Down Club Hurling & Football

[goldenyears]

Glen was def not the number 2
He was the manager + he isn't staying on next year

[Brick Tamlin]

both men were joint managers.end of story. neither will be involved next year.

[Leo]

Congratulations to Damien Rafferty, who won the Spirit of Breen Morgan trophy at the Club Down ceremony last night. We only had two or three defenders we could rely on for many years, until this season, and Dee always turned in performances of the highest standard. He had a fantastic 2010, and should at least have had an All Star nomination as well.

Fair play to Club Down for continuing with this award and what a good choice this year in Damien Rafferty. Marvellous to see Wee James, Brendan McVeigh & Kevin McKernan at the event and them only back from Malaysia. A big turn out despite the snow.

[Wind yer neck in]

Can the clubs in Down and the CB included become creative in a money saving venture?
We all know the financial stress most if not all clubs find themselves in, we have to be inventive.
We all can get together rather than separately look at a viable moneysaving exercise and in the past the GAA people are always prepared to find ways out of problems.
What's one if not the biggest outlay of teams,,, physio and medical costs; outside of managers they are the biggest expenses facing clubs.
Could I suggest that our clubs consider pooling together to meet physio costs?
How could this happen in a finacially viable way. My clubs yearly fees are roughly 10k, local clubs (10 mile radius) including Liatroim, Castlewellan, Downpatrick, Clonduff and Kilcoo have roughly the same costs give or take a few pounds in. The cost approx 60k, average wage for Physio in hospital 25-30k, therefore our 6 local clubs alone could actually pay for 2 full time Physios but there isn't the work to justify this. Lets expand this and add all the clubs in Down to employ 2 or 3 Physios the cost could be divided among the 49 clubs in Down with a sliding scale cost to each club i.e. the smaller clubs who have not the same need could pay less into this pool and so all clubs in Down have access to full-time, fully qualified physios the overall cost to clubs is reduced, the out of work physios have full time work, the players have immediate access to a professional set-up thus aiding recovery time and the clubs outlay is immediatley reduced.
Lets expand this and throw in the CB and all the various teams they have, Mens Senior, u-21's, minors and the hurlers and the camogs and the ladies footballers, surely this would also reduce the CB's extensive and expensive medical bills?
This scheme could and would need to be co-ordinated and maybe the CB could bring in an adminstrator to help run this scheme.

[thewobbler]

This really isn't a bad idea at all. Would need a bit of a 'timeshare' agreement put in place, but could work.

I've a funny feeling though that one thing the recession will teach us is that there's feck all difference a physio makes to a groin or hamstring strain, apart from confirming what it is, and syphoning away valuable funds during it's natural recovery.

[andunabu]

Can the clubs in Down and the CB included become creative in a money saving venture?
We all know the financial stress most if not all clubs find themselves in, we have to be inventive.
We all can get together rather than separately look at a viable moneysaving exercise and in the past the GAA people are always prepared to find ways out of problems.
What's one if not the biggest outlay of teams,,, physio and medical costs; outside of managers they are the biggest expenses facing clubs.
Could I suggest that our clubs consider pooling together to meet physio costs?
How could this happen in a finacially viable way. My clubs yearly fees are roughly 10k, local clubs (10 mile radius) including Liatroim, Castlewellan, Downpatrick, Clonduff and Kilcoo have roughly the same costs give or take a few pounds in. The cost approx 60k, average wage for Physio in hospital 25-30k, therefore our 6 local clubs alone could actually pay for 2 full time Physios but there isn't the work to justify this. Lets expand this and add all the clubs in Down to employ 2 or 3 Physios the cost could be divided among the 49 clubs in Down with a sliding scale cost to each club i.e. the smaller clubs who have not the same need could pay less into this pool and so all clubs in Down have access to full-time, fully qualified physios the overall cost to clubs is reduced, the out of work physios have full time work, the players have immediate access to a professional set-up thus aiding recovery time and the clubs outlay is immediatley reduced.
Lets expand this and throw in the CB and all the various teams they have, Mens Senior, u-21's, minors and the hurlers and the camogs and the ladies footballers, surely this would also reduce the CB's extensive and expensive medical bills?
This scheme could and would need to be co-ordinated and maybe the CB could bring in an adminstrator to help run this scheme.

I have to say this is a very interesting and inventive proposal "Wind". Every year at club AGMs I'm sure that everyone is surprised by the "Medical Costs" year on year. This should be looked at and Wobbler's suggestion too.  Good stuff lads!

[Dubh driocht]

Couple of article in the Sindo today suggesting schemes like this -  one problem with the Physio idea is that clubs will want them available at the same time for big games. However, something to consider along with Colm O'Rourke's suggestion that this could also be an opportunity for clubs to undertake development schemes ,pay players who are out of work so that they don't have to emigrate and stimulate the local economy. We need more thinking like this rather than doom and gloom merchants who are focussed on the ( admittedly serious) problems not possible solutions.

[13aside]

have a look at the managers who are sucking hundereds of thousands of pounds out of club coffers with clubs losing players overseas to try and get employment-waken up and boot these bloodsuckers out of our sport for good!!

[supersub]

Any idea who's on this squad of 15 for the u21s at the moment?

[5 Sams]

Any reports from yesterdays convention??

[redandblackareback]

Any idea who's on this squad of 15 for the u21s at the moment?

whats this all about?? U21 Footballers?? Have they had trials or whats the story?

[supersub]

There is an initial panel just for weight training purposes I believe! No trials as yet but will be added to after current u20 competition - which itself is a joke in terms of age limit.

[DownFanatic]

Im just after reading Loughinisland's centenary book that they released a couple of years ago. I have to say it is an outstanding piece of club history work and the effort and detail that went in to it was unreal.  It's definitely the benchmark for any club that intends to record their history in book form.

It has some great nuggets of information. For example, Paddy 'Mo' Doherty played for the Island in the 1974 Down SFC Final against Bryansford. He came off the bench and scored two points but the Ford ended up winning the game with current Down panellist Conor Maginn's father John getting the man of the match award.

Also, it was interesting to see some of the clubs that were in existence in the past namely Ballynahinch, Newcastle, Scollogstown, Dunsford, Ballyhackamore, Magherlone and Tullycarnon. Anybody any idea where the latter is?

[Square Ball]

DF, this was mentioned a while ago on the Hoganstand, Tullycarnon was a junior team from the Ards. Just outside Portaferry

[DownFanatic]

DF, this was mentioned a while ago on the Hoganstand, Tullycarnon was a junior team from the Ards. Just outside Portaferry

I see Sean Og in his report to Convention suggests that the Ards teams enter into the Down JFC. He suggests all three teams enter as single entities or if this is not possible an amalgamated Ards team. Id say there would be a brave few handy footballers on the peninsula.