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It's not working for Down evidently.

There's another train of thought coaching wise in rugby and indeed soccer which is filtering into hurling at the higher levels that you need lads who can handle chaos as not everything can be micro managed, lads, who in the uncontrolled aspects of the game thrive, make the right decisions and go with it.

Take Cork hurlers for example, they beat Limerick last year by doing what no one else expected, they pumped high ball down on one of the biggest half back lines ever to feature in a hurling team and made it a shít show which their more mobile and pacy players thrived on, A well drilled Limerick had no answers to it. Limerick will evolve in 2025, they'll not allow that to happen again.
Cork then came up against a Clare team who didn't sit deep, went man for man on them and backed themselves to outscore Cork, they were the ones dictating the chaos. Not every team has a Tony Kelly or Shane O'Donnell but their management backed them to go out and play their game as and when they saw fit.

I get hurling is different, but following the pack in terms of coaching only means you're constantly playing catch up, you need lads capable and willing to break the mould and get ahead of the game tactics wise.

Aping something Tyrone or Donegal did 10 years ago isn't going to win shít all now.

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100% and that's why there's a few 'coaching gurus' giving out about new rules. Their tactics don't work as well even at club level now.

Can I ask you football lads why are Down so uncompetitive at underage level, both the U20's and the minors were beat by double scores over the weekend, is there something we're fundamentally way behind on?


All I can say with my limited knowledge is that with the playing numbers available to the footballers, they should be on a par with the likes of Derry, Donegal etc but don't seem to be.

I happened to be in Mayobridge one night last year (U12 camogie) and on their main pitch what was billed as a top 2 minor league clash v Bryansford and both with their county players back.

What was stark to me and another lad whose bigger into his football than me was a few things, in the warm ups (which were extensive to say the least) neither team really did much kicking, I think Bryansford did one shooting drill for about a few minutes, but come the game it was very safe, lateral handpassing was the key. Mayobridge did have one lad who would take his man on and go past him once in a while, he was the exception.

When we talk about the "Down way" and when I did manage to go to a few games back in the day, the likes of Gary Mason, Greg Blaney, Ross Carr, Eamon Burns, big Greg McCartan could put a kick pass on the head of a pin for Mickey Linden, wee James and the likes, are there footballers in Down who could do that now or has it been coached out of them?

There's a lot of copy cat coaching in football and the coaches are playing the same gameplan - control everything as much as possible. There's some reasoning that does make sense to be fair, if you hold onto the ball the other team can't run up scores so it evens out some teams natural advantages, bigger or better players. It's a style that doesn't seem to suit us at county level but nearly worked against Armagh last year and at club level Kilcoo are so much better at it than everyone else.

It's not easy to watch though - some U16 games, which is where it starts, I saw last year were shocking. Schools football is even worse - nearly unwatchable at the minute.

Our lads had their first challenge games at 14 & 16s this weekend and the 40m arc caused a lot of problems with kick outs for both teams at both levels. Cuts so much space out of the game - the bigger team has a massive advantage. Not many 2 pointers to worry about at that level.

Most of the other rules were fine though

In the age of social media, podcasts and phone-ins it's funny to see some of the meltdown and over-reactions to Liverpool going out of the champions league.  I don't imagine most Liverpool supporters are that bothered really. The joy of winning the league will put that to bed. Man U and Man City who dominated the Pl for years routinely year in year out got knocked out of Europe and there wasn't much said about it.   

Being knocked out obviously disappointing but can accept they were second best over the tie. Strangely being knocked out of Europe last year probably annoyed me more as Atalanta a lesser team and would have been great to see Klopp win trophy in Dublin. 

The annoying thing is that Arsenal and City have fallen off a cliff meaning they would have been well placed give CL a real go and rest players here and there in league with others so far back a luxury likely won't have next year.   

Next year could be a whole different ball game for Liverpool.

Whatever is happening with the contracts for Van Dyke, TAA and Salah isn't good or the Liverpool media team would be announcing it what ever means possible if they've signed.

At least one of the three will be gone, TAA would have the least impact short term, but the other two are older and past their prime a bit.

Salah's ability to grab the important goal when needed can't be underestimated or replaced easily for that matter.

You'd of thought one would have been announced by now. Liverpool's board have got most decisions right so far to be fair to them so I'm sure they have something sorted either way.

That's ok Clonian.....you get rid of all of these managers that you say are holding the game back and replace them with who? Maybe they will find that when they are in the same position their job is to win competitive games and do the best with the players at their disposal.

Not everyone gets the chance to manage the best team ever and then dictate to everyone else how they think the game should be played.

Where did I say get rid of all of the managers?

Lots of people giving out managers expressing their opinions. Some thoughts.

They know the game better than anyone else, being involved in it several nights a week and thinking about it 24/7. They are best placed to know what can work and what can't.

They get well paid you will say. Maybe some do but it is money hard earned. They put massive time and effort into it.

Let them learn to coach better you will say. Where are the managers who will take over if some of these people leave? Who will replace McGeeney? Do Meath want to go back to Colm O'Rourke? Where will Galway go after Joyce? What do Donegal look like without McGuinness? How hard was it for Derry and Westmeath to find someone if there are so many managers out there who can adopt to these changes better?

