Down Club Hurling & Football

[imtommygunn]

That is a while hammering you gave Ballycran JC. I'd say they'll not be one bit happy about that but I'm sure that'll not bother you lol.

Maybe won't be a repeat Carryduff Bredagh in the intermediate this year and will be Liatroim with one of them instead.

[johnnycool]

That is a while hammering you gave Ballycran JC. I'd say they'll not be one bit happy about that but I'm sure that'll not bother you lol.

Maybe won't be a repeat Carryduff Bredagh in the intermediate this year and will be Liatroim with one of them instead.

I've serious doubts about our consistency and strength in depth if we do pick up a few injuries to key players. We've everyone reasonably fit (although one lad does need to shed a bit more timber to play the position he's in on bigger pitches). If we can get to the last round with a home semi-final secured we'll probably empty the bench in that game vrs Portaferry. They'll probably do the same but their bench is much stronger than ours. It'd be a real good experience for a load of 18/19/20yo's on the panel all the same. Not counting any chickens yet, hence my first sentence. Our cryospa will be full out the next few weeks.

In relation to the link between intermediate and senior is my only concern about this current championship format. Bredagh have a win under their belt and will probably give Ballycran a real rattle with a good chance of a win, but if Liatroim do get a big hammering in Portaferry will they down tools for the rest of the senior round robin knowing they'll have a serious chance of winning the intermediate anyway.

For me Carryduff give it a go last year in the senior round robin and competed well in most games for large parts and that probably worked against them come intermediate as Bredagh beat them well in the final even though Bredagh threw in the towel against us in the last RR game in Teconnaught.
Carryduff railed against any changes to the current format during the winter as they believed it brought them on and I couldn't argue with that.

If we beat them on Sunday, do they do the same this year or thread water till the intermediate semi-final?

[Truth hurts]

Are the rumours about the Drumgath management leaving true?

[johnnycool]

Three big margin games in the first round of the senior championship this weekend, the Saturday game in Carryduff was probably expected and not a game Carryduff would have been targeting to pick up anything from in as the Ports are still clear favourites to retain Jeremiah for the 4 time in a row.

Bredagh putting 20 points on Liatroim down in Liatroim was a bit of a surprise and whilst Bredagh winning this wouldn't have been a surprise, the margin of the win was. The Murphy effect taking its toll.
All not lost of Liatroim as there's 4 semi-final slots to fill out of 6 teams.

The biggest surprise was the margin of our victory down in McKenna park. We haven't been going well in the latter part of the Antrim league including getting beat by an understrength Ballycran just over a month ago.
A big hammering in a friendly against Dunloy followed 2 friday nights ago and as one of the coaches said to he that he hoped it'll be the kick up the hole that they needed, my retort was how many kicks up the hole do they actually need to get fired up?
I caveat this that I wasn't at the game and was in Croke Park for the camogie finals but from the feedback from lads at the game we finally won the midfield battle which gave the forwards a platform to work from. Better balls into the forwards helps some of our lads who wouldn't be the best at winning dirty ball and they thrived.
Our lads were billing that game as a home semi-final match and were wanting to win it big time, and with Carryduff at home next Sunday we can go a step closer to that, although Carryduff caused us serious problems last year in the same fixture.

Ballycran are up in Cherryvale on Saturday evening and will be looking upon that as a must win game for them. They may have Ben Arthurs back from the soccer for that but it looks like they could lose Chris Egan to a knee injury from all accounts. Bredagh will fancy this one big time and for everyones sake I hope it's on the roadside pitch which is slightly bigger than the other one where the likes of Stephen Keith can almost puck it the full length of.

Liatroim are visiting Portaferry on the Sunday, it's hard to see that going well for them.

What is going on in Liatroim? are the players spoilt?

They lost three strong players and they'd a pretty thin squad anyway with them so are digging deep into a weak enough panel, although young DJ Farrell has the potential to be a serious hurler if he commits.

It'll take a few years before their strong U16's make the step up to adult.

[LosDodgers]

Odran Murdock absolutely lording it in the Chicago championship, MOTM in the final as Pearce's beat Wolfe Tones who I think where going for 3 in a row and he ran all over Brian Fenton in the semi final! The man is an absolute generational talent.

[ardtole]

Odran Murdock absolutely lording it in the Chicago championship, MOTM in the final as Pearce's beat Wolfe Tones who I think where going for 3 in a row and he ran all over Brian Fenton in the semi final! The man is an absolute generational talent.

He had a fantastic year with Down, particularly in the championship. Hes definitely the most exciting player we have produced since Benny Coulter.

[Truth hurts]

Odran Murdock absolutely lording it in the Chicago championship, MOTM in the final as Pearce's beat Wolfe Tones who I think where going for 3 in a row and he ran all over Brian Fenton in the semi final! The man is an absolute generational talent.

I would not put him ahead of Martin Clarke yet. I am looking forward to seeing how he can lead Burren in the championship,as they have an amazing side on paper.

[ardtole]

Odran Murdock absolutely lording it in the Chicago championship, MOTM in the final as Pearce's beat Wolfe Tones who I think where going for 3 in a row and he ran all over Brian Fenton in the semi final! The man is an absolute generational talent.

I would not put him ahead of Martin Clarke yet. I am looking forward to seeing how he can lead Burren in the championship,as they have an amazing side on paper.

I forgot about Clarke. Great player too.

[knowbetter]

if Liatroim do get a big hammering in Portaferry will they down tools for the rest of the senior round robin knowing they'll have a serious chance of winning the intermediate anyway

Interesting start to the hurling championship. I agree with this point and do expect Liatroim to down tools as you put it and focus on the intermediate championship. This was a huge boost from them a few years ago reaching the all Ireland semi-final and winning Ulster.

