Down Club Hurling & Football

[Catch the high ball]

carryduff unlucky to lose a man, played very well for a very young team. Ballyvarley played there usual sheep in a heap style hurlin but dragged out the who. Final should be as horrible as the semi's

Thought Carryduff played very well with such a young team, Conway played well in full forward and Early put in a good show at half back. The sending of really turned the game with the Ballyvarley goal coming from the resulting free.

Gives them some encouragement for next year.

Any views on the other Junior semi?

[western exile]

saval beat ballymartin by 2!!! pretty poor game and the ref didnt help much either!!! saval slowed the whole game down the second half an there was only 1 minute added time!!!
saval happy enough tho into the quarter finals!!!

Who would want to be a referee when there are ill-informed comments like that! I notice that this was your first post on this board, so I will leave it at that.

I was a neutral at that game, and I thought that the referee did an excellent job at taking control of the game when there were some players on both sides who were playing on the edge and would have been red carded on another day. The game could have developed into a farce, but with good refereeing it turned out to be very competitive.  Saval just about deserved their 2 point victory in the end.

[Trap 2]

are u serious we the ref had a complete nitemare in the saval v bmartin game!!! danny hughes was practically raped on several occasions with late tackles and off the ball stuff!! he booked james doran and gavin quinn in the first couple of mins for abs nothin and thats just one example!! catch yourself on!! i see u have 651 posts and still dont have a clue!!!

[centre 3/4s]

Have to agree with trap the standard of refereeing is shite, the total lack of common sence is poiling the games it seems as though they all interpret the rules differently.

[dundrumite]

The old referee chestnut. This has been highlighted on this forum for as long as I can remember. Yes, the referees do make co@k ups. However, as I have stated before I have yet to see a player who plays the perfect game. Mistakes happen, accept it and get on with it.
This continual highlighting of who they didn't book, or gave a free too when the opposition didn't give a free for a similar incident etc blah de blah is quite frankly boring.

[Out in Front]

What about the verbal abuse of referees from the sidelines?
When is a linesman/fourth official suppose to step in and say "enough's enough"?
Was at a fair few games over the weekend and witnessed and heard some shocking verbals being fired pitchside at the referee yet not once did a fellow official step in properly to stop it.
There was the odd 'now, now' type of thing.

[umpire]

The old referee chestnut. This has been highlighted on this forum for as long as I can remember. Yes, the referees do make co@k ups. However, as I have stated before I have yet to see a player who plays the perfect game. Mistakes happen, accept it and get on with it.
This continual highlighting of who they didn't book, or gave a free too when the opposition didn't give a free for a similar incident etc blah de blah is quite frankly boring.

Totally agreed with you Dundrumite.
Referees are not perfect, they do make mistakes, same as players

I am grateful for all referees who take up whistles in order for us to enjoy our games.

[Pangurban]

The reality is that a lot of the morons who stand on the sidelines abusing referees are unfamiliar with the rules themselves. very few off them would put themselves forward to do the job, lets be honest none of them would. They are neither use nor ornament too their Clubs or anyone else

[Out in Front]

Unfortunately it wasn't limited to abusing the referee. As witnessed during a championship match...

A boy (he looked about 12) practicing his toe-taps and what as they do along the sideline beside the pitchside fence accidentally kicks the ball onto the pitch and a club man (and I'd say from his attire the same club) along the line 'roars' at him to "stop f***in' about with the f***in' ball and get away off"...
Then there was one of those moments when time stopped for a spilt second and yer man realises what he's just shouted, the wee boy realises what he's shouted and the world and its mother realises who he's just shouted it at...then life just carried on.
It was uncalled for and there was absolutely no excuse for it.

[Lecale2]

It's hardly surprising that referees make mistakes and get things wrong in club games when you see some of the mistakes made by the best refs at national level. It's not an easy job.

[No1]

It's not an easy job.

It's well paid though.   

[downjim]

well folks i heard really bad news about Ambrose.. think we will be lost without him... also did anyone see bennys column in the democrat this week.. i thought he was a wee bit hard on Rostrevor and the players!!!

[Out in Front]

well folks i heard really bad news about Ambrose.. think we will be lost without him... also did anyone see bennys column in the democrat this week.. i thought he was a wee bit hard on Rostrevor and the players!!!

Sorry downjim, don't read it myself  what did he write?

[downjim]

well folks i heard really bad news about Ambrose.. think we will be lost without him... also did anyone see bennys column in the democrat this week.. i thought he was a wee bit hard on Rostrevor and the players!!!

Sorry downjim, don't read it myself  what did he write?

DOWN Club Championship's took centre stage this weekend and to be fair some of the football was disappointing for the patrons who paid to watch the games.

Ballyholland certainly provided the shock of the round when they hammered Rostrevor in Mayobridge on Thursday evening.

Shane Mulholland had his team in brilliant condition and they tackled like terriers throughout.

Paul Murphy was majestic in midfield but Ronan Murtagh stole the show and hit some excellent scores.

Rostrevor were very disappointing, they lacked hunger and showed little pride for the jersey.

It must be worrying for a club to have won four minor championships in the noughties that they fail to bring more of their talent through. Rostrevor thirds put our thirds out of the Championship a few weeks back and I was amazed at the players who were lining out for them. It seems that the minors coming through are content play thirds football instead of working hard to be a senior footballer.

We (Mayobridge) had a good performance over a battling Warrenpoint side.

The 'Point gave us a lot to think about in the opening 15 minutes but once we got the first goal we were never going to get beaten.

Ronan Sexton and Cathal Magee were excellent for us but we will need to improve if we are going to advance any further in the championship.

Saval was the venue and the club should take a lot of pride in how they conducted the whole evening.

The main game of the evening was Clonduff and An Riocht which were 10 until ten minutes to go.

Clonduff fought hard to earn the replay but they must be worried at how poor they played.

The Kingdom will be disappointed because they should have closed the game out but there is all to play for in the replay which will take place after the All-Ireland semi final between Down and Kildare.

Burren and Kilcoo had big wins with Burren really impressing.

Frank Dawson has certainly built a strong unit and they will be hard to stop in their quest to win the Frank O'Hare cup for the first time in 13 years.

There was some interesting results in the Intermediate Championship with Glenn providing the shock of the round beating their neighbours Clann na Banna.

Annaclone will be favourites for the title now but I believe that if Drumgath can hit the right form that they could go the whole way.

[When We Win]

Interesting coverage of the Intermediate Championship from Benny. But to be fair he is probably close to the mark with Annaclone. Any thoughts on who will win it this year. I fancy a division three team. This division is as strong as ever witnessed and i would expect at least 4 or 5 of the teams could survive division 2.