Down Club Hurling & Football

[Sheedy]

Hard luck to Kilcoo yesterday. They have gone well back from their All-Ireland and I thought they looked very ordinary yesterday for long spells. They'll be asking big questions today and just are not the force they were.
My understanding is that they don't have good young players coming through so its not surprising they are on the slide.

cantered through the Down championship at ease and then lost a tight Ulster final by a point, you reckon that's the sign of a team on the slide?

[Leftmidfield]

Hard luck to Kilcoo yesterday. They have gone well back from their All-Ireland and I thought they looked very ordinary yesterday for long spells. They'll be asking big questions today and just are not the force they were.
My understanding is that they don't have good young players coming through so its not surprising they are on the slide.

cantered through the Down championship at ease and then lost a tight Ulster final by a point, you reckon that's the sign of a team on the slide?

Agree with Sheedy. But he forgot to mention Kilcoo playing with 14 men for a lot of the 2nd half and still only beat by a point. Kept the Canavans pretty quiet too.

[thewobbler]

I wouldn't think Kilcoo are on the slide. They were the better team yesterday in an Ulster final. Which is one hell of a high bar. They are if anything more relentless and unselfish than ever, but are perhaps missing a little of the off-the-cuff verve that Laverty, Jerome and Ward brought them a few seasons ago. Eugene tried his best to fill some of those gaps yesterday.  My guess would be that they've  already identified this and we will see a slightly revised approach to risk taking next season.

They're always (at least) one step ahead. The buggers.

[ardtole]

I could see Chrissy Rooney playing a more prominent role next season, and prehaps Jerome Johnson taking on Lavertys role as an impact sub.

[Splash]

National Hurling League Fixtures, 2025:

25/01/2025- Round 1: Down v Kildare, Ballycran

01/02/2025- Round 2: Down v Derry, Owenbeg

08/02/2025- Round 3: Down v Donegal, Ballycran

23/02/2025- Round 4: Down v Meath, Trim

02/03/2025- Round 5: Down v Tyrone, Ballycran

08/03/2025- Round 6: Down v Kerry, Tralee

[Splash]

Realistically, winning the league is very feasible, and gaining promotion to Division One should be the bare minimum.

Having Kildare at home is probably beneficial to Down. Kildare have been a bit of a bogey team in recent years, and it will realistically be between us, Kildare, and Kerry for who goes to Division One.

Derry should be tough- be interesting to see what happens Slaughtneil further into the season, and how this impacts the county team.

Donegal and Meath could be well fit to spring a surprise on us.

Be good to see Tyrone in Ballycran. I would imagine they have another wee bit to go before they can compete with the next level of teams in Ulster, but they do seem to be going in the right direction.

I know the league has been restructured, but it's great to see 4 Ulster teams in Div 2.

Will be an important year for Down as this is the first time in a while they will probably be favourites to win a league, with Antrim, Offaly, Laois, Westmeath, and Carlow all playing in Div One.

[Ed Hardy]

Any word on the county panel? Any new or returning faces?

[DownFanatic]

Realistically, winning the league is very feasible, and gaining promotion to Division One should be the bare minimum.

Having Kildare at home is probably beneficial to Down. Kildare have been a bit of a bogey team in recent years, and it will realistically be between us, Kildare, and Kerry for who goes to Division One.

Derry should be tough- be interesting to see what happens Slaughtneil further into the season, and how this impacts the county team.

Donegal and Meath could be well fit to spring a surprise on us.

Be good to see Tyrone in Ballycran. I would imagine they have another wee bit to go before they can compete with the next level of teams in Ulster, but they do seem to be going in the right direction.

I know the league has been restructured, but it's great to see 4 Ulster teams in Div 2.

Will be an important year for Down as this is the first time in a while they will probably be favourites to win a league, with Antrim, Offaly, Laois, Westmeath, and Carlow all playing in Div One.

When was Down's last time in NHL Division 1 proper? Early 90's?

[johnnycool]

Realistically, winning the league is very feasible, and gaining promotion to Division One should be the bare minimum.

Having Kildare at home is probably beneficial to Down. Kildare have been a bit of a bogey team in recent years, and it will realistically be between us, Kildare, and Kerry for who goes to Division One.

Derry should be tough- be interesting to see what happens Slaughtneil further into the season, and how this impacts the county team.

