Down Club Hurling & Football

[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?

[manwithnoplan]

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?

[John Martin]

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
Rostrevor 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

[clonian]

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

[statto]

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

Must be a while since the Newry clubs played in a championship game?

[KeyboardWman]

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

[terrifictommy]

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

I was late but i did chose who I originally though for last nights games.

[dec]

A strange camera angle for the Mayobridge Drumgath game, level with the 20m line at one end

[downtothecore]

A strange camera angle for the Mayobridge Drumgath game, level with the 20m line at one end

Great win for drumgath and well deserved