You would have to feel for the teams already in the intermediate. The last few years they do a very quick round robin in September and then into a semi final against a team competing at senior level. I understand maybe the bottom team dropping to Intermediate but 2 teams is a bit much.

[Lowintotheforwards]

The current 6 team round robin stages are really to establish which 4 teams are fit to play senior and which 2 are intermediate standard. It should be the same with the the next 4 teams - which 2 of those are intermediate standard and the bottom 2 in that round robin should drop to the junior. We call them shc and ihc but they are more like grading or qualifying groups at this point- the 'championships' don't really kick in until the semi finals when it has been determined who is of the required standard.

[imtommygunn]

Probably expected results at the weekend. Bredagh and Carryduff not looking like they're making any breakthroughs against the ards teams yet. Bredagh game was three points but they got a late goal too so maybe score line closer than it seems.

[Splash]

There's been some good hurling to start off the championship.

Portaferry have been consistent in both games, and it's very hard to see anybody at this stage stopping them from doing the 4 in a row- although the Ballygalget game will tell a lot.

Ballygalget looked like they maybe had hit the next level after the first round demolition of Ballycran, but looked a lot more tame against Carryduff. Still a good win, and would still expect them to probably be in the final.

Carryduff were never really going to spook Portaferry, but they put up a good score against the Ulster Finalists, and really put it up to Ballygalget. Save for some bad wides and some different decision making, things could have looked closer on the scoreboard. It is far to early to say that Carryduff will challenge for a senior championship, but they have, on paper, their two hardest games out of the way, and based off of the potential in previous games, they could very well make it to the knockouts if things go their way.

Ballycran were shockingly poor against Ballygalget. They did well to come away with the win against Bredagh and get back on track, after many, myself included, thought Bredagh would take a big scalp. Ballycran will struggle in the near future unless more talent comes through, but they should be comfortable enough and at least be competitive in the senior championship for another while.

Bredagh had a superb performance against Liatroim, and although the score board perhaps flattered them in the end against Ballycran, there were periods, particularly in the first half, where Bredagh were in complete control. A purple patch for Ballycran meant Bredagh could never get back in front, but they certainly looked on par and comfortable at this level.

Liatroim have disappointed. Missing players and playing men out of position will all have been contributing factors. A poor start against Bredagh, but they did well yesterday to keep with Portaferry in the first half- although Portaferry ultimately did run away comfortable winners in the end. They don't same to be just as reliant on a handful of key players, and instead have more contributions from different players. However it will be very hard for them to avoid the intermediate drop, now.

I would disagree with previous posts. I do think Bredagh and Carryduff belong at this level. They have both improved massively from where they were a couple years ago, and playing at this level is ultimately brining them up in standard.

I understand the argument for the bottom teams dropping down, but ultimately I disagree. Any senior team who drops down will likely comfortably beat the intermediate teams.

Similarly, you would expect the bottom two intermediate teams to be comfortable against the junior teams. It seems like adding another hurdle to trying to encourage hurling.

[Splash]

I assumed they were junior as they were in division 4. Would Drumaness be favourites for the junior?

East Belfast would certainly have to be one of the favourites this year.

[johnnycool]

Probably expected results at the weekend. Bredagh and Carryduff not looking like they're making any breakthroughs against the ards teams yet. Bredagh game was three points but they got a late goal too so maybe score line closer than it seems.

We struggled last year with Carryduff and struggled for large parts again yesterday. They're not a bad team, they were set up pretty defensively so it was never going to be a big margin, but even after they got the penalty to bring it back to a 3 point game they didn't push on other than bringing another big lad into the full forward line and go long.

We're not great in the air especially when we lost our fullback, but you still need better ball in that what they ended up doing.

I think they're improving.

Bredagh will be disappointed or should be disappointed with that result, and I was talking to a few Bredagh lads/coaches earlier in the day at a primary school blitz and they thought they'd no chance which I was quite surprised at TBH considering the previous results from round 1. Is it a mental thing I don't know as they've beat both Ballycran and ourselves in the not too distant past!


Liatroim lost a man to a red card and from then on it was only ever going to be one result, the margin just opened up.

I'd agree with Splashes assessment to date. I still think we've too many lads just underperforming, although one of the subs really put his hand up for a start the next day and the young lad Dynes who came on showed a good bit of composure in defence when the game was still in the mix.
A few of the older lads are now back from injury and their travels which is good for the panel as I still think we lack the depth if we pick up a few injuries which Portaferry in particular can cope with better until it gets to the knockout stages.

Ports have a few issues they still need to address from the 2024 Ulster campaign and I don't think they have.

Restarts being one as Pierce can't go long all the time and is poor on the short puckouts to his halfbacks which relates to their other weakness in winning clean possession in their forwards when under pressure from the better teams they should be looking to face in the autumn months.

[whackerstud]

Senior Fixtures

Glenn vs Ballyholland
Burren vs Castlewellan
Loughinisland vs Downpatrick
Carryduff vs Saul
Clonduff vs Liatroim
Mayobridge vs Drumgath
Warrenpoint vs Bredagh
Kilcoo vs Bryansford

Intermediate Fixtures
Rostervor vs Ballymartin
Saval vs Clann na Banna
Attical vs St Pauls
An Riocht vs Teconnaght
Longstone vs Darragh Cross
St John Bosco vs Newry Shamrocks
Annaclone vs Tullyish
St Johns vs Dromara

Any Predictions?