Down Club Hurling & Football

[whitegoodman]

I dont remember him in the county final, was he corner back??

Also dont remember Magee getting much game time in the league under Ross, u sure about that one.

With no disrespect to James Colgen, IMO last year showed he simply doesnt have the pace for county football, lovely footballer with a lovely pass but pace in the modern game is essential.

Aidan Carr also has alot to do, i thought he did better as a wing back under his da but james seems to see him as a forward.  As a playmaker he will have his work cut to get in ahead of poland and clarke and dont seem him as a working wing forward ala danny hughes

[Mid Down Gael]

Eamon Toner gave Bonny the run around in the county final and IMO Bryansford have better out and out defenders in Jim Magorrian, Stephen Toner, Davy McKibben and Luke Howard.
Paul Devlin and Conor Poland impressesd in St Malachys winning schools teams but havent produced that form consistently in 2010 at club and county under 21 levels. Lets hope they can repeat that under age potential at county level this year and in the years ahead.
Chris Duggan is a big strong lad but IMO he is a far cry from a Down senior. He is currently on UUJ freshers seconds team managed by Barney McAleenan and the fact he cant nail down a place on the A team backs up my claim as well.
I think the management are experimenting with a pool of players that is too large as come the league you can bet your bottom doller that the top 24 from last year will be the players used.

[5 Sams]

Game off tonight..

[whitegoodman]

Eamon Toner was my MOM in county final so if that is who he was marking then he certainly was given the runaround!!!!

With 5 defenders out im not sure the management have much choice other than to experiment.  Other than aidan brannigan who is fit and available to go into that defence tonight that was around last year.  Not sure if McKernan was registered for Mckenna cup as he was to be given a rest after a long season last year.

Having been at uni myself I wouldnt have much faith in being on a freshers team meaning much in terms of ability. Boys in their first year down in belfast tend to turn up for the gear and then make an odd showing at training as a social outing rather than a serious football competition as they have other committments such as the union, the bot or the hatfield.  University football only gets serious at sigerson level IMO.

[13aside]

bbc teletext-all this weekends mckenna cup matches off

[DownFanatic]

I'd be of the opinion that Mayobridge would beat that Down XV quite comfortably.

It's one thing experimenting, but this isn't experimenting, it's a waste of time.

Not a waste of time in the slightest. James needs to see how these boys perform on the big stage. If we can get 2 or 3 from this selection for the NFL, then the experimenting will have been a success.

[Out in Front]

are we seriously supposed to pay £9 in to see that squad in action... Think the ulster council are a disgrace chargin that into these pre season games like.  If they charged £3 they would fill the grounds. esp next weekend with armagh in town.. and dont come back saying its your county and no price is too high to see them play - its a total rip off. we are in a recession like.

What was the admission price last year?

[redandblackareback]

Everyone seems to be missing the point.... with a team like that named it gives our Paddy a wee chance  ... things will be tight enough with 10/15 to go, Clarke, Coulter and Mc Kernan fucked on and we win by 7 or 8.. No disgrace in the result for poor wee St Marys and Paddy... Everyone goes home happy 

Its the Mc Kenna cup for f**k sake.. for bonny, duggan et al it will be the biggest game of their lives.. maybe the cynics and critics could let those lads enjoy it rather than slate them when half of you have never even seen these lads play... I wish all the young lads making their senior debuts all the best. Great to see freshness cause there is still an awful lot of dead wood still floating around that panel.

[13aside]

i agree the panel for the senior team can change for various reasons but most important of all is the fact that no-one gets complacent and gets the idea that they are in some kind of so called comfort zone so i say go ahead and give these lads a chance-and good luck to them

[charlieTully]

Louth 0-16 Down 0-11

1 Gavin Joyce

2 Eoin Costello 3 Gary McArdle 4 Colm Murray

5 J Colgan 6 K McKernan 7 Micheal McCartan

8 Declan Sheeran 9 P Fitzpatrick

10 M Clarke (1) 11 A Carr 12 B Coulter (1)

13 J Clarke 14 Joe Ireland (2) 15 M Poland (3)

16 Cathal Murdock 17 Kevin Duffin 18 Kevin Anderson
19 Liam Doyle 20 Michael Magee (1) 21 R Murtagh (3)
22 Chris Duggan 23 Paul Devlin 24 Packie Downey 25 Conor Poland

Nice to see Downey and Sheeran named on this panel. As I previously mentioned i thought they were two of the the best in Div 3 last year. Probably sway more towards Sheeran though. The big question I suppose is how did these lads play?

