Down Club Hurling & Football

[Maiden1]

Pangur Ban,I take your point about the starred games,but they are a necessary evil.I think it is reasonable however to have a round of club fixtures the weekend before an NFL fixture.The danger is if you make the gap between club and county games smaller,you could have some county players choosing not to play for risk of injury.This already happens in soccer when ironically players appear to cry off from international games,to rest for their clubs!

Players should not be chosing County before club. My point earlier is what type of breed are the county players that they are worried about injury. Just get on with it. Helping the club fulfill the aim to be the best should come first. The problem now is that club does not mean enought. With county your getting expenses, free gear, media publicity, better job prospects could be argued, an element of fame, etc. What does the 15 guys left in the club get for having to go that extra mile for survival in difficult games without starred players. They are the ones competing outside of their limits and getting injured.

I knew boys playing two level of under age football, schools, reserves and in some case seniors and they were still in uniforms. They didnt care about getting hurt playing for reservce when they should have been thinking about the Rannafast or Herold Cups. Take a leaf county players and Man-Up yourselves and lets get on with fair competitions. In leagues the winner is champions, the losers are relegated.

Look in division 2. Glassdrummon and Darragh Cross to the best of my knowledge do not have county players so why should they have a playoff. They havent been crippled with starred palyers. So why would either of these teams need play-offs?

Chelsea and Arsenal do not demand playoff games when their players head of to Africian Cup for a month.

If they did not have playoff's Darragh Cross would not be in a relegation playoff as they would be 4th bottom.  Should Shamrocks be immune from relegation even though they may finish 2nd bottom as they have players in the county squad?

[When We Win]

Why is it a crazy idea to not relegate a team which has no county players for failing to perform over 22 game. Why give them one extra game in the hope luck goes with them and they survive?

As for ammune Shamrocks, no i dont think they should be ammune nor should they be disadvantaged because they did not have a full compliment of players. But my point goes hand in hand with my arguement that these players would not have missed games if they took away the starred players system or reduced it to say 5 days and replaced a friday game with a monday game. I dont know how many of the Newry palyers were on county duty this year, maybe someone can enlighten me. But i do not believe very many were used to often. A panel player not getting a run out for the county should be allowed to play five days before a game. Lets be honest here, they will know if they are likely to start for Down or not or even play a small part.

If the starred system is to give time to recover then this is pointless as most injuries in football take longer than 11 days to recover from. If the starred system time was reduced and players decided not to play for the club then the club should live with the consequences. It should always be Club before County, no exceptions.

If county players wanted they could change this rule. What would the county board do, tell clarke to go back to Oz, tell coulter he's too old? But for the majority they wont becuase the do put county before club. League games are no more difficult than in-squad county training matches, where every player is out to paly so hard to make an impression they are more likely to cause injury each other.

Darragh Cross are in a county final having come through the difficult half of the draw by a long way. This shows they must be a very good team. They are in a bad position in the league based on poor league results. They have no county players but may have had a lot of injuries  to key men. Dispite this they stayed out of the bottom three. I think it would be a shame if they went down when they have dug deep and played hard to get their success this year. Losing good key club ment is no different to losing a county man. Sure we all agree there are better players in club football than on the county. Its a squad game. Kinda lost my trail of thought here on this las point but i am sure you get the point.

[souljaboy]

Anyone any betting for the intermediate and junior finals this sunday??

[dundrumite]

Anyone any betting for the intermediate and junior finals this sunday??

I bet BC won't be sober for a week if things go according to plan 

[souljaboy]

Anyone any betting for the intermediate and junior finals this sunday??

I bet BC won't be sober for a week if things go according to plan 

Heres hopin dundrumite!!

[No1]

Kilclief beat Shamrocks 1-10 to 1-09.  8 minutes of injury time!

[razor]

Warrenpoint 0-08 Kilcoo 6-10.

[Downboy]

Good win No1. That should at least take away the relegation threat and still a chance of top3

[Tomorrow is another day]

Are Shamrocks safe from automatic relegation? One interpretation of the county bye laws is that is teams end up on equal points then it depends on head to head games and if they are one game each then it goes to point difference on those two games. If this is indeed the case then Shamrocks beat Carryduff in one game by a much greater margin that Carryduff beat them in the other game.

Another view is that its head to head only and not point difference. If this is the case then technically Carryduff are not relegated yet.

My understanding is that its the first interpretation and therefore Carryduff are relegated but other people are saying its the second interpretation. Can any one clear this up?

[John Martin]

Junior Championship Final Latest

Glenn 0-3
Teconnaught 0-2

(10 mins)

[John Martin]

Junior Championship Final Latest

Glenn 0-8
Teconnaught 0-4

(half-time)

[In the Onion Bag]

Good job John Martin - keep her coming. 

[John Martin]

Junior Championship Final Latest

Glenn 1-9
Teconnaught 0-6

(10 mins into 2nd half)

[John Martin]

Junior Championship Final Latest

Glenn 1-11
Teconnaught 1-6

(15 mins into 2nd half)

[John Martin]

Junior Championship Final Latest

Glenn 1-12
Teconnaught 1-8

(5 mins left)