Down Club Hurling & Football

[Johnnysboys]

Congratulations to Kilcoo on winning the All County division one title this evening. Winning a league over 18 games is no accident so fair play.
They are as usual the front runners for the upcoming championship - with Carryduff hot on their tails.
The element of surprise in the championship is gone until round 3 at least  - but it's still a fantastic structure to look forward to.

[Sandstorm]

Many congratulations to Saul on winning Division 2 and promotion to Division 1. I'm told this is the first time in Division 1 in the history of the club so good luck to them. It will be tough but I hope they can consolidate their place in the top division next year.

[6th sam]

Was chatting to a Saul veteran last night who said that Saul were never in All county league division 1. It's not that long ago that Saul was struggling towards the bottom of Division 4. A number of players will have div4, Div 3 and now Div 2 winners medals. And I'm sure they'll not rest on their laurels. Saul Senior ladies also won the league this year , Pierce Laverty lifting a national trophy in Croke Park and with the recent Re-introduction of hurling,   GAA is thriving in Saul at the minute .

[thewobbler]

Delighted for Saul. They've been growing towards this for a decade or more; adding a small layer on top each season so it seems. D1 is a big ask for any first time team but they've plenty of senior championship experience now which should stand them in good stead.

[maldini]

Anyone got the full minor championship draw

[manwithnoplan]

Delighted for Saul. They've been growing towards this for a decade or more; adding a small layer on top each season so it seems. D1 is a big ask for any first time team but they've plenty of senior championship experience now which should stand them in good stead.

Very impressive work done by their club, particularly to show a steady improvement, as often clubs can bounce between divisions over a period of years. Must have taken many hours of hard work by many volunteers to get them there, and the current crop at senior level are reaping the benefits of it. I'd be interested to see what sort of plan was put in place and how it was implemented over the years, as it could benefit other smaller clubs particularly around that area.

[ardtole]

Saul is quite a large parish and up until 25 years ago was largely rural. I'd imagine they are benefiting from the significant residential developments, particularly towards the Downpatrick end of the parish over the past 20/25 years.

In fairness other clubs have had similar large population increases over these years too, but Saul have definitely capitalised on them.

[manwithnoplan]

Saul is quite a large parish and up until 25 years ago was largely rural. I'd imagine they are benefiting from the significant residential developments, particularly towards the Downpatrick end of the parish over the past 20/25 years.

In fairness other clubs have had similar large population increases over these years too, but Saul have definitely capitalised on them.

That's a fair point, there has been a bit of a housing boom on the Saul side of Downpatrick and I believe there is more development coming. But like you say they have certainly capitalised on it, which isn't always the case. For example, RGU don't seem to capitalise on their population base.

[Point-to-Point]

Was chatting to a Saul veteran last night who said that Saul were never in All county league division 1. It's not that long ago that Saul was struggling towards the bottom of Division 4. A number of players will have div4, Div 3 and now Div 2 winners medals. And I'm sure they'll not rest on their laurels. Saul Senior ladies also won the league this year , Pierce Laverty lifting a national trophy in Croke Park and with the recent Re-introduction of hurling,  GAA is thriving in Saul at the minute .

What way is the hurling getting on in Saul, does anybody know?

Would love to see hurling reintroduced into my own home club. Great to see.

[6th sam]

Was chatting to a Saul veteran last night who said that Saul were never in All county league division 1. It's not that long ago that Saul was struggling towards the bottom of Division 4. A number of players will have div4, Div 3 and now Div 2 winners medals. And I'm sure they'll not rest on their laurels. Saul Senior ladies also won the league this year , Pierce Laverty lifting a national trophy in Croke Park and with the recent Re-introduction of hurling,  GAA is thriving in Saul at the minute .

What way is the hurling getting on in Saul, does anybody know?

Would love to see hurling reintroduced into my own home club. Great to see.

Hurling going well in Saul in youngest age groups  , thanks to a number of volunteers who are putting in serious work. There is also a local recreational hurling team , the Social Slashers which has been a great initiative. Historically Saul players hurled with Kilclief , and hopefully the introduction of another local club will boost Kilclief as well.
The challenge for hurling is getting regular fixtures , and the introduction of more clubs will hopefully help that .

[johnnycool]

Was chatting to a Saul veteran last night who said that Saul were never in All county league division 1. It's not that long ago that Saul was struggling towards the bottom of Division 4. A number of players will have div4, Div 3 and now Div 2 winners medals. And I'm sure they'll not rest on their laurels. Saul Senior ladies also won the league this year , Pierce Laverty lifting a national trophy in Croke Park and with the recent Re-introduction of hurling,  GAA is thriving in Saul at the minute .