Lets see some of the pundits giving out about managers take their places and see how they do!

If you were given the task of fixing the NHS, or indeed any public service, you'd need to be especially particular about which of the existing management personnel should be listened to.

They might know the old process better than anyone. But having fed into and profited most from understanding how it worked before will in most cases bring reluctance to change / improvement.

GAA management teams need to be treated similarly, at an arm's length. Some of them are going to lose out dramatically as a result of this change. And you know what? Good.

Oisin McConville said they should consult with managers and that's exactly what I thought. They have changed the game they played to what it was.

I would consult refs though and see what they think is actually feasible especially at club level.

Getting rid of de gea was a disastrous decision.
I think utd signed Onana on thr back of 1 game. The CL final v City. Where he jad a great game.

De Gea was done. He was costing United goals regularly his last year or 2. They should have upgraded not downgraded on him though as Onana is even worse for the errors.

Romero was the best of the 3 I  thought, no idea why he was let go. (Obviously De Gea at his best was much better but that ship had sailed.)

That's it - De Gea needed replaced but Onana has been a disaster. He had a decent start to this season but he's been at fault for 5 or 6 in the last 3 games. Another one that ETH got wrong

Does anyone know when the juvenile football leagues are due to start?  Is it correct that the new rules will be in use at under 14 level?

The past 4-5 years it has got underway the week of clocks going forward, so I'd expect a full run of games from 30 March.

Re rules, there was some correspondence about this early Jan and if I'm remembering it right, u16 will be same as senior football, and u14 will be almost the same, but some rules will need adapted to allow for 2-touch. I'd guess CCC won't publish anything definitive for rules until the FRC are done f**king around for the season.

I had heard they were planning to start Monday 14th April for underage football

He was either beebop or rocksteady in one of the turtles films. Said a lot I thought    (Though likewise I still like it).

He was Raphael - red headband

[Anyone watch Reacher season 3 yet?]

Anyone watch Reacher season 3 yet?

First episode of 1923 out the other night, some weird scenes to say the least.

Got the 1st 2 episodes. More of the same but he's even bigger. Reviews are better than previous seasons

Haven't got started on 1923 S2 yet

[and referees will decide far more games with red & black card decisions]

Yep you can defend with the same number but like I said it screws you on the transition attack as you're completely outnumbered up the field

But yeah it probably should and will be changed. It will then become a greater penalty than it was under the old rules, and referees will decide far more games with red & black card decisions than they did previously. I just hope some people and especially managers who complain about referees at the best of times are ready for that

This bit in bold, explain it a bit further as I'm at a loss here...

The referee will apply a card if needs be for the ACTION ONF THE PLAYER... It is down to the players poor decisions in the game that decide whether his team finishes with 15 players or not.

A very simple example is Sunday just past where Tierney goes for a shoulder, a player ducks into him at the last second and its ambigious even on slow motion camera afterwards whether there's contact with the head

Nobody truly 100% knows if that's a redcard or not. All pundits on TG4 said afterwads it wasn't. Reaction is more split online, probably 70/30 in favour of it not being a red

However the referee and linesman took an interpretation and gave the red. Under changed rules that decision will very likely decide a game between two even teams in championship. Under the current red card rules its less likely to

Pundits nearly always say what they think should happen not what the rules say should happen.

Utd had a 25 year window to create what Real Madrid currently are and blew it, that said Madrid went to the wall and were saved by the government so not an entirely organic success either

Look at the comparison between Fergie/Glazers and what Fergus McCann did at Celtic, McCann put the club and supporters front and centre

You're saying that like it's the fans that did this. We've been saying this time was coming since the day they bought the club with a payday loan and saddled the debt onto the club at the same time. Every other club would have been bankrupt years ago but here we are and only for Ineos cash injection they would have ran out of money in the last financial report.

Ineos haven't got the decisions right either but at least they've put money in. The Glazers have never put a penny of investment in yet from their pocket. A debt free club now has over 1 billion of a debt and has paid a billion in interest payments in that time.

I saw Niall Morgan getting a bit of stick on twitter for saying he wouldn't want to go back to being 'just a goalkeeper' anymore in the Irish Examiner. Wooly leading the pile on too. It seems strange that the best actual goalkeeper out of them doesn't want to do the goalkeeping bit. How many more years would Niall have realistically - especially playing the way he wants to?

I still maintain as Tyrone get better he'll have less of a role up the pitch than he does currently.

The other point is young keepers won't play because they can't run up the pitch - bollox lads. I would say more keepers went to soccer over the last 10 years because most goals were handpassed around them and palmed in.

Anyone done the first cut yet? Gives awrm this weekend, might be time to start.

I got the last cut done at the end of November so it's not looking too bad. Could be worth a shot this weekend but there's a lot of rain forecast in the next couple of days.

Has any club moved towards the robotic mower? What are the advantages or disadvantages of these?

Carryduff had one last year when we were up there - didn't get talking to anyone about it though.