Down Club Hurling & Football

[Smurfy123]

A man who I thought woukd have had better sense the Down chairman was telling blatant lies in the Irish news. It was a full training session. In the current circumstances with are very worrying I find this hard to believe woukd happen. Things are much much worse now than what they were 6 months ago. I would think some Downpatrick people wouldn't be to happy with the chairman's words
I got word on Tuesday evening about 10 about this. The one thing you can be sure of with Down is that nothing and I mean nothing stays within the team. The players can't wait to tell tales. The leaks that come out of that squad is frightening

[SamFever]

1) Have the players not the b-lls to say NO?
2)Paddy Tally and fellow selectors/Sean Og/Jack Devaney
and indeed the Governors/Headmaster of the Abbey Grammar
should all make a public apology.
Jack Devaney should go further and apologise for his public lies
as there were at least 36 players plus back room team
on site at the Abbey.

[Godsown]

Think Smutfy is right Sam. The players can't hold their own water. That info is all over SM. Serious questions to be answered by the powers that be.

[Gaelforce123]

I don't agree with this in the slightest, they had no need to be training when the GAA had only that day made the decision to extend the ban on county training. However, people saying about all the rules they have broken.... the only rule is the GAA rule, in terms of Government guidelines they are allowed to train and play matches the same way that Ulster and Leinster Rugby are they classed as an elite sport however the GAA decided to lead by example and rightly so to extend an internal ban on county training. There is no minimum penalty for teams in breach, any talk of bans for possible breach was never released though maybe it should have been. Training bans have been broken before and no doubt the GAA and down will hope this goes quiet and forgotten about soon, i am sure its a case of they were the ones that got caught as other counties likely doing similar and this will ensure they no longer risk it either. County Board should have shown leadership and made sure this didnt happen

[meatsy86]

There will be no ban the training did not take place on a GAA owned pitch therefore no sanctions can be handed down by Croke Park.

[5times5times]

There will be no ban the training did not take place on a GAA owned pitch therefore no sanctions can be handed down by Croke Park.

Did Armagh not get sanctioned for going away to Portugal during a training ban? Doubt there's too many GAA pitches over there?

2nd time in 3 lockdowns where Down GAA have disgraced themselves regarding training sessions when they should have shut up shop.

[meatsy86]

A bit different in that there was a specific restriction placed on going abroad for training in the month of April to allow county players play for their clubs in the closed month. Law states they can train so why shouldn't they?

[Taylor]

A bit different in that there was a specific restriction placed on going abroad for training in the month of April to allow county players play for their clubs in the closed month. Law states they can train so why shouldn't they?

That is just daft.

If you are playing GAA you abide by the GAA rules.

Law doesnt say I will get sent off for telling someone to f**k off but if I do it on a field to a referee I should be sent off

[manwithnoplan]

Serious amount of people try so hard to be offended and outraged these days. They are adults, they assessed their own risks and made a choice. The same way we all should in life. Virtue signaling is the latest trend I suppose. Laws broken? No. 'Guidance' not strictly adhered to? Yes. Let's all move on.

As an aside, any players keen to leak things to their mates or others maybe aren't of the right mentality to complete/contribute in a high level team environment. And as mentioned, they are adults so if they didn't agree with whatever was planned, they can speak up and make their own choice.

[Lotto]

Serious amount of people try so hard to be offended and outraged these days. They are adults, they assessed their own risks and made a choice. The same way we all should in life. Virtue signaling is the latest trend I suppose. Laws broken? No. 'Guidance' not strictly adhered to? Yes. Let's all move on.

As an aside, any players keen to leak things to their mates or others maybe aren't of the right mentality to complete/contribute in a high level team environment. And as mentioned, they are adults so if they didn't agree with whatever was planned, they can speak up and make their own choice.

This was not 'guidance'. It was a directive from Croke Park stating in first paragraph in the instruction:
Given the current exceptional rise in infection rates of Covid 19 and the increased risk of community transmission, the GAA has taken the decision that there will be no collective training permitted for inter-county teams for at least the remainder of the month of January.

How exactly do you make this out to be guidance? As for assessing their own risk and making their own choices, the fear that if they didn't attend they could be dropped or playing chances being limited would have been the reason they attended, they would not have said no to Paddy Tally so they had no choice.

[Johnnysboys]

Who will the front runners be for the vacant minor job?? Surely Poacher has to get it - they didn't get him out of Carlow to train the minors for a year and disappear again??

[thewobbler]

Of course there's the GAA edict in place, which I accept we all must follow.

But on the other hand, what is it that people want to get so upset about?

We were happy enough for elite status to be placed upon same players in November, thereby allowing them to use changing rooms. And now we don't want them to meet at all?

Furthermore we were all witness to a countrywide GAA success story over the summer, when teams trained and played outside only. It worked. It genuinely worked.

So I can't help but think that if teams are willing to meet strictly outdoors for training in January, and practice social distancing wherever possible, then there's no harm in it. In fact I'd prefer they do that than go running alone on frosty, dark roads. Gyms are closed and as most of them do actually work for a living, it would mean frosty, dark roads.

I don't wish to sound like I'm defending GAA rule breaking. But this isn't a golf gate type scenario. Not even close. It's really not far off a "nothing to see here" story.

[Lotto]

Nothing ever surprises me about you wobbler. You are defending Down for breaking the rules the same way you tried to defend your own club Ballyholland who repeatedly broke the rules during lockdown last year. It was wrong then and it is even more wrong now.

[thewobbler]

I'm not defending them.

I just don't really understand the need for outpourings of ire myself. In the grand scale of things that can be done wrong in Covid times, running around outdoors is somewhere between staying at home at going to work.

[Lotto]

From Hoganstand

Down not expecting to face sanctions after Newry gathering
January 08, 2021

Down GAA say they have notified Croke Park of the development
Down GAA say they do not expect to face any sanctions after a number of their senior footballers gathered in Newry last Tuesday.

Elite status allows Down and other counties to train amid Northern Ireland's current lockdown, but the GAA has put a ban on all collective training until February 1 at the earliest.

BBC Sport NI reports that the PSNI looked into the gathering at Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School and were "fully satisfied there was no issue".

Down county board chairman Jack Devaney also confirmed that they have notified Croke Park of the development.

"Some of our squad members did gather for approximately 40 minutes at Abbey CBS college on Tuesday evening to discuss individual training programmes," said Devaney.

"Down GAA has notified Croke Park of the development. We were clear that we were not doing any collective training and indeed haven't trained as a group since mid-November.

"We anticipate that no sanctions will arise from this. Approximately 18 attended, and in line with protocols were split into two groups; many were new to the squad and received induction packages and individual programmes until inter-county training resumes."

There is nothing more I hate in life than a liar. Devaney trying to defend what he says the Down players were doing in the Abbey on Tuesday night. Does he think we are stupid when everybody knows it was a training session yet according to him all the GAA rules were being adhered to and it was just to give individual training programmes. There are ways and means of distributing these programmes, the players don't have to be fully kitted out on a pitch to do this. Devaney should take his lies and f**k away back of to Clare or wherever he is from, he can't defend this. Hold your hands up and take it on the chin, they were wrong and broke the rules. Just don't try to tell lies when the truth is very well known.