Down Club Hurling & Football

[RadioGAAGAA]

Hard to believe that Conor Laverty and Choc werent on the panel when Ross was in charge, two star performers the other night!

A Hilltown man is always going to have a hard time recognising and appreciating the (obvious) greatness of Kilcoo men! 

[thewobbler]

Sadly, the opinions of the likes of Razor and downjim are reflective of a good percentage of the GAA world's thinking. The lack of commonsense, perspective and acceptance among some GAA fans really riles me.

Message boards should be used to critique and analyse players, decisions, and actions. But I'm always of the opinion that you need to pitch a realistic level for your happiness. And the bit I don't understand is how the mindset of the mouthy critics has become wined and dined to expect perfection - especially from a Down team.

In 25 years of watching and playing football, I've seen something approaching perfection on a rare handful of occasions. I don't expect 15 players to play well at once, because it is such a rarity. I don't expect a star forward to hit 1.07 each week... simply because he will spend a large number of those weeks being marked by a star defender.

I was the mouthiest c*nt on here during POR's tender, because Down were not just underachieving - but were getting regularly obliterated in Championship football. I didn't expect Down to win AIs then, I only expected us to to be competitive.

I'm not sure what today's mouthpieces want. We've gone around our business quietly and efficiently throughout the qualifiers, and are now in the final 12 again. Given that we're meeting the AI Champions this week, I don't expect a win. I'd love a win, but as long as we turn up and give it a good rattle, I'll be happy.

[Banana Man]

Sadly, the opinions of the likes of Razor and downjim are reflective of a good percentage of the GAA world's thinking. The lack of commonsense, perspective and acceptance among some GAA fans really riles me.

Message boards should be used to critique and analyse players, decisions, and actions. But I'm always of the opinion that you need to pitch a realistic level for your happiness. And the bit I don't understand is how the mindset of the mouthy critics has become wined and dined to expect perfection - especially from a Down team.

In 25 years of watching and playing football, I've seen something approaching perfection on a rare handful of occasions. I don't expect 15 players to play well at once, because it is such a rarity. I don't expect a star forward to hit 1.07 each week... simply because he will spend a large number of those weeks being marked by a star defender.

I was the mouthiest c*nt on here during POR's tender, because Down were not just underachieving - but were getting regularly obliterated in Championship football. I didn't expect Down to win AIs then, I only expected us to to be competitive.

I'm not sure what today's mouthpieces want. We've gone around our business quietly and efficiently throughout the qualifiers, and are now in the final 12 again. Given that we're meeting the AI Champions this week, I don't expect a win. I'd love a win, but as long as we turn up and give it a good rattle, I'll be happy.

Well said Wobbler

Last 12 and AI Champions in Croker is big time stuff, fair play to all in the panel, I hope they go out and give a good account and play their best and if that isn't good enough fair enough, at least they tried and it's a lot more than what most on here have ever done or are likely to do

Can't wait to Saturday!!

[umpire]

Sadly, the opinions of the likes of Razor and downjim are reflective of a good percentage of the GAA world's thinking. The lack of commonsense, perspective and acceptance among some GAA fans really riles me.

Message boards should be used to critique and analyse players, decisions, and actions. But I'm always of the opinion that you need to pitch a realistic level for your happiness. And the bit I don't understand is how the mindset of the mouthy critics has become wined and dined to expect perfection - especially from a Down team.

In 25 years of watching and playing football, I've seen something approaching perfection on a rare handful of occasions. I don't expect 15 players to play well at once, because it is such a rarity. I don't expect a star forward to hit 1.07 each week... simply because he will spend a large number of those weeks being marked by a star defender.

I was the mouthiest c*nt on here during POR's tender, because Down were not just underachieving - but were getting regularly obliterated in Championship football. I didn't expect Down to win AIs then, I only expected us to to be competitive.

I'm not sure what today's mouthpieces want. We've gone around our business quietly and efficiently throughout the qualifiers, and are now in the final 12 again. Given that we're meeting the AI Champions this week, I don't expect a win. I'd love a win, but as long as we turn up and give it a good rattle, I'll be happy.

Well said Wobbler

Last 12 and AI Champions in Croker is big time stuff, fair play to all in the panel, I hope they go out and give a good account and play their best and if that isn't good enough fair enough, at least they tried and it's a lot more than what most on here have ever done or are likely to do

Can't wait to Saturday!!

+1

[artisan2010]

Some people with very short memories, wasnt that long ago we were playing Division three football and looking for Fermanagh, Antrim or Cavan in the Ulster championship to try and get a win of any sort and we came up short on a few occassions there.

