Where,What,How for the GAA in Down?

[Cloc Mor]

Totallly agree, Lecale.  We are light years behind in the coaching structures present in other counties.  3 men to cover all the primary schools in Down - what a joke.  One coaching session every week, or even two weeks, just isnt good enough.  Individuals within clubs are doing their best but they need more support.  I see the South Down U.14 squad have pulled together a number of good coaches from clubs to work with the squad every Saturday for the rest of the Summer - good to see something being done but this is only a short term measure.  We do need someone with vision to look at Long Term Player Development of our players for the future.  Sean Og is not the man for this and our county coaching officer needs to address this problem.

In terms of a Centre of Excellence, we deserve better.  We won 2 All Irelands in the 90's and have nothing to show for it.  Derry won in 1993 and had the vision and business know how to obtain the Owenbeg complex.  All Down teams rely on the goodwill of clubs to give them their fields for training and is it acceptable for our development squads to be training on council pitches?  While Newry does look great I would rather have seen the money used for the development of Gaelic games within Down or the buying of land to develop a Centre of Excellence.  Our County Board our stuck in the dark ages - they have no vision for the future and we are paying for it and will continue to do so until something is done.

[qub la la la]

down won 2 all ireland minor football titles in the last ten years. where hads all this talent gone? (with the exception of martin clarke)

[5 Sams]

down won 2 all ireland minor football titles in the last ten years. where hads all this talent gone? (with the exception of martin clarke)

Have you not noticed that a lot of them play Senior intercounty football in the championship a couple of times a year.

[qub la la la]

down won 2 all ireland minor football titles in the last ten years. where hads all this talent gone? (with the exception of martin clarke)

Have you not noticed that a lot of them play Senior intercounty football in the championship a couple of times a year.

yea, but badly! not to the standards that won them an all-ireland medal

[Cloc Mor]

There is a huge difference in minor and senior football. Senior football is a much more negative, tactical game. Our current senior squad still play the game like minors, they are quite naiive.

Thats a fair point, 5ivetimes.  So presumably the management of the current, and previous, Down Senior team are even more naive because they are the people directing the team to play this way?

[thewobbler]

The county board is taking a lot of unneeded flak here. If you honestly think county boards make the difference between  winning and losing matches, then you are living on the wrong planet.

Here's something for you to ponder. Mayobridge have done nothing in Ulster for the past 2 seasons, yet in that time they have only faced one semblance of a match in the Down Championship (Kilcoo sem-final last year). In other words, the Down club scene is a mess. Our best club teams wouldn't last a month in Derry or Tyrone.

Personally, I don't see how the county board can be blamed for the clubs not producing and not nurturing talent.

You can sack the boards, sack the managers, sack Sean Og and Benny if you want, but it's not going to change things.

[thewobbler]

5ivetimes, you are blowing things out of proportion. Spreading Chinese whispers. More than anything, you must have no grasp of finances in Down football. Here's a quick refresher - there are none.

- You reckon teams have nowhere to train. I reckon the footballers have it as good as you'll get under their current arrangement with St Colman's College. Listen to the next bit very carefully. Tyrone and Armagh have won the last 8 Ulster titles and between them have no training facilities. Tyrone fully rely on the use of club grounds, and Armagh have been known to use Armagh rugby club, unable as they were to secure floodlit GAA accommodation in their own county.
- You'll find that when teams have no kit, it's normally because managers did not make a request for kit, or did not make the request in time. Managers are getting as bad as players these days, seemingly unable to organise tasks like getting the kit.  Get over your hatred of the county board and you might realise that they aren't mindreaders, they can't guess when and what managers want, and neither should the board (as a unit) be at the beck and call of every manager across the spectrum. Communication is a two-way street.
- I can remember you stating embarrassment at the sight of the Down subs in multiple tracksuits at a league game earlier this year. This was when the Down squad numbered 50+, including a number of players who were never going to make the final cut. At £40 a pop for a tracksuit, the county board could have wasted £1k+ kitting out that surplus bunch to suit Ross's ever changing whim. Now, that would have been a bad decision.
- Regarding Cross, do you honestly believe that folks from that part of the world really have any more or any less to do with their lives than the folks of Clonduff, Kilcoo, Longstone, Loughinisland or Ballyholland? The way you're talking, you'd think it was cut off from the world and had no electricity or running water. This is the 21st century chap, and Cross isn't some shanty town in midwest USA. They've even got Sky TV these days, I hear.


Now, I don't know a damn about what goes on in hurling, so I'll not spend much time in it. But, from my time attending county board meetings (and you shouldn't knock until you try), it seems that there are only a few hundred people in this county genuinely interested in hurling, and it also seems that half of those don't like the other half, and vice versa. Personally, I don't see why our county board should plough money they don't have, into a sport that generates so little interest and warmth in our county - and certainly not while the hurling aficionados are unwilling to sort their own shop out. It would be throwing good money after bad.


As for football - some bad decisions have been made over the past few decades. Derrylecka should have been bought. Newcastle should already be a Tescos. An external manager, a proper tactican, for the senior team should have been brought in by this stage. The CAM post should have more about secretarial and admin duties, rather than toploaded with fundraising work.

