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A reliable South Down Gael has informed me that Mickey Walsh will manage Ballyholland in 2023.

Truth Hurts , UTV live , Urban Cafe Castlewellan

This is a good appointment, the Harps have a lot of young talent and Walsh seems to work well with young talent.

We have our first challenge game arranged, we play Leitrim in the next few weeks, will be good to get off to a winning start and build a bit of confidence before the McKenna Cup.

Laverty has managed to convince Johnny Davis to join the backroom team next season as strength and conditioning coach, although disappointingly 4 prominent coaches have turned down a selectors role with him. He's really struggling to add to Morgan and Clarke. His former Kilcoo team mate Darragh O'Hanlon will manage the county U20 side.

Truth Hurts really surprise with your "inside knowledge" you didn't know this 5 weeks ago when I posted. Need to be careful naming names but Gilligan, Mal O'Rourke, Banty, are certainly 3 who turned it down and Donnelly was knocked out of the Tyrone championship 5 weeks ago so why not announce it then???

the u20 competition is turning into a farce

good appointment with Mickey Donnelly coming in, I am excited as a Down supporter for the coming year. We have the right men in our set ups and we have a lot to look forward to.
Lavo, Marty, Donnelly, Benny, Darren and Donal know what it takes o be a county player.

Describe how it is a good appointment? You must not venture further than those local cafes you get your misinformation from. Donnelly was with Tyrone club Ardboe for 3 seasons and couldn't even win one senior championship match. He cost the club a lot of money along with his in-house backroom team who were also getting paid, Ardboe relieved to get rid of them all. I wouldn't be getting too excited, he was at least the sixth man approached and took a lot of convincing.

Best team won although CPN will regret their caution. Hard to pick a MoM although Dabs (as always), Rooney, Ryan J and Laverty strong, as were McMahon, Murdoch, McCormack John Boyle.
O'Hare got most things right but made some strange/brave calls towards the end. So much so that Genie Brannigan gave him a mouthful after the final whistle earning himself a straight red. O'Hare certainly didn't deserve the verbal abuse from a fellow referee; a Kilcoo man who obviously didn't read the script about respecting referees!
Credit to the County board for a really well organised weekend and adh mór to Teconnaught, Saval and Kilcoo in Ulster.

A lot of money spent in the likes of Burren, Mayobridge, Rostrevor, Warrenpoint, all to end up winning nada. Well done to Down men Cathal Murray and Mark Doran on winning senior titles in Monaghan and Louth today. As for Darren OHare, he probably got so much abuse from the Kilcoo secretary O'Hanlon at the end of the game because he's still one of the very few who hasn't been bought yet for in house games. Most of the others have.

Reports of a few early club managerial shake ups.
Bryansford - Fegan + Deegan gone.
Mayobridge - Poacher + Clarke gone.
Clonduff - McBride gone.
Castlewellan - Grant gone.
Downpatrick - Robinson gone.
Bredagh - Mason + Dawson gone.
Longstone - Morgan gone.
Some amount of jobs on the merry-go-round coming up.

In other news, CL has started to contact prospective players for next year, a few lads have already had a phone call, reportedly training is set to be a real test this side of Christmas with tullyamore forest park and sand dunes earmarked for some gruelling running sessions, survival of the fittest coming very soon

Laverty has managed to convince Johnny Davis to join the backroom team next season as strength and conditioning coach, although disappointingly 4 prominent coaches have turned down a selectors role with him. He's really struggling to add to Morgan and Clarke. His former Kilcoo team mate Darragh O'Hanlon will manage the county U20 side.

So tonight the championship properly starts. Magpies v the yellas. With McConvilles broken jaw in the league meeting a few weeks ago it should add spice.

Other game of any significance is Burren v Bridge, old rivals but they are no longer rivals, Burren are well ahead of them. The dream team club management on paper of Clarke and Poacher has been very underwhelming for the Bridge.

If the big two avoid each other it's the perfect final.

Properly starts you reckon ....

One from two, best game of the weekend last night, Bridge won't get a better chance to beat Burren or Kilcoo this year. Burren showed a mental toughness towards the end, the money they are spending this year in the chase for Frank is crazy.

So tonight the championship properly starts. Magpies v the yellas. With McConvilles broken jaw in the league meeting a few weeks ago it should add spice.

Other game of any significance is Burren v Bridge, old rivals but they are no longer rivals, Burren are well ahead of them. The dream team club management on paper of Clarke and Poacher has been very underwhelming for the Bridge.

If the big two avoid each other it's the perfect final.

You are right Sheedy, it happens every week, every week in Kilcoo, eye gouging an opponent is up there with spitting, the lowest of the low but is anyone really that surprised with this carry on. The player in question, and his manager and his club have plenty of history and it just seems to happen all too often. Thought it would have taken till at least the club championship for the mask to slip but it only took a week.

