Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[Derry Man]

I don't understand it especially considering we have some great club grounds, definitely adds to the Tyrone championship

[theticklemister]

Likely to do with weather. For years we have complained (rightly so), about poor facilities at games. Owenbeg has excellent facilities but souless.

[theticklemister]

Forbes and Bourke set for AFL Combine
Gaelic Games

Derry's Ruairi Forbes and Offaly's Cillian Bourke are being given the opportunity to make pitches to Australian rules clubs with an invitation to the AFL Combine early next month, writes Colm Keys.
Forbes and Bourke (below) have been selected from a panel of players that had been gathering under the AFL Ireland talent development banner in Dublin in recent weeks for practice sessions and testing.
They will travel to Australia next week and be guests of honour of the AFL at the Grand Final which takes place on the following weekend.
That Grand Final is guaranteed to have Irish interest in it with Geelong, for whom Kerry's Mark O'Connor and Mayo's Oisín Mullin have been regulars all season, playing Hawthorn, who have Meath's Conor Nash, contesting one of the preliminary finals this weekend.
In the other preliminary final, Collingwood play reigning champions Brisbane Lions who still have former Tyrone All-Ireland winner Conor McKenna and Kilkenny's Darragh Joyce on the books but neither were part of the squad for last week's semi-final.
Forbes and Bourke will also visit a number of clubs in the days after the Grand Final and then take part in the Combine to further platform their capacity to potentially adapt to AFL. Both did well in the 20-metre sprint and 2km run at recent trials that are among the indicators scouts and clubs tend to look at intensely when assessing prospective recruits.
Forbes is a three-year Derry U-20 who was part of the Ballinderry intermediate team that lost an All-Ireland final in January to Crossmolina Deel Rovers.
He joined the Derry senior squad and started against Armagh in the round-robin game before coming off the bench against Galway and Dublin. He is seen as one of Derry's brightest prospects.
Bourke is just 19 but graduated to the Offaly attack this summer and played against Kildare as they lost a Tailteann Cup quarter-final by a point against the eventual winners.

[Uncle Phil]

Every club has the same issue, that's crap, I seen Kilrea Reserve game one nite with 25+ players. Drumsurn a small place, they were never strong enough to play senior football. Derry football only strong enough for a top 12 club system but teams at the lower end of the league wouldnt go for that. What's Ballinascreen excuse for bottom of the league/championship more times than enough. Takes in 3 places, massive townland and always near the bottom.

The old "huge parish/massive townland" argument doesn't stack up in my book. I would contend the opposite is true. Look at the likes of Kilcoo, Slaughtneil, Trillick, Errigal in recent years and historically Ballinderry. All relatively small parishes (I haven't researched the square mileage) and have been hugely successful. These are places where the GAA club is the absolute heart of the community. Most children's past times are GAA. Larger towns/townlands have other activities like soccer, rallying, bars etc which definitely impacts interest in GAA. There is hurling too, but that's a whole different argument.....

[Onthe40]

Errigal is not a small parish.....massive catchment area

[Uncle Phil]

Errigal is not a small parish.....massive catchment area

I stand corrected. Been through it once in my life and didn't even see a shop. 123 acres according to google, seems small but I'm not a farmer or Ordnance Survey Man!

[quit yo jibbajabba]

Bit of a "debate" on errigal currently in the Trone thread, I dare you to go on there and say it's a small area 😆😆

[Wildweasel74]

Ballinderry Derry small, dont buy that either. I remember having to play 3 u12 games in a row, mid 1980's cause they had 50 cubs looking a game, and Big Adrian had sorted with our manager to give all a game! brutal

[Ryan O]

Every club has the same issue, that's crap, I seen Kilrea Reserve game one nite with 25+ players. Drumsurn a small place, they were never strong enough to play senior football. Derry football only strong enough for a top 12 club system but teams at the lower end of the league wouldnt go for that. What's Ballinascreen excuse for bottom of the league/championship more times than enough. Takes in 3 places, massive townland and always near the bottom.

The old "huge parish/massive townland" argument doesn't stack up in my book. I would contend the opposite is true. Look at the likes of Kilcoo, Slaughtneil, Trillick, Errigal in recent years and historically Ballinderry. All relatively small parishes (I haven't researched the square mileage) and have been hugely successful. These are places where the GAA club is the absolute heart of the community. Most children's past times are GAA. Larger towns/townlands have other activities like soccer, rallying, bars etc which definitely impacts interest in GAA. There is hurling too, but that's a whole different argument.....

Slaughtneil aren't small at all. from up the Five Mile straight, to near Dungiven out to Garvagh and right into the top of Maghera is not a small catchment area.
Added into the equation that some have left the area are happy to take their children back to play.
TBH thats why I happy to see Newbridge winning a championship, now theres a club with a tight catchment area.

[ardtole]

Kilcoo genuinely is a small parish. The football club is surrounded by Bryansford, Clonduff, Castlewellan, Laitroim and Drumgath, it's remarkable what they achieve.

