Down Club Hurling & Football

[stpauls]

to be honest it seves drumgath rite for being so aragant!!!! they sould have fielded, just bad luck for them and if relegated or whatever il be glad in a way as its gna giv us a good chance of promotion nxt season and il not hav to listen to that oul bag patsie mcpolin!!! he needs shot

general, not sure where you got the idea Drumgath didn't field, the problem is they finished fourth from bottom, and according to the bye-laws, passed by Croke Park in March, state it is the bottom 3 in Div 3 that go into the play-offs, but the CCC in their wise judgement said it was the bottom 4. this is the point Drumgath are arguing! They suffered as a result of having 3 county players on their squad, but thought they were safe in 9th place, and as it turns out, that wasn't to be.

[general]

longstone  


brilliant odds on the stone, this bcuz the bridge r very unlikely to get beat...however at the odds the stone r on i wudnt hesitate to put a few quid on dem!!  

[general]

  hard luck for drumgath wa... and whats happenin to yourselves now then??? dragged into this for another month??

[wobbller]

 General if you want to use that text-talk that people use on the Hoganstand why don't you move on over you'll not be missed going by your first ten posts.

[stpauls]

hard luck for drumgath wa... and whats happenin to yourselves now then??? dragged into this for another month??

that's about right general, have to wait and see what the outcome of the appeal to the CCC/Ulster Council and possibly even the DRA should it go that far before we know where we stand with regards to the relegation situation!!!

[mourne gael]

what way is the promotion in  div2 going wobbler? and is the harps likely to go up?

[6th sam]

hard luck for drumgath wa... and whats happenin to yourselves now then??? dragged into this for another month??

that's about right general, have to wait and see what the outcome of the appeal to the CCC/Ulster Council and possibly even the DRA should it go that far before we know where we stand with regards to the relegation situation!!!

I agree ,this is totally unfair on st.paul's-who should be celebrating div 3 survival and looking forward to next year by this stage.

I also take your point ,st. paul's re automatic promotion.

I think there should be 3 leagues,16 team div 1,16 team div2,rest in div 3--with bottom teams -ballykinlar,and aughlisnafin having to apply to join the league and either establish that they want to be a sustainable club or amalgamate with their neighbours.

That would leave 15 league games (1 round) in divs 1 and 2.Most of which would be played without county players if necessary.
This would reflect any clubs overall consistency over the season,with and without county men.1st place winners/promoted and last place relegated.Next 2 places ,1 straight playoff for promotion/relegation.

The championship should be extended to round robin 2 groups of 8,1 round of 7 matches for seeding for championship proper,B championship for 1st round losers.B championship 1/4 final losers would playoff,with the 2 losers regraded as intermediate championship the following year-replaced by the 2 intermediate finalists.
County players would be available for all these games--and this series of games would reflect a club's overall ability with their county men.
County men would be available for these 11 fixtures + any league games that don't impact on their county matches.

2 seperate systems akin to heineken cup/magniers league in rugby.

This would not disadvantage clubs with county players,and would take the pressure of county players to play.
It would increase revenue for county ,and for clubs.
Fixtures would be totally predictable for the whole season and players/supporters can organise accordingly.

I'm more convinced than ever that a change to the leagues under these lines would revitalise club and county football.

[stpauls]

I think there should be 3 leagues,16 team div 1,16 team div2,rest in div 3--with bottom teams -ballykinlar,and aughlisnafin having to apply to join the league and either establish that they want to be a sustainable club or amalgamate with their neighbours.

That would leave 15 league games (1 round) in divs 1 and 2.Most of which would be played without county players if necessary.
This would reflect any clubs overall consistency over the season,with and without county men.1st place winners/promoted and last place relegated.Next 2 places ,1 straight playoff for promotion/relegation.

6th Sam, this league format was thrown out in a vote at the start of the year, and i am not sure how it might benefit, but we won't know until it is tried. and if the same state of play is maintained in the leagues, then the county standard will not improve (although as an armagh man i am not too worried about that  )

with regards to the championship, i am not sure if an 8 team round robin would work, but the groups of 4 seemed to have work in the Derry championship, and stood to some teams, eg Glenullin.

[TORGAEL]

General......if you had followed what has happened to Drumgath, you would have realised by now that this situation is not of their making, but is a result of the county board trying to "move the goalposts"...Drumgath played out the final league games of their season content in the knowledge that they were safe from relegation only for the county board deciding to change the playoff structure after the league was finished...........so get real.......and dont worry about Patsy....his bark is worse than his bite !

[cloneman]

Just a quick point regarding the Drumgath situation, if the teams in the top half of division 3 knew that there would be four teams in the promotion play-offs (and we heard plenty about it all season), would it not have been obvious to assume the bottom four teams would be involved in relegation play-offs, allowing for the 30% rule.

[stpauls]

cloneman, the by-laws, that were ratified by Croke Park in March, and then published in May, state that it is the bottom 3 in Division 3 that go into the playoffs, and this is what Drumgath were going by. i would assume your lot would do the same!

[5 Sams]

what way is the promotion in  div2 going wobbler? and is the harps likely to go up?

The Wobbler is away on his jolles at the moment so I doubt if he'll reply but the situation is that Harps and Saval are on 2 points each after beating Downpatrick and Ballymartin respectively in the first game.

Next up will be us V Ballymartin and Saval V RGU on Sunday week. All four teams are very evenly matched and it will be a very tough one to call. If our county boys can stay injury free then we'll give it a good rattle.

[5 Sams]

Good luck to Mickey. Helluva nice fella and on his day one of the best in the country, if not THE best. In a different era he would have picked up a bucket load of All Star awards.

[amallon]

Any word on way the final has been changed to 4?  Can we keep it as our secret, don't let the stone know! 

[southdown]

What time is the minor game?  I heard on Sunday they are doing an opening ceremony for the new stand, thats probably got something to do with it being at 4.