Messages

Hopefully I'll be smart enough to stay out of his road. To your original point, Neil cousins is a good ref in my opinion probably one of the best in Down. Also have been impressed with Ronan Barry and Ciaran brannagan Bford. Boys that have played the game know seem to know the Craic.

Does anyone know the price into the game on friday ? I hope there is a strong ref

Neil Cousins, he can bench press 80KG allegedly. All is good

[however the grammar police]

What a few days its been. Absolutely delighted that we r county champions for the second time in 4 years. Thanks to the well wishers and comisserations to mayobridge, they will come again and have been a fabulous side over the past 15 years. It's remarkable that we where without 6 starters from the 2009 team for different reasons and roger Morgan who went back to England this season and where able to cope and win the frank OHare cup. Hard work pays off. Role on ballybay.

Great stuff MDG. Best team in Down again...however the grammar police will be around to see you soon.
;)Well done.

As long as they haven't got their breathalyzer with them 

Is there any reason why the minor and Junior finals are the only two out of all the games you covered not to go on the website in full? By the way I think you provide an excellent service and it's definitely the highlight of the Down championship this year and long may it continue.

Thought number 6 from the point had a great game also

Congrats to MDG and Kilcoo on a fine victory. Hard luck to the Bridge, just wasn't there day.
Really hope Kilcoo can do well in Ulster, Down clubs at all levels have a poor record in Ulster. Hopefully this year can change it

I'm in no way down playing the basics of the game. Maybe I am bias as I have a hatred for straight line drills, especially when done unopposed without pressure. I think it is a more productive use (at senior level anyway) of time to incorporate whatever basic of the game you want to work on into a situation where firstly pressure is applied and secondly players have to think for themselves. This is much more realistic to how a game goes. A player who can perform the basics and make a correct decision in the heat of battle, is a better player than one who can perform the basics but more often than not make a bad choice.  Anyway I think it's established I don't like pure straight line drills 

[technically proficient]

There is a place for straight line drills - to become technically proficient and confident with a skill, before moving into a space/game defined drill

however, too many coaches are now going/using to a game based drill without ever checking if all players have mastered the skill used in a simpler line based drill and then onto a more complex game based drill requiring decision making

this is applicable from under 8 up to senior.

Perhaps you are right. I would argue if county seniors (indeed an argument for club senior exists here also) aren't technically proficient then the system is letting them down. At this level these skills should be automatic.
Automaticity is a big difference between an expert and learner. The learner devotes the majority of his/her attention to executing a skill, where as with automaticity the expert has a vast amount of spare attentional capacity to focus on other things,  and if relevant coaching is being carried out this could be decision making, tactics etc, which straight line drills fail to cater for. In my opinion at this level straight line drills are a waste of time. As I say just my opinion however...
Great thread but WOW getting deep for a sunday morning after the Saturday night before 

I am now convinced that the naysayers have been right all along. For years I tried to promote the idea that we can improve players' decision-making on and off the ball, their movement off the ball, their positional sense, their timing of runs and their abilities to adapt to different game plans and attacking options. The truth is that for 90% of players we cannot!!
They bring with them their own inbuilt cerebral limitations for these skills and we can labour for as long as we want and convince ourselves we see glimmers of hope, but the fact is that they will revert to type more often than not.
Just get them as fit as possible, as well-conditioned as possible and as technically proficient as possible and forget the rest.

I think a lot of it has to do with the time and amount of exposure GAA players get in these situations. For the average club player you are talking probably the guts of four or five hours per week. Seemingly Dublin and now Donegal at county level have taken this to a new extreme with supposedly two sessions per day over a period of time etc and whether their success can be attributed to this or not, well I don't know. If you take theory as a guide then Erikson suggests that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is needed to become elite at whatever activity you take part in. Elite in GAA encompasses more variables in terms of decision making than say table tennis. In addition to time, the coaching needs to be relevant and when you think of GAA coaching the amount of straight line drills etc that many clubs and indeed I'm sure counties per take in, is this going to improve decision making and that?

In a nutshell I think the fact it's an amateur sport prohibits GAA players, in that they aren't getting exposure to both quantity and quality of coaching to cover all the bases needed to mould more complete players.

Am really looking forward to this game on Sunday. I have a feeling it will be very, very tight and low scoring but tactically will be fascinating. I think the two teams are very well matched and certainly two of the top three teams in Down. I went for the Bridge in the predictions as I feel Benny gives them a slight edge. However, I have been known in the past to get these things very wrong, I really look forward to it and may the best team win and keep the celebrations to a coupe of days with Ballybay awaiting 

Also well done to the hurlers on a huge result over Cross and Passion. Six points down with five minutes to go and ended up winning by 6.

Warrenpoint.
Mayobridge (after much deliberation, very tough call to make)

Congratulations to dundrum on winning the junior championship today. Great to see. Enjoy down fanatic and dundrumite, yous deserve it.

Thanks boss. Enjoyable day, hopefully can represent Down with some distinction anyway.

[Apparently]

Your right Pauly2, we have to compete with the Bobby Dazeller Cup which is a joke.

We should have beat Kilcoo in the quarter final makes me sick thinking about it.

Apparently the word in Kilcoo is they have won it already with men going on the drink this week in Belfast JJ and PD 

Typical Kilcoo cxxky as fxxk

A word that lets people write and make up whatever they want.

Only messing with you DF before you have a stroke I will go for Dundrum in Junior Final

You have no other option or the in laws would fall out with you

Burren
Dundrum