Just over a year later and the same boy is at it again, celebrating his eye gouging anniversary. McCusker is a disgrace and it says more about Laverty who had him on a pedestal last year with the U20s. Last night's game was a clear display of downright treachery and trampish behaviour of the highest order. Of course let's not forget our new Messiah stuck in the middle of it all, crying at the referee because he didn't get his own way for a change.

The CB had the perfect opportunity to select an outside man to put all this nonsense to bed, mostly nonsense created by Kilcoo, too late now though, Jack pressed the panic button and got his man. It is time though for our county board to stand up to them for once and throw the book at them.

Coming from Laverty's own club gave lads a serious advantage last year and the same this year from what I see. I hope this years lads don't let the show down like they did last year at the end.

Down Minors beat 3.13 - 1.07 and not a mention on our social media outlets. Would there be any chance that we could find out when our teams are playing games so we could go and watch them?

The number 4 Friday night would never make any other county team, you are right, Laverty will put the development of Kilcoo players first. His loyalty for Kilcoo cost him last year, letting the county down v Roscommon. The boy in question who is suspended has plenty of history eye gouging, and no doubt will be straight back in v Tyrone next week.

The senior set up goes from bad to worse, Kane back in goals after going on a stag last weekend, players laughing at management, our standards must have disappeared altogether.

I see Jack Devanney is on the load of balls podcast with Fegan and Doran this week. I will look forward to listening to that. Fair play to him for not hiding away.

Fair play to Jack Devanney? Let's have three cheers for Devanney , O Tool and McAteer while we are at it.

The mess this county is in has a lot to do with an inept county board who have operated for years and years in sneaky deals on the sly, even the word coming from some of the selection panel for the new manager were severely critical of McAteers influence and role in doing all he could to deny Laverty a go at it.

O Toole in his highly paid role has now had 15 years to make an impact, what is his legacy in these 15 years?

As for Devanney, I said here long ago it would end up a Queens mafia gig and now the word on the street is Karl Oaks is our new saviour, lining him up for a operations manager role, the good old Queens alumni comes to the rescue again.

We are a disgrace and until the county board is rid of these cowboys you can forget about clubs and schools. Like a piece of fruit that is rotten to the core, rotting everything it touches.

McCartan and AOR throughout all of this also getting a free ride they ain't exempt either, he won one game in five years at minor level alongside the likes of Ambrose, Poland, Poacher, Sean O Hare his Daniel, how was he allowed to continue? Also allowing the carry on that has been going on in the panel, how 5 lads can show up drunk to training is surely the final straw for the Queen's mafia.

So there we go, after nearly 5 months with a hand picked committee we end up with a back to the future appointment everyone knew was coming from the first week.

How can the down gaa public accept this? O Rourke is surely one of the most negative and regressive appointments in the history of this county, the Armagh fraternity must be having some laugh at us right now.

Why can people not see through this Queen's old boy network, Chucky Ned and JD now have their men. Big questions have to be asked of Poland, Mc Ardle and Mc Aleenan, why were them men even there?

EOS must have plenty of money to burn but what will be really interesting is to see the rest of the backroom team which hasn't been declared yet, early word is Oaks, Ronan McMahon and Deegan. Long live QUB

It is 4 full months since Tally got the road and we are still scrapping the barrel for a manager and a coaching team. I am certainly not Poachers biggest fan but if the Bridge can name that as a management team so soon after McKeever stepped away there is something seriously wrong with our selection committee that they have hit a dead end after 4 months! I have to agree with a previous poster, Poacher and Clarke would probably have ignited the players appetite and we would have taken it after this awful process, but god only knows what we will end up with now.

But who red and black?
It's ok saying this and that
Who can we realistically get?

That's the job for the expert 5 man panel, that's why they were appointed, but please don't come back to us with previous failures, former players, queen's old boys or someone off the buddy list. The people of Down deserve better. Antrim got McGinley, Derry got Gallagher, Armagh wanted someone got Donaghy, Monaghan got Buckley, Donegal got Rochford, just look at that list in comparison and tell me we can't do better?

Harps will have to much for Carryduff tonight. Carryduff bubble has well and truly burst
Kilcoo by 5
CPN by 8
Clonduff by 5


I see another 4 teams couldn't be bothered playing tonight

Who exactly would you like to see in as manager then if the above are not good enough? You talk about experience
Like who
We need to be realistic

Realistic? Dont make me laugh, this is a job that would be sought after the length and breadth of the country, are you trying to tell me Down job is a less attractive proposition than Louth wise up. We need fresh start, stop giving the buddies the job, zero connections to Queens, Jack Devanney and Sean og McAteer, no links to current clubs, no former players etc etc we have tried all this and it hasn't worked. Now is time for a totally fresh approach, look what happened in Derry when Rory Gallagher landed, he united the whole county, watch them storm past us next year as we twiddle away another 2/3 years wasted time and money on bluffers.