Down Club Hurling & Football

[downjim]

Can anyone confirm was Tom O'Hare and Danny Kelly in Dublin meeting the queen.. I heard this last night???

[Gabriel]

Can anyone shed light on how Peter Fitzpatrick played last night? Have always found him a very frustrating player to watch as he mixes the excellent with the ridiculous at times. I wonder if there will still be a place for Peter on the team when Ambrose returns to full fitness.

[NP 76]

Just like to say no word of Alba2 after his anaylis of the two teams last week in the build up to the game. Some of the choices last night was unbelievable . Why start with John Clarke why Anton Mc Ardle why perservere with Daniel on Jamie Clarke . I said last week about Mc Kernan needs to remember he is a defender which he doesnt do how many times did they run right through the middle un opposed not good enough as a chb . People critised Colgan at chb said he was too slow this didnt happen when he was no 6 . Somone else said about murtagh starting in place of Hughes/M Clarke /Maginn /or Poland are you wise these men our the hearbeat of this team with their workrate maybe not last night but normally are . Maginn came on and was Downs best player where as Ronan came on and didnt contribute at all except to do what he did against Dublin and balloon the ball in instead of trying to work a score hasnt learnt anything from Dublin. This game relly showed our lack of options all over the field . I thought that Paul Murphy should of got a run when the probelms were all around the mid field at least he would of drove forward . Big probelm too that none of our men can kick the ball forward accurately bar Martin clarke all to content to off load a short hand pass . Aidan Carr at least can kick good quality ball in the forwards and he wasnt even on the panel

[Mid Down Gael]

Down minors defeat was also hard to stomach last night. They where cruising up until the last 15 minutes and somehow threw a ten point lead away. Pete McGrath had a lot to do with this as he never changed an outplayed midfield and let Miskelly persist with kick outs straight out the middle to the dominant Armagh pairing and the roving Paul McGeown who was outstanding.
Darragh OHanlon should have been dropped into centre half back as the middle was left open too ofter in the latter stages especially.
This was a side who had the ability to claim an Ulster title at least and its hard to believe the way they threw it away.

[T O Hare]

Can anyone confirm was Tom O'Hare and Danny Kelly in Dublin meeting the queen.. I heard this last night???

LOL you tube!!! That correct, Kelly's hand was seen lifting the pint of stout Philly left in the storehouse 

[T O Hare]

Down minors defeat was also hard to stomach last night. They where cruising up until the last 15 minutes and somehow threw a ten point lead away. Pete McGrath had a lot to do with this as he never changed an outplayed midfield and let Miskelly persist with kick outs straight out the middle to the dominant Armagh pairing and the roving Paul McGeown who was outstanding.
Darragh OHanlon should have been dropped into centre half back as the middle was left open too ofter in the latter stages especially.
This was a side who had the ability to claim an Ulster title at least and its hard to believe the way they threw it away.

I was disappointed my club mate Jamie Barr never was called into midfield as he played all the league games and is a great fielder of the ball. centre half back was a problem as well as the middle and Darragh would have been ideal for that position.

[NP 76]

Agree 100% Mid Down Gael management looked like startled birds not knowing what to do never even tried a short kick out at all kept kicking it to Mc Geown . It really was a good job Shay Mc Cartan was playing or the scoreboard would of looked alot worse . Defence was all over the place right through the second half yet nothing was done to sort it out poor performance .

[lucan]

well done pete first the under 21;s and now the minors.

[SHEEDY]

both matches last night were as equally frustrating as they were disappointing. the management of both the minors and the seniors have to take the blame as it was obvious were the weaknesses were and they were to slow to make changes.

theres not to many teams that score 5 goals and lose. questions need to be asked of the management how that was allowed to happen.

the seniors were really disappointing and showed just how limited some of our options are all over the field. thought our star names just didnt show. armagh seemed to want it more for which there is no excuse. as for being tactically out thought by POR i didnt see that coming.