Donegal and Meath could be well fit to spring a surprise on us.

Be good to see Tyrone in Ballycran. I would imagine they have another wee bit to go before they can compete with the next level of teams in Ulster, but they do seem to be going in the right direction.

I know the league has been restructured, but it's great to see 4 Ulster teams in Div 2.

Will be an important year for Down as this is the first time in a while they will probably be favourites to win a league, with Antrim, Offaly, Laois, Westmeath, and Carlow all playing in Div One.

When was Down's last time in NHL Division 1 proper? Early 90's?

2005 I think.

we won Div2 in a league final in 2004 in the Gaelic grounds in Limerick against a heavily fancied Westmeath.

Beat them well in the end even after they got two early goals.

A bit of a melee just after their second goal turned the tide our way. 

Sometimes things just need to be done.

[johnnycool]

I see the motion to change the football championships to straight knockout is pushed back to the first meeting of the new Down CB.

More than one club proposed it, so is there an appetite within the clubs to go this way?

[thewobbler]

I see the motion to change the football championships to straight knockout is pushed back to the first meeting of the new Down CB.

More than one club proposed it, so is there an appetite within the clubs to go this way?

Our SFC is currently dying by a thousand cuts. Which is not the county board's fault at all. Just that we've all given up on toppling Kilcoo. So the backdoor has become a stay of execution rather than a second chance.

Straight knockout may not solve the key part of this issue, but it would in the short term  give the competition a jolt if energy that it badly needs.

[johnnycool]

I see the motion to change the football championships to straight knockout is pushed back to the first meeting of the new Down CB.

More than one club proposed it, so is there an appetite within the clubs to go this way?

Our SFC is currently dying by a thousand cuts. Which is not the county board's fault at all. Just that we've all given up on toppling Kilcoo. So the backdoor has become a stay of execution rather than a second chance.

Straight knockout may not solve the key part of this issue, but it would in the short term  give the competition a jolt if energy that it badly needs.

How many times have Kilcoo been caught out and needed the backdoor in the last while?

[DownFanatic]

There are big financial implications in going straight knockout across all three grades. I'm all for a return to the straight knockout. I've always believed in it and if it is marketed correctly, planned accordingly etc then there is no reason at all why we can't boost our product. Whether that would be enough to overcome the financial shortfall, I'm not so sure.

Take the JFC for example, CCC have tried their best at different formats to give teams more than one game with a deeper Championship. But really, JFC teams would far prefer straight knockout.

We are lucky in that our leagues in Down are taken very seriously and they have meaning. Leagues in other counties across the island are more and more turning into glorified friendlies. We need to sustain the significance of our Leagues and move to a straight knockout Championship programme that does away with meaningless games and starts making more sense for Down club teams.

[Splash]

This will be going back a long time now, but I'm sure someone here will know something.

Does anybody know the story about Clann Uladh and Faugh-a-Ballagh in Newry?

Obviously the clubs are long gone, but would be interesting to know the stories about them back in the early days.

Where did they play out of? Where did they draw players from? What areas of the town did they serve?

Did they ever exist alongside Shamrocks/Bosco/Mitchells?

And what happened to them?

To the best of my knowledge, Clann Uladh eventually either morphed into, or amalgamated with someone else, to form Shamrocks in about the 50s.

Faugh-a-Ballagh seem to have disappeared about the 40s or 50s.

Anyone know much about them? Assuming no one here ever played for them, but anybody have any relations or know anybody that was involved with them?

Did they just rebrand as Shamrocks or Mitchells or what was the story?

See they were very dominant in the early days of the GAA in both codes- be interesting to know the story behind them.

Am I right in saying there was also a camogie team in Newry called St Bridget's in the 1940s?

Newry has changed a lot in ten years, let alone 100 years, but old stories like these are certainly interesting.

[LC]

Read the article in the IN yesterday with Calon Mooney.

Seemed to be fairly open and honest about a lot of things.  For some guys the penny drops when they have hung up the boots and by that stage it is too late on so many fronts and importantly the last thing that they would do is admit it.

From reading the article it would seem he was at Jordanstown for a couple of years however I imagine it was purely for football reasons with no benefit gained academically .  I'm sure he would not be the first baller that has went through Jordanstown and career wise down the line have realised that it did not help them in the long term.

When you go looking for a mortgage in years to come payslips have more relevance than having played Sigerson.