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An excellent weekend of football finals we've just had. I thought the quality across the board was very good, and as other posters have highlighted, I expect to see several who featured in the senior final to be in Lavery's panel. Congrats to Kilcoo, Saval, and Teconnaught and best of luck to them for their Ulster campaign. I can't help but feel for Warrenpoint, what a battling performance they put in, some very good individual performances all over the pitch. Thoroughly enjoyed the intermediate final as well on Saturday, wasn't expecting that result and Saval full value for their win. Fantastic goal by McCarthy, completely changed the game. A very good start to Danny Hughes managerial career, promotion with Castlewellan last year and now a championship win with his home club.

Ban needed for young Johnson after that tonight. Cowardly act. Do that on the street and your doing time. Completely uncalled for.

Irish news must have some serious liability issues after that article today.

Absolutely shocking news. James just right to walk away, complete lack of respect. Heard that it was some of the so called "senior" members of the squad that were drunk during the meeting too. And some of the lads have apparently left the squad as well in light of events. What hope do the younger members have. Complete toxic environment.

"we're sh1t, and we know we are, we're sh1t and we know we are"

Down
Offaly
Westmeath
Antrim
Fermanagh
Laois
Cavan
Tipp

Who would you be confident of beating based on this years performances? James Mc Cartan, Aidan O'Rourke and Ronan Mc Mahon have been working with these lads now for months and there has been zero progress. You can all talk about a late start which is fair enough but they have not managed to catch up at all on the teams above us in Division 2. They have also been let down by many individuals both on and off the field which doesn't lead to positivity in the dressing room. Rumours of bust ups after games again doesn't help either and shows serious signs of division which should not be happening and should not be talked about outside of the panel. The management may have already lost the dressing room and with a defeat to Monaghan inevitable, we could again go a year without a win.

Division 3 will be a dog fight next week. No easy games on that list. You are completely right about the player bust ups, doesn't seem to be much harmony within the squad at the moment. The team now have 2 weeks off, I imagine to regroup with the clubs. I heard through someone on the panel that this 2 week break is mainly to allow tensions within the squad to settle down. I'm not sure this team can tactically afford 2 weeks away. Long term, this lack of senior leadership could really harm the young lads coming onto the panel, standards have to be identified and outlined, and if senior players aren't holding players accountable then we will see repeats of this season happening again and again.

Nice precedent set by Down this past 2 weeks. You can go on drink in the lead up to a season defining game and still represent your county. Unbelievable.

[Also allowing the carry on that has been going on in the panel, how 5 lads can show up drunk to training is surely the final straw for the Queen's mafia.]

I see Jack Devanney is on the load of balls podcast with Fegan and Doran this week. I will look forward to listening to that. Fair play to him for not hiding away.

Fair play to Jack Devanney? Let's have three cheers for Devanney , O Tool and McAteer while we are at it.

The mess this county is in has a lot to do with an inept county board who have operated for years and years in sneaky deals on the sly, even the word coming from some of the selection panel for the new manager were severely critical of McAteers influence and role in doing all he could to deny Laverty a go at it.

O Toole in his highly paid role has now had 15 years to make an impact, what is his legacy in these 15 years?

As for Devanney, I said here long ago it would end up a Queens mafia gig and now the word on the street is Karl Oaks is our new saviour, lining him up for a operations manager role, the good old Queens alumni comes to the rescue again.

We are a disgrace and until the county board is rid of these cowboys you can forget about clubs and schools. Like a piece of fruit that is rotten to the core, rotting everything it touches.

McCartan and AOR throughout all of this also getting a free ride they ain't exempt either, he won one game in five years at minor level alongside the likes of Ambrose, Poland, Poacher, Sean O Hare his Daniel, how was he allowed to continue? Also allowing the carry on that has been going on in the panel, how 5 lads can show up drunk to training is surely the final straw for the Queen's mafia.

Who are the 5 lads in this case? Management aside, this also highlights how there is no leadership from senior players on the squad to address this, and that standards have fallen so low that they can get away with this. Senior players in this case should be able to take responsibility and chase these fellas if this is true. But there in lies the problem, have we even got senior leadership in the squad who would command such respect to do this? Darren o Hagan comes to mind but after that I'm struggling. Who is captain this year?

For a period of that game I thought we might have kicked on and won it,  in fairness to the lads they battled back well. Extremely wasteful in front of goal, some amount of chances missed for Down today - a little bit of composure and the game could have been different. And at the other end, Cork just seemed to get their scores a lot easier. Back down to Division 3, probably where we belong at this moment in time.

Agree with Danny that there should be more done within schools with regards to player development. However, given the Armagh/Down split within the Abbey and College for example, would there not be a degree of hesitancy for the county board to invest in player development within schools where potentially Armagh players would reap the benefits?

Fixtures out. Looks like a few heavy duty fixtures in round one. I'm sure Bryansford have the honour of playing the All Ireland champions first.

Division two will be interesting also although County panellists availability is going to hurt a lot Clubs in 1&2.

Is it confirmed that clubs will be without county players until Down exit the championship?

Who is the 4 kilcoo players on the squad?

Let's look at it from a Kilcoo perspective. A full year of intense training and your asked to go again for your county. Very little down time and let's be honest probably not sustainable. Absolutely, getting the call to represent your county is huge but mentally I wonder what appetite they would have to go into that set up, especially considering how bad things are currently. Keeping Tally was the obvious call for the sake of this year, completely agree that this shambles is all on the county board.

Very poor this evening. Down are absolutely terrible. Such a gulf in class in Ulster its unbelievable - Down, Cavan, Fermanagh and Antrim the worst teams in Ulster, in whatever order its irrelevant. Seriously, what does Kevin McKernan have on the management - honestly there must be about 15/20 players in Down that are a better option. Been a great servant but enough is enough. Mooney well past it and has very rarely lived up to the hype. Good to see Ceilum Doherty back but we need more Kilcoo players making themselves available. How easily teams just cut through the middle against us is so concerning.

Yes the team is probably as strong as it can probably be, but it doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. Thought McMahon would have deserved to keep his place in nets, is he injured? If B O'Hagan has a quiet game I really struggle to see where scores are going to come from in the forward line. Massive game for both sides, Meath will no doubt be approaching this game in the same manner as us.

I'd be quietly optimistic of a result against Meath in the next outing. 2 weeks preparation for it so I really hope it gives some of the lads a chance to get back up to speed.