As others have said the game is 70 minutes long, very few teams dominate entire games now.  Entire teams will not have great games all that is required is that the sum of the parts is better than the other lots.

To criticise Coulter in particular is laughable.  The man carried Down teams for the best part of a decade, two weeks ago he scored 7 points , last week he contributed to two goals give me more "one trick ponies" 

[whitegoodman]

Why do people react to Downjim, he is on his school holidays and is obviously bored and is looking a windup.

Even the most loyal Burren supporters would be happy to admit that coulter and garvey are 2 of Downs most important players, coulter being the most important of all.

MDG or any Kilcoo lads were the Down subs playing Kilcoo last night and if so does anyone know how ambrose went?

[EagleLord]

Indeed lets try and stay away from the childish issue clownjim creates. I would imagine fringe/injured players got the most game time in these recent frendlies with Kilcoo and Mayobridge. I heard Ambrose played a decent chunk in the Mayobridge game but still didnt feature vs Antrim, how did he go in the kilcoo game anyone know? If he is training and playing then he must be on the right road, so why not use him vs antrim, one would have thought? for the last 5/10 whe nthe game was won? Doubt James will throw him in at the deep end against Cork.

[PAULD123]

For all my criticism of the ridiculously negative comments that have been posted by a few people on here, I do have a bit of a fear. The question is are we currently on a path that is like last year or bears closer resemblance to 2008?

In 2008 we beat Tyrone, fell to Armagh, got a couple of qualifiers under our belt and then fell heavily to Wexford, proving that our qualifier victories had just flattered to deceive.

In 2010 we fell to Tyrone, got a couple of qualifiers under our belt and then went on to prove against Kerry that our qualifier victories were proof of form and momentum.

So on Saturday I wonder which way our season will end up looking after the 70 minutes? I like to think that we have enough left in the tank to put in a higher standard of performance than so far (as we did last year against Kerry). We will need a lung bursting display, but look at the Dublin league match where we ran them ragged and only naivety stopped us closing the game out. We are capable of it. If Marty, King, McKernan or the other lads have been holding anything back, now is the time to unleash it.

[artisan2010]

Its been a knockout competition ever since we were beat by Armagh, am I missing something?.  The performance against Wexford was terrible.  We are now up against the current champions slightly different to the Wexford position.  We have made substantial progress since the Wexford game .

We have every chance against Cork, the real comparison is to last year.  The challenge this year in round 4 is much more substantial than last year round 4.  Post mortems are largely held after games and even then the true measure of a performance may only be seen when the season is over and we all know who the winners are   

[bcarrier]

James has got an awful lot more right than wrong since he got the Down job and if he sees something in a young player like Anton McArdle then both the manager and player deserve a bit of patience from Down supporters.

Croke Park from now to September provides a completely different challenge than the rest of the season . Some players thrive on it and others will crumble. McArdle might just be the man to do a job on Aidan Walsh . We will see soon enough .

[When We Win]

the views of some posters on this site are the same week in week out. Jesis ye just want to be heard. It is acceptable that every supporter wants to see every single player on their team play well every game but lets be realistic here, thats not going to happen. I think in the last 5 years the only county in any of the gaa codes who could claim this happened was Kilkenny v Waterford. Only one game.

Lets accept that some players are going to have indifferent games but instead of berating them let all jump on board and give them support.

If half the idiots on this site were from Fermanagh, the county would probably dissolve the gaa. (Um maybe there is something in this idea)

Personally looking forward to a cracking weekend of footy and there is a 50% in championship football that we win. If we dont i doubt it will be because some lads did not want to strip out or because Benny hid behind his 6ft 5inch marker waiting to outcatch him.

[RGU08]

I hear Greg Blaney's brother Kevin is taking the amalgamation team (Lecale), currently getting around 20 - 25 at training, anyone know who's been picked or any other details?

[snoopdog]

Croker colour clash resolutions
20 July 2011

All four teams will sport alternative colours for Saturday's Croke Park qualifier double header.

As the first-choice strips would have led to a clash of colours for both the Kildare V Derry and Down V Cork matches, the four sides change to their second strips.

This means Kildare will be the Lilygreens as they lock horns with a Derry side sporting all red.

And two sides that normally wear red will change to white and black respectively: Cork will again wear the white jerseys used in last year's All-Ireland final against Down, but the Mourne men - who wore yellow last September - have registered a new black second strip.

It should all make for a colourful spectacle at HQ.

[EagleLord]

Can't wait to see what the all black strip is going to look like. I would asume its basically outfeild players all wearing Brendan McVeigh's strip. I think thats going to look deadly! Hard as nails.

[Brick Tamlin]

I couldnt give a flyin f**k what they wore as long as they give a good account of themselves.