You couldn't judge either player really from this game.
Sheerin played just 12 minutes - he had a bit of a fitness test before the match and I think they gave him some game-time to see how he went.

Downey played the second half - he didn't have that much to do but showed for and won a few balls.

You would probably think that one thing which might go against the likes of Sheerin and Downey is county level fitness at this stage of the year. They need a few weeks hard training under their belt.

the main thing that will go against them is neither is good enough for county football. Neither man was head and shoulders above the rest of the players in div 3. nothing personal just a fact

not really a fact at all, they were indeed head and shoulders above most others in division three but enough about thier height. Joking aside Paki Downey is a big strong mobile lad with bags of talent, he is still young and has the potential. not many can say they scored a goal in the ulster championship. as for declan sheerin, very strong and a great fielder of the ball, do no harm to have another look at him, he has matured a lot since his previous time with down.

[alba2]

Burren win their fifth u21 title in a row today... there is no stopping them at this level.  Most of those players wouldnt have won a thing at underage level but yet they cant be stopped at this level... was up in Burren club wishing them all the best in Ulster - they have a great facility and the lads all buy in to their programme... Heard it said - The Bridge beat this Burren team at every age level coming through underage - but i bet they would rather be in Burrens position right now... Thats two championships this year Burren have beaten the bridge in - i feel the tide is turning green and white again in our county...

[whitegoodman]

That is quite an impressive record for burren at that level alright, alot of credit must go to sean ward for that as he seen them through them all as far as i no, a bit of an edjet on the field but has the midest touch on the line by all accounts.

Next years championship should be very interesting indeed.  Burrens winning there first title with this team will give them a massive amount of confidence and dawson will keep their feet on the ground.

Bridge will be massively up for getting the title back for the first time in 3 years and francie will want to show the county who is still top dog.  Will be interesting to see if they still have it in them to go to the next level.  Important players such as woods arent getting any younger but on his day coulter can beat teams on his own.

kilcoo will be wanting to show that they arent one hit wonders and will be sure to have any hunger that they lost from winning their first title back with a bang.  Remains to be seen if they have enough quality to give bridge and burren enough trouble.

Byrnsford will feel very unfortunate not to be the county champions and looked like they could win the final for long stages only for some strange decisions along the line.  Some very tidy players and along with kilcoo will push burren and bridge all the way.

Add to that the likes of clonduff, kingdom, stone and rostrever could beat any teams on their day...............interesting year ahead!!!!

[alba2]

Yeah big ward has been with them from the start and has had some good men with him through the years - paddy o'rourke for one, Sean O'Hare who is an excellent trainer and is taking armagh at the minute, Ronan Mc Govern has been there and done that as a player and Tony mc ardle who was also part of the senior set up this year to name but a few.  These are all good men to have about the place and can pass on their experiences to the players.
i think next years championship will be a four horse race - Burren, Kilcoo, Bridge and Ford.. these 4 teams are absolutely miles ahead of the rest in the county.  Clonduff are an accident waiting to happen at allstages - they score goals by the bagful but conceed them aplenty as well.. Kingdom need to sort out their psycho manager before they can be taking seriously - the man is a lunatic on the line and games against Burren, and Clonduff last season were a disgrace on his behalf.  Rostrevor are a strange team and should be winning all the time but cant keep the players interested - but as i have said before - maybe Colgan can get the best outta them - the stone could be dark horses if they get their act together... But the top 4 are the aforementioned...

[Mid Down Gael]

Massive result for Burren today, i wouldnt have took them to beat this Bridge team. I really wish Kilcoo had of entered the competition in the past two years, we had two fantastic sides on paper, would have loved to have got a crack at Burren and the Bridge.

[whitegoodman]

Was it because kilcoo minors were in ulster this last 2 years that they didnt enter.  Out of interest how many of the minor team from this year would get on ur under 20 team?

Would bridge and Kilcoo have been rated as the 2 top minor teams for this current under 20 age group?

Cant for the life of me understand why the ulster minor couldnt be completed at this stage, any particular reason for this?