[thegael]

Please explain the following -
John Clarke doesn't start a game since the first league game , he was lucky to start All Ireland final yet he starts v Armagh.
Midfield McArdle is brought on as midfield sub , where did he come from ? I know about genetics but to come on in Ulster Senior Football C'ship , I'M baffled !
The full back line has been  weak point since All Ireland and prior yet we have 2 out of 3 still there.
Who was our midfield when King went in (for a rest) to full forward?
We haven't sorted out reliable free takers from both sides.
Benny is taken off !
Our kickouts were a disaster in All Ireland Final and also in league v Cork and others and yet again v Armagh .
Ronan Murtagh , Paul Murphy ,Conor Laverty ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, unfairly treated.
Maginn injured ?  yet fit to come on after 23 mins maybe he wasn't injured but just not picked ahead of J Clarke ..............
Team weekends not everyone buying into the team ethic and starting players who are  drinking as they see fit ........
Please help to clear up these things...........
I want answers to the above .

[Mourne Rover]

Without adding to the general sense of gloom after Saturday night, the result means that we have won just two of the last 30 Ulster senior championships. Considering our traditions, and the quality of players available to us, that is a pretty appalling record. Of course, the qualifiers mean that the provincial series is less important than it was but our performances in the open draw - apart from 2010 - have also been poor.

Our underage results in Ulster  are only marginally better over the same 30 year period, with three minor wins and five at u21 level. Across the three grades, we have therefore managed ten provincial titles out of the last 90 available. If those 90 titles had been divided equally among the nine counties, ten is exactly the average figure we could have expected. In other words, in the modern era, we have simply been an average Ulster county.

It is possible that the two All Ireland wins in 91 and 94, and the run to the final last year, have given us an inflated sense of our standing, and it is probably true that other teams regard us as a major scalp and tend to raise their game against us significantly. However, all in all, the evidence is that there has often been something lacking in our approach to championship football. Saturday night was a disappointment, but it should not have been a surprise.

[guevara]

We were beaten by a hungrier team who looked like they wanted to prove a point. A lot of Down folk thought all we had to do was turn up & we would beat Armagh out the gate but Championship Football has a funny habit of biting you in the ass.
On the game Down were all over the lace early on. Our forward line was getting no change from a stubborn Armagh defense & middle of the park the less said the better.
Wee James needs to take off the Burren tinted glasses. Yes they are County Champions & deservedly so but how his management team & himself can justify some of their decisions is beyond me.
Guys like Paul Murphy who by all accounts had started the Down League campaign in  marvellous form in midfield watches a guy come on & play midfield when it could be argued he shouldnt be even on the panel. He mustve been wondering why he came back at all. The politics of it are quite sad. Young guys would be better off develoing with their clubs & actually earning their place on the County Squad instead of being brought in because they were going rightly at U-21 or look to be one for the future.
Its simply not good enough when theres other fellas sitting there knowing they could do a better job.
Its the same for young fellas like Paul Devlin. What good are they to anyone when they are missing valuable club games to sit in the stand for the county??
Admittedly we had a few injuries yesterday but Armagh also were limited through casualties.
No excuses at all better team won. But with better decision making by the management team a poor Down team couldve got out the gate with a win.

[Long Ball]

I have a lot of respect for Pete McGrath, but last night he (because they lost the game) cancelled the minor's meal after the game.
What point was he trying to prove by doing this ridiculous action? Shocking way to treat young fellas who were undoubtably hurting after the defeat.

[mournerambler]

I have a lot of respect for Pete McGrath, but last night he (because they lost the game) cancelled the minor's meal after the game.
What point was he trying to prove by doing this ridiculous action? Shocking way to treat young fellas who were undoubtably hurting after the defeat.

he thought this was the only course of action he could take after hearing someone in the crowd commenting that the minor team wern't hungry enough.

[Oglach]

All yous are good for is going to Dublin and kissing the ass off the Queen. Do you think the boys from south Armagh that has come though so much as a result off the Queen was going to stand back and let a team that kissed her ass a few days earlier come to Armagh and beat them? NOT A CHANCE yous should hold your heads in shame

To back OFF the net! It sounds to me when men were involved in conflict with Libby Windsor's force's you were filling your nappy! Now you're talking it. Hard luck to Down, we were in it for 50mins but never won a ball in midfeild last 20 mins. If you don't have the ball you can't play. We miss big Dan G awfull in the middle.