What way is the hurling getting on in Saul, does anybody know?

Would love to see hurling reintroduced into my own home club. Great to see.

Hurling going well in Saul in youngest age groups  , thanks to a number of volunteers who are putting in serious work. There is also a local recreational hurling team , the Social Slashers which has been a great initiative. Historically Saul players hurled with Kilclief , and hopefully the introduction of another local club will boost Kilclief as well.
The challenge for hurling is getting regular fixtures , and the introduction of more clubs will hopefully help that .

Currently Saul go to the P4 and P6 blitzes on the first and third Saturdays of the month. They've decent enough numbers with them.

[Point-to-Point]

Was chatting to a Saul veteran last night who said that Saul were never in All county league division 1. It's not that long ago that Saul was struggling towards the bottom of Division 4. A number of players will have div4, Div 3 and now Div 2 winners medals. And I'm sure they'll not rest on their laurels. Saul Senior ladies also won the league this year , Pierce Laverty lifting a national trophy in Croke Park and with the recent Re-introduction of hurling,  GAA is thriving in Saul at the minute .

What way is the hurling getting on in Saul, does anybody know?

Would love to see hurling reintroduced into my own home club. Great to see.

Hurling going well in Saul in youngest age groups  , thanks to a number of volunteers who are putting in serious work. There is also a local recreational hurling team , the Social Slashers which has been a great initiative. Historically Saul players hurled with Kilclief , and hopefully the introduction of another local club will boost Kilclief as well.
The challenge for hurling is getting regular fixtures , and the introduction of more clubs will hopefully help that .

Currently Saul go to the P4 and P6 blitzes on the first and third Saturdays of the month. They've decent enough numbers with them.

Great to hear. Hasn't heard much about hurling in Saul in a while, and was wondering if it had managed to take off. Good to hear it's going well.

The social team is a good idea to create a bit of interest around the parish.

Agree that the introduction of more clubs is beneficial to hurling, and hopefully the introduction of hurling in Saul will benefit Kilclief in the long run. Wonder would it have any impact on Downpatrick?

I know in my own experience, when playing hurling, you would get a bit fed up of playing the same teams over and over, whereas the football was always a bit more varied.

[Point-to-Point]

Speaking of hurling, see the senior championship has kicked off.

Any predictions or anything to watch out for?

No sign of Splash recently? Really enjoyed the hurling discussion going on here- some good insights.

[Jet2]

Minor Football Championship Groups

Top Two Teams reach Quarter Finals

Top Team in the Group has Home Advantage in Quarter Finals

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

1v4

3v1

1v2

2v3

4v2

3v4

Group 1

Mayobridge

Dromara/Drumaness Drumgath or Darragh Cross Burren

Group 2

Bredagh

Longstone

Clonduff

Rostrevor

Group 3

Kilcoo

Carryduff

Teconnaught

St John Bosco

Group 4

Bryansford

Cumann Pheadar Naofa

Castlewellan

Saval

[johnnycool]

Speaking of hurling, see the senior championship has kicked off.

Any predictions or anything to watch out for?

No sign of Splash recently? Really enjoyed the hurling discussion going on here- some good insights.

Portaferry are odds on favourites, putting up impressive scores in recent friendlies against good opposition.

They kick off their campaign tonight against Bredagh and there'll be 15 plus points in that. That's not being disrespectful of Bredagh as Portaferry will do that to every team in the competition. Bredagh will be targeting other games to win and not be too worried about this one.

There could be a decent game in Carryduff tonight with them making their debut at this level against Liatroim who'll still be hurting from that loss in the semi-final last year. Liatroim will be looking to get their first 15 sorted out tonight as it looks like they haven't managed to do that in the league and were average enough at times. Still think Liatroim will win it with the likes of Pierce O'g being the difference but not by that much as IMO Liatroims FB line will concede a good few scores too and will be relying on Ruairi McCrickard to mop up a lot of ball going into their.

We're happy enough with our first outing against Ballycran, but there's still a few areas of concern, our FB line being the biggest. They'll cough up goals against teams with big, strong catchers of the ball, but we have serious pace from there on out. If there's anyone in the county quicker than Prenter who's now stationed in midfield I haven't seen them. He's relishing being on the ball more and going at defences. Keeping him fit could be an issue as I believe he's back with RGU as well.
We've Liatroim away in a few weeks time and that will be a different test.

Ballycran were without Liam Savage against us and they really missed him, they don't have much to come off the bench and quite a few lads the wrong side of 30 and little coming out of their underage sets ups to make the step up.

The battle for the other three semi-final spots is where it's at in this championship sadly.