[Squareball71]

Kilcoo genuinely is a small parish. The football club is surrounded by Bryansford, Clonduff, Castlewellan, Laitroim and Drumgath, it's remarkable what they achieve.

It sure is remarkable. To be so small and disliked by so many is some achievement.

[Squareball71]

Every club has the same issue, that's crap, I seen Kilrea Reserve game one nite with 25+ players. Drumsurn a small place, they were never strong enough to play senior football. Derry football only strong enough for a top 12 club system but teams at the lower end of the league wouldnt go for that. What's Ballinascreen excuse for bottom of the league/championship more times than enough. Takes in 3 places, massive townland and always near the bottom.

The old "huge parish/massive townland" argument doesn't stack up in my book. I would contend the opposite is true. Look at the likes of Kilcoo, Slaughtneil, Trillick, Errigal in recent years and historically Ballinderry. All relatively small parishes (I haven't researched the square mileage) and have been hugely successful. These are places where the GAA club is the absolute heart of the community. Most children's past times are GAA. Larger towns/townlands have other activities like soccer, rallying, bars etc which definitely impacts interest in GAA. There is hurling too, but that's a whole different argument.....

Slaughtneil aren't small at all. from up the Five Mile straight, to near Dungiven out to Garvagh and right into the top of Maghera is not a small catchment area.
Added into the equation that some have left the area are happy to take their children back to play.
TBH thats why I happy to see Newbridge winning a championship, now theres a club with a tight catchment area.

Surely Ryan out to Garvagh would be Swatragh territory would it not?

[Squareball71]

Cahair isn't far off the mark with his latest article, a quarter full owenbeg does nothing for the atmosphere. There shouldn't be a game played there before the SF stage.

Is Owenbeg really the reason for the atmosphere? Perhaps if some of the clubs decided to play a bit of decent football it would help. Not a lot at the minute to enthuse the supporters.

People talk about how great Glen is. How many on here were at the Ballinderry v Banagher league play off? A big crowd but the atmosphere was shocking. Why? Not Watty Graham Park's fault? It was because the game was so one sided, the game as a whole was poor and nothing more. Have we heard that this season? Nearly every Derry senior game this season. Wouldn't have mattered where you would have watched the Senior games last weekend the atmosphere would have been dismal. A team of dancing cheerleaders with a firework show wouldn't have brightened up the games, particularly the Kilrea and Loup games.

The atmosphere is poor because the games are poor!!! As for Cahair how would he know how full Owenbeg is? Sure he spends most of his time in his beloved County Down. He would write anything for a few clicks and likes.

[lenny]

Cahair isn't far off the mark with his latest article, a quarter full owenbeg does nothing for the atmosphere. There shouldn't be a game played there before the SF stage.

Is Owenbeg really the reason for the atmosphere? Perhaps if some of the clubs decided to play a bit of decent football it would help. Not a lot at the minute to enthuse the supporters.

People talk about how great Glen is. How many on here were at the Ballinderry v Banagher league play off? A big crowd but the atmosphere was shocking. Why? Not Watty Graham Park's fault? It was because the game was so one sided, the game as a whole was poor and nothing more. Have we heard that this season? Nearly every Derry senior game this season. Wouldn't have mattered where you would have watched the Senior games last weekend the atmosphere would have been dismal. A team of dancing cheerleaders with a firework show wouldn't have brightened up the games, particularly the Kilrea and Loup games.

The atmosphere is poor because the games are poor!!! As for Cahair how would he know how full Owenbeg is? Sure he spends most of his time in his beloved County Down. He would write anything for a few clicks and likes.

Disagree, I'd say there would be a better crowd and atmosphere if some of the early round games were held in Glen, Bellaghy, Ballinascreen, Magherafelt, Slaughtneil etc. The matches over the last weekend or two haven't been great but the weather has been atrocious. People seem to be comparing to the tyrone championship but they've had quite a few poor one sided games also. Dungannon trillick was a great match but that was 2 teams in the top 3 in the league drawn against each other and they were both in the top 4 teams with the bookies.

[Mikhailov]

Every club has the same issue, that's crap, I seen Kilrea Reserve game one nite with 25+ players. Drumsurn a small place, they were never strong enough to play senior football. Derry football only strong enough for a top 12 club system but teams at the lower end of the league wouldnt go for that. What's Ballinascreen excuse for bottom of the league/championship more times than enough. Takes in 3 places, massive townland and always near the bottom.

The old "huge parish/massive townland" argument doesn't stack up in my book. I would contend the opposite is true. Look at the likes of Kilcoo, Slaughtneil, Trillick, Errigal in recent years and historically Ballinderry. All relatively small parishes (I haven't researched the square mileage) and have been hugely successful. These are places where the GAA club is the absolute heart of the community. Most children's past times are GAA. Larger towns/townlands have other activities like soccer, rallying, bars etc which definitely impacts interest in GAA. There is hurling too, but that's a whole different argument.....

Big Phil - pay a visit to the Tyrone site and read about the size of the Errigal parish. One reader says it is the same size as an area in east Tyrone that has 13 clubs in it !!!