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Hurling is in a good place but needs a few tweaks imo, enforce the handpass rule, the ball travels too far, 65s were designed to restart the game not be an easy score-hit it like a sideline cut, still scorable but difficult and finally the free hand grab of opponents needs clamped down on

RTE Sport had a story on it today. Red v Green is one of the main challenges. Munster GAA will ensure it doesn't happen next year if Cork play Limerick (too late for Sunday).

The notion that it's "too late" for Sunday is ridiculous. If it's an issue next year then it's an issue this year. Surely one of them has a black or white away jersey that can be used?

Cork have a white away kit. Limerick a black one.

Does the referee have a say here?

As long as the ref isnt wearing the same jersey as a goalkeeper!!!! 

Was reading that Down are now guaranteed a
Sam Maguire spot unless Clare beat Kerry in the Munster Semi final.

How can this be? Would the Sam Maguire not just be the 16 teams from Divisions 1 and 2, assuming no division 3 or 4 teams make their provincial final?

The 2 promoted teams from Div 3 take the bottom 2 spots not the bottom 2 in Div 2 subject to provisional final placings

All 3 northeners are undergrads from 3 neighbouring clubs in south Belfast

Where was half the team? All out before doing sprints ffs... Does mgt not know we've only 1 more game before the league starts??

No 3rd level players allowed to play midweek and players only allowed to play 1 game in competition so he had to balance his team.

Armagh had players who played vs Tyrone, and played Sigerson on Tues? 

Aye. That game wasn't held midweek. It was on at the weekend. 😂

Where was half the team? All out before doing sprints ffs... Does mgt not know we've only 1 more game before the league starts??

No 3rd level players allowed to play midweek and players only allowed to play 1 game in competition so he had to balance his team.

New Louth jersey is a bit Down like.

Looks like a Man Utd Jersey

Disappointed for Portaferry.

Came down to the wire. I think it really could have gone either way, and was in the  melting pot up until Slaughtneil's goal in the last ten minutes.

It wasn't as spectacular a game as we have seen in recent years, but that's the nature of these types of battles.

McGrattan obviously a huge loss. Coleman was very impressive.

Portaferry may feel certain decisions went against them, but the fact of the matter is the Ports had chances and unfortunately, they weren't able to capitalise at the right times.

SN are a serious side. The physicality they bring is very, very difficult to live with. Their ability to win ball goes a long way in helping their game. That is before even commenting on the quality hurling they play.

Portaferry will be disappointed. But I do think it is important to take a step back and look at how they have come on in recent years.

In 2022, Portaferry were put out of Ulster in the semi finals by SN- losing by almost 20 points. 3 years later and they have clearly shown they have caught up with the Derry men. It is massive progress in a short period of time.

I know that won't be much comfort to them over the winter, but it is well worth noting.

Portaferry are still very much the team to beat in Down and no doubt there's more to come from this team.

Best of luck to Slaughtneil now in Ulster. I'd say they should win the Ulster Final, but I do think it would be great to see St John's get over the line. Setentna weren't absolutely blown away in the other semi final, so hopefully they stick up in the Senior Championship for next year. Great to have more teams and more games.

Hard luck also to Clonduff camogs. Game was far closer than final score line might suggest (they lost by 7, but were a point or 2 behind Loughguile for the majority of the game). It is great to see them competing with teams like Loughguile, and hopefully there is more to come.

Portaferry are a serious outfit and will win Ulster in the next year or 2. hard luck to them at the weekend but they need a bit more off the bench going forward.

The junior and intermediate hurling teams who come out of Ulster do not compete at all Ireland level so if anything the cutoff in standard needs to be higher

First round of the Ulster Intermediate and Junior hurling championship over.

Unfortune for Liatroim but they represented the county well. Always a hard ask to travel away and get a result in North Antrim.

Glenariff have been on the up and up over the past number of years. Not that the league really represents a teams true capabilities but they won Division 2 of Antrim this year and beat our Down teams Bredagh and Carryduff comfortably who are on parr with Liatroim.



They will be strong favourites for Ulster now.

Burt beat Castlewellan away by 21 points, so that's interesting and kind of highlighting a couple of flaws in the 'Junior' aspect of the Junior championship but its been spoken about before.

Lavey and Cuchulainn's also won without much contest.

Castleblaney beat Middletown in the intermediate which was probably the most surprising result for me but Armagh hurling has dropped off alot in recent years.

The reality is our Senior and Intermediate teams are similar in standard to what is in Ulster but our Junior teams are not at that level. The teams in our Intermediate group are closer to the junior level required in Ulster. Should they play Junior and introduce a Junior B for the developing clubs. I seen there was an Ulster junior B completion this year too.
The same could be argued for our Intermediate and Junior football winners too- I hope Saval prove me wrong but Clonoe are a quality side

The carryduff parish is basically split in 2, the upper part is the town of Carryduff while the lower part is part of Belfast. The club is a Down club but also enters a team in the Antrim Div2 hurling. As far as go games they play in Down but if they have too many players they do , at times, put teams into Antrim. I would consider us a Belfast club.

If we all want to be truthful with ourselves then we should realise that the current hurling championship format works but the teams in intermediate should probably be in junior.

No disrespect to any club but it must be tough to play the intermediate round robin and then on to play a team coming down from senior who have always won it the last couple of years.

I think both Ballela and Warrenpoint will give it a rattle but Liatroim and Carryduff should win by 10+ points each, they are simply playing and competing at a higher level with more numbers.

I would have the senior championship as is with the 6 teams and the bottom two play for intermediate. The rest in Junior and if some of the lower teams are unhappy with this then create a Junior B. This would mean all teams representing down in ulster are actually fit to compete and challenge for their respective titles. We've always struggled in ulster across the board expect for Liatroim a couple years back.

Agree totally with this

Top 13 named and then any girl who plays senior cannot play in the championship below. So all the girls who played for carryduff today in the intermediate have not played in any of the senior championship matches this year.

There's a fascinating discussion on the Ulster Club IFC and JFC 2024 regarding Armagh's approach to second teams playing in the senior league. In light of the state of reserve football in the county, Is it worthwhile to revisit this?

Big difference is that in Armagh their first team & reserves are completely different groups of players. Both play at same time so there is no players overlapping & appearing on both panels.
 
There isn't the scenario where lads can play well in reserves & get promoted to seniors or give fringe players a run for reserves.

There aren't many clubs in Down that could field 40+ adult players to fill two panels.

I'd say 2 clubs could do it, Burren and Kilcoo

Possibly Carryduff but I can't see any others having the numbers.

Carryduff don't have the numbers unfortunately

The largest club in Down plays in division 4

It doesn't, Carryduff and Bredagh have the biggest membership, East Belfast has the largest adult player membership but hardly any juvenile compared to Thier neighbours

There's a fascinating discussion on the Ulster Club IFC and JFC 2024 regarding Armagh's approach to second teams playing in the senior league. In light of the state of reserve football in the county, Is it worthwhile to revisit this?

Big difference is that in Armagh their first team & reserves are completely different groups of players. Both play at same time so there is no players overlapping & appearing on both panels.
 
There isn't the scenario where lads can play well in reserves & get promoted to seniors or give fringe players a run for reserves.

There aren't many clubs in Down that could field 40+ adult players to fill two panels.

I'd say 2 clubs could do it, Burren and Kilcoo

Possibly Carryduff but I can't see any others having the numbers.

Carryduff don't have the numbers unfortunately