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Hi omagh

That's a pretty fair post but you can't subtract what McCann did that was one of the most stupid looking things I ever saw, it's the only thing people will remember from this game whether you like it or not

Well I disagree but McCann will never make anyone's 15 after his performance today

I think Gooch is over rated as well, would probably put him on my top 15 put think he is no were near the player Canavan was, in my opinion he is not good enough at winning his own ball, and is helped by the talent that has surrounded him

Gooch is hands down the best forward I've seen play the game. From a skills standpoint there are shots and passes he's made that I've seen no one else make. A lot of these Ulster focused teams seem to be picking players for their ruggedness or physicality. Gooch offers something very unique to a team.

Do you really believe he was better than Canavan? I think he is a great player but he has always played on a team with many other great forwards, I don't think think he would consistently enough win his own ball enough if he was playing for a weaker team

I think Gooch is over rated as well, would probably put him on my top 15 put think he is no were near the player Canavan was, in my opinion he is not good enough at winning his own ball, and is helped by the talent that has surrounded him

Not sure about your post maiden. But of misty eyed bias going on.

Had there been a 16 team D1 at the time then the likes of Carryduff, Ballymartin and Warrenpoint would have spent most of their seasons in it. The only genuine outliers in terms of club team, in either 91 or 94 were James McCartan (the best young player in Ireland) and Peter Withnell (who came up through the minor and u21 ranks).

Also the reason why so many East Down players were involved wasn't complicated: Downpatrick were the best side in the county, while Loughinisland, Castlewellan and Bryansford were all thereabouts. Run back through the last 30 years of Down football and you'll see a rather straightforward trend - when there are more East Down sides challenging in D1, there are more East Down players on the Down panel. It's not bias.

As for players over 6' tall. Ross tried this experiment in 2007 and 2008, and the results were laughable. This isn't 1985. In order to play county football you have to have the athleticism and application of a top athlete. If there's a 6' 4" lad lumbering around a D3 team, all a county call-up is going to do is reinforce how far behind he is. If he actually has the ability to play county ball there is no way on earth he wouldn't be on the radar from a young age. But if he falls a mile behind, he's never catching up again.

I don't really think there is a bias against east down, but the standard in east down has slipped and that's a problem that we have to do something about

In the interests of balance, I've a few points to make:


1. The throw in tonight was 6.30pm. Why on earth you'd want to send 30 men down the day before, and force them into an entire day bored out their wits in Wexford waiting for a match, is beyond me. Really beyond me. Why you keep posting this is bordering on madness. There is nothing ruins a team's match day preparations more than limbo. And your're proposing pergutory.


2. By all means criticise administration. But don't confuse the county board's fundraising activity with administrative activity. One cannot exist without the other, but they're entrirely separate  functions which must continue in isolation. There is not one man on the county board who got involved so they could spend their lives raising money. Like you, like I, they want to see (help, and direct) a better football and hurling heritage in Down. But the sting in the tail is that it ALWAYS falls on administrators to also raise funds for their initiatives.

3. While I'm sure the county board could do more to help football in Newry (Downpatrick, Castlewellan, Kilkeel, and Newcastle), it's fundamentally flawed and unfair to blame the board for problems in these towns. They all have clubs who should be leading the charge, and in each case, long established clubs. Player development HAS to be first and foremost the responsibility of the clubs, then the schools. After that the county board should ensure that elite talent is nurtured for the county game. But when you've the likes of Downpatrick regularly in intermediate football, Shamrocks, Bosco and Mitchels in Junior football, and schools like Red High and St Louis unable to qualify from intermediate level group stages, then it's surely a tad unfair to suggest the county board is the big problem?

Point 3 here is a big issue for us, at underage east down and newry are going backwards, down need this changed and the responsibility has to rest with both the county board and the clubs. We also have to start bringing through so of the belfast lads to senior, they have good underage teams but we loss them as the get older.

I think we have to make changes as we are going backwards it's been 6 or 7 years since we had a good underage team, so the future does not look great either.

Good standard, but it seems like there is even more hand passing in the game over there

It's notoriously difficult to compare players from different eras, and the team spirit from 1991 would be even harder to replicate. However, for hypotherical discussion purposes, Darren O'Hagan and Kevin McKernan might edge out Brendan McKernan and John Kelly.

Don't agree with the john kelly comment, I thought kelly was a great player, and as hard as rocks

Disappointing result, I thought they battled well in the 2nd half hard to win play with 14 men for that long.  Still prefer lavery out around the 45 can use his playing better there, and it's easier for him to get this ball.

Another year without an ulster title, and the run of poor underage teams does not make the future look to great either

Clarke would have made a big difference today, Polly just can't seem to make separation anymore and is to easy disposed

Would have been brilliant to have been able to bring Benny on for 15 mins

What age would he be?

Kilbride got held onto from behind, down no 6 should not have done this as other down man had won the ball. Free in all day, yellow it was not. Ref was poor and gave many decisions against the Rosie's. Ros on the day should have won by 10 plus, down were shocking bad and did not look to bothered.

If just shows how fans view a game differently, me and the other down fans I was with thought the Ref give Roscommon everything for about the first 55 minutes including the crazy sending off. Though at the end when we were beat he started to give us a lot of decisions, but by that time it did not matter.

It's great to see the sport being developed amount the kids over their

[Warrenpoint]

Shocking low representation from South Down clubs in there.
Not often you see county side with little or nobody from Mayobridge, Clonduff, Rostrevor, Burren on it.
Maybe this is the way things are going. Is the talent all residing in East Down now?

A Final of 2014 was Warrenpoint v Burren
B Final of 2014 was Rostrevor v Carryduff

3 out of 4 finalists from South Down

And no one from Carryduff in the down team either

We do a really bad job of developing players from the north of down even though they are good at underage! I think it's because we think they will not stick at GAA, but if we don't pick them we are not helping them to stay playing football

How did we win that match today ? Six points down twice in the match. Kane was brilliant. Three great saves. Devlin really kept his nerve to score winning point with last kick of the match. Poland and laverty pick of the forwards for me. Can't sign off without mentioning mckernans super point to equalise before PD hit the winner. I still think Down are in a false position though as they really were 2nd best today and then there was the 2 points we picked up in Kildare

Yea we have been lucky so far in the league, but do hope it's also a sign of a good spirit developing in the team, they never seem to think they are beaten

Still think we are to small, and would love to have clarke back. But would definitely have taken this at the start of the year

There was a red card for Ryan Johnston 3 mins into the video, which was a big point in the game. St Mary's were well on top at the time. See it for yourself.

Can't really see why Johnson got the line for that