But by and large, Gaelic Football in our county is well run. Our leagues run on time and with little fuss. We rarely, if ever, court the controversy of other counties when it comes to suspensions, debt, underhand shenanigans. One of the main reasons behind that is our County Board generally acts with prudence and looks beyong its own two square feet.

One last thing. Two years ago, folk all over the county wanted to hang the board out to dry over Pairc Esler and Club Down. The three games this summer proved that it was the correct decision.

[Pangurban]

Lads this discussion to be geared towards finding solutions, not scapegoats. Most of the causes and symptoms of our malaise have been clearly identifiedon this thread. We may not agree with every point made but there sufficient there for discussion within a properly tasked and empowered forum. The issue now is to get the Co.Board to establish this forum and commit to implement its recommendations. If this cannot be achieved then all this talk is only hot air that will blow us further into a morass

[thewobbler]

Here's a few things you should know about Cross:

1. They have Sky TV.
2. They even have XBoxes.
3. They have wimmen to chase.
4. They have pubs. Lots of them.
5. They have soccer.
6. The ones who go to school in Newry (half of them), have friends and influences from outside Cross.
7. They have the internet, broadband even.
8. Blayney and its bars and nightclubs is less than 10 miles away
9. Dundalk and its cinema, bars and nightclubs is 10 miles away.
10. Carrick and its bars and clubs is less than 15 miles away.
11. Newry and its cinema, bars and clubs is 15 miles away.
12. They have WKD, Fatfrogs and Magners for sale on their doorstep.
13. Some of their shops are known to even sell cigarettes.
14. You might just get a distinct whiff of marijuana in certain parts.
16. Something a little stronger? Step this way please.
17. Joyriding is the regional sport of choice.
18. Their parents are all awash with money, meaning they can afford all of the above, and get dropped off where they want to go in a shiny new Merc to boot.

In other words, the kids and teenagers you see kicking a ball around in Oliver Plunkett Park in Cross have no more or no fewer things to do with their lives, than those doing likewise in Hennessy Park, Newry.

And, in both cases, the vast majority won't play Gaelic Football past the age of 21 as their club team can only field 3 adult teams.


The difference is that in Crossmaglen, the players are getting coached better. And when you put talented athletes in a position to get the best out of their athletic abilities, they tend to respond better.



Also 5ivetimes, most of the county board are seasoned administrators. If the opportunity really was available to sign a kit deal that took the pressure off them, I'd say they would have jumped at it. This isnt the Premiership. But then again, I'm just speculating.

[neilthemac]

feck the county board lads! don't leave anything up to them

you get your club properly organised and run then good things invariably will happen at all levels in the club - both on and off the field

other clubs might sit up a take notice that you are doing so well and decide to implement change themselves. these progressive people will eventually make their way up to county board level.

start change from the bottom up, not the other way around.

clubs are the bedrock of the county team and county board. badly run clubs = poor standards

[thewobbler]

spot on neilthemac

[Colonel Cool]

I agree with a lot of what you said wobbler but we'll never agree on your attitude to hurling. I'll focus on what we agree about rather than potential disagreements. The only way forward is to start with improving coaching at youth level.
For years we in the Ards could rely on every kid in the district taking up a hurl and training hard to try to make the senior teams. Unfortuantly that's not the case any more and hurling in the Ards is going backwards. All the distractions you mention are available on the Ards as well. 
Earlier this year the 3 Ards clubs took the initative to try and sort things out. We got support from Bredagh, Newry & Ballela and had a few rows with the county board. We invited Frankie Quinn from the Ulster council to help and on the development squad side things are better than they were but still not nearly good enough. Hopefully they have learned from some of the mistakes this year and it will be better run next year. It is a step in the right direction.
My own club has run coaching days with top coaches from the south. But we're all in the business of improving Down hurling so we invited coaches from all the other clubs to attend. Co-operating over coaching is essential. We all have to work together and put our rivalries aside for the good of the GAA.

[spiritof91and94]

It is a known fact around Bryansford that things are moving in relation to the sale of St Patricks Park, the deal is being pushed by a local developer who is keen to purchase the site, has through a third party bought 15 acres between Newcastle and Castlewellan rumoured to be the county training centre and Bryansford top brass have been seen 'walking lands' in the area of late. As yet the members of Bryansford have been kept in the dark as to the intentions.

The developer in question I cannot name but last year tried to buy Liverpool FC.

[amallon]

spirit - What do the Bryanford club members feel about the possibility of their ground being sold? 

[spiritof91and94]

Aidan, kept in the dark as per usual.
They held one meeting 15 months ago with the intention of updating members regularly but it never happened, not even a mention on their website.
But dont get me wrong alot of people are totally against the sale and will fight it to the death.
I have two minds on this, yes a move a be debt free for life but risk ruining a club which lets face it the majority of players live in Newcastle and would parents wish to travel out of town for the weekly babysitting service! Newcastle is full of other sports clubs - soccer, judo, karate, boxing, hockey etc etc that are all in the town and this would be alot easier to commute to especially if parents dont have transport.....