half-time scores 0-8 to 1-2.

Down outscored their opponents by five points to one in the opening 12 minutes after the restart and Anton McArdle gave them the lead for the first time. Two Gilsenan points, play and free, kept Meath in touch before four successive scores gave their winning margin.

Down - S Kane; S Kearney, D Rooney, L Lennon; C McGovern (0-1), K McKernan, M Doran; D Gordon, P Greenan (0-1); R Sexton, M Poland (1-2, 0-2 frees), T Hanna; C Laverty (0-4), K Anderson, J Clarke (0-1). Subs used: A McArdle (0-1), C Maginn (0-2), P Devlin (0-1), D O'Hagan (0-1).

Meath: P O'Rourke; D Dalton, J Macken, S McAnarney; P Howard, B Menton, G O'Brien (0-1); N Crawford, P Byrne (0-1, 45); S Kenny, G Reilly (0-3), N Mooney (0-1); P Gilsenan (0-2, 1 free), B Farrell (0-4, 2 frees), E Gilsenan (0-1). Subs: S Curran for Dalton, C Lenehan for Kenny, C McPartland for Macken, C Gillespie for Crawford, S Fox for O'Rourke.

Referee: S Carroll (Westmeath).

[extra time]

beat cork saturday