Down Club Hurling & Football

[redandblackareback]

  young poucher does get a wee bit excited at times, would love to see the lads heart rate levels during games

I felt for once we stood up to the cynical/physical game Tyrone bring so the men along the line deserve a bit of credit! The team looked reasonably well organised and only on occassions played as individuals, we could have worked the ball out of defence a bit better but maybe that was due to the intense Cavan pressure on our lads, O Reilly was obviously playing as the sweeper and he covered an enormous amount of ground to be fair to the lad.

Exciting game and maybe worth travelling to Omagh for, although hope Down havent missed the boat, there was a lot of mistakes from tyrone and I do feel they will get better, will we???  had a nice couple of pints after the game and I am looking forward to seeing the "Blue Army" do the business tomorow!! 

[pointlad]

Is Ross Mcgarry in the squad?

Yeah, saw him there at the match as a waterboy, looked like a hand injury with bandage/cast on it.

[NP 76]

Whats new with Mc Garry being injured . Is Paul Devlin injured or what

[alba2]

Thun poucher is a wingnut along the line, he has more signs and signals than rafa benetiz and don't think the players no what he is talking about half the time.

signs - all the man does is clap and shake his fist at the lads.  he is a complete nutter.  Should concentrate on what he is good at - training teams - and step back on game days beccause he is clearly a loose cannon. Not sure the lads understand what exactly he wants either in the kingdom or with the county - think he was causing a bit of controversy in Burren with his seconds team the other week - crazy fool...

[mournerambler]

Great result last night after the disappointment of last weekend, we could have & should have been further ahead at half-time though, still nice to be able to go to Dublin & Kerry with Division 1 status for 2012 already secured.Now we can go there hoping for a league final place which was unthinkable 2 years ago, on a side note, I thought  the half-time entertainment was cringe, thought I was at a soccer match in Celtic Park with the songs that were being played over the PA & no on field games or entertainment of any sort for the supporters to enjoy.

[western exile]

Great result last night after the disappointment of last weekend, we could have & should have been further ahead at half-time though, still nice to be able to go to Dublin & Kerry with Division 1 status for 2012 already secured.Now we can go there hoping for a league final place which was unthinkable 2 years ago, on a side note, I thought  the half-time entertainment was cringe, thought I was at a soccer match in Celtic Park with the songs that were being played over the PA & no on field games or entertainment of any sort for the supporters to enjoy.

A League final place is out of their hands, as beating both Dublin and Kerry would still leave them in 3rd place if Dublin beat Galway and Cork beat both Mayo and Armagh.

[PAULD123]

I genuinely expect to beat Dublin:

We have a fast skilful attack - Dublin have shown their defence has huge issues, I believe we will exploit that

Dublin are indirect a lot of the time, trying to pass the ball a lot between themselves - We will intercept

Dublin rely on Brogan - We will do what we have done all year, we will close down fast and force a pass to a less skilful colleague further out

Dublin have scored goals against defences that have gone man-man on their attackers - We are not good enough for that so we will (as above) close down with several players to force a backward pass

Dublin midfield is far from great - The better the opposition midfield the worse we have performed. Our problem area will not be as badly exposed as by Cork.

Dublin is in transition, their team is totally unsettled - We have almost a regular starting 12-13 players, its much better to have a settled side.

Croke park is huge and should allow us to exploit our attack strategy which is to pull the half forwards into midfield to scrap for the ball, leaving a couple of fast players up front fairly isolated, then hit long balls past them for them to sprint on to. It is a simple strategy but worked really well against Galway, Armagh and Mayo.

The freedom of being already safe in the division will allow the lads the freedom to play attacking football, which is our best football.

I am not sure about beating Kerry but I do have great faith we can beat Dublin

[knockitdown]

I genuinely expect to beat Dublin:

We have a fast skilful attack - Dublin have shown their defence has huge issues, I believe we will exploit that

Dublin are indirect a lot of the time, trying to pass the ball a lot between themselves - We will intercept

Dublin rely on Brogan - We will do what we have done all year, we will close down fast and force a pass to a less skilful colleague further out

Dublin have scored goals against defences that have gone man-man on their attackers - We are not good enough for that so we will (as above) close down with several players to force a backward pass

Dublin midfield is far from great - The better the opposition midfield the worse we have performed. Our problem area will not be as badly exposed as by Cork.

Dublin is in transition, their team is totally unsettled - We have almost a regular starting 12-13 players, its much better to have a settled side.

Croke park is huge and should allow us to exploit our attack strategy which is to pull the half forwards into midfield to scrap for the ball, leaving a couple of fast players up front fairly isolated, then hit long balls past them for them to sprint on to. It is a simple strategy but worked really well against Galway, Armagh and Mayo.

The freedom of being already safe in the division will allow the lads the freedom to play attacking football, which is our best football.

I am not sure about beating Kerry but I do have great faith we can beat Dublin

After reading this I really cant see how Down wont win the All Ireland!!

[Pangurban]

Paudie 123 has clearly not been watching Dublin this season. Yes they have a brittle defence, largely because they all like to attack, and frequently get caught out. Against an attack of Downs quality they will be more circumspect. Also in terms of fitness they are at least 2 months ahead of any other team, in their preparation. While brogan is their main threat, they are far from being reliant on him,  and have a wide scoring threat from half-backs forward. i believe Down can give them a game, but cant see them beating them at this stage of season in Croke Park. The likelihood is that Dublin are peaking too early, and will be taking out easily later on in season

[5 Sams]

Monday 28th March (7 45)
ACPRL Div 2
Tullylish v Longstone(F Lavery)
Tues 29th March (8 00)
ACPRL Div 1
Castlewellan v Rostrevor(A Sharvin)
Wed 30th March (7 00)
ACPRL Div 1
Loughinisland v Burren(M Curran)
Carryduff v An Riocht(M Davy)
Bryansford v Mayobridge(Ryan Mc Dowell)
Clonduff v Kilcoo(D Ryan)
ACPRL Div 2
Ballyholland v Clann na Banna(G Mc Grath)
St Johns v Longstone(P Stacey)
Saval v Bredagh(M Devlin)
Annaclone v Tullylish(E Mc Grath)
Downpatrick v Liatroim(J Killen)

[downredblack]

Does anyone know how Ambrose is getting on ?

[mournerambler]

Great result last night after the disappointment of last weekend, we could have & should have been further ahead at half-time though, still nice to be able to go to Dublin & Kerry with Division 1 status for 2012 already secured.Now we can go there hoping for a league final place which was unthinkable 2 years ago, on a side note, I thought  the half-time entertainment was cringe, thought I was at a soccer match in Celtic Park with the songs that were being played over the PA & no on field games or entertainment of any sort for the supporters to enjoy.

A League final place is out of their hands, as beating both Dublin and Kerry would still leave them in 3rd place if Dublin beat Galway and Cork beat both Mayo and Armagh.

I said 'hoping' for a league final place if you had taken the time to read it properly, i'm well aware of the other teams' current league positions & possible final league positions, but thanks for sharing your mathematical skills with us.

[PAULD123]

Does anyone know how Ambrose is getting on ?

Funny I was just going to ask the same question. Anyone from Longstone on this forum who can tell us how he's getting on?

Also what about Liam Doyle, is he getting anywhere near being back to his best?

[Dubh driocht]

I understand Ambrose is in contention for a run out in Killarney.Liam may need a little longer.

[whitegoodman]

I really hope ur right  Dubh driocht about Amrbose but i fear u may be being a little optimistic.