Down Club Hurling & Football

[SunnyJim]

It's worth making a note, Burt finished 3rd in the senior championship, losing their semi to Setanta by 8, who will play St. John's in the senior Ulster semi. They have a junior Intermeifate championship but they don't progress to Ulster. Lavey are no Junior team either, running derry senior finalist Kevin Lynch's close in the round robin.

Might be better for Ulster to enforce some structures rather than true junior teams in other counties be victims of some counties strengthing their hand.

[knowbetter]

Derry man noseying into the hurling chat here and ive been thinking likes of Lisbellaw and Castleblaney would make up the vast majority of their county panels so those clubs players have all the luxuries of an inter county player so does that give them an unfair advantage against the likes of Swatragh who have hardly any county reps. It goes back the GAA trying to do away with inter county teams for counties with less than 5 clubs

Its an interesting topic but yes I kind of agree they would have a very slight advantage since they are able to train all year round half with the county and then switch to club. Plus physio / gyms etc would all be covered. Lisbellaw is essentially the Fermanagh team same with Castleblaney for Monaghan.

Now having said that it was 19 points to 14. It isnt exactly as if they ran away with the game against Swatragh.

Its just a matter of who wants it more and prepares / trains better. They would have an advantage but its only slight and comes with its own problems too like not even having a county championship to compete in.

[knowbetter]

Might be better for Ulster to enforce some structures rather than true junior teams in other counties be victims of some counties strengthing their hand.
[/quote]

Since the gulf in hurling between teams / counties can be quite high due to the skill difference. Do you think its time to introduce the likes of Senior A&B, Intermediate A&B, Junior A&B for Ulster?

For example Slaughneil would be Senior A but Kevin Lynches would realistically be Senior B. Same goes for Portaferry (Senior A) and Ballygalget (Senior B). All good teams but the distance between them is significant.

Even this year for the county championship Liatroim Vs Ballela were both technically Intermediate teams but we all saw how that went.

[snoopdog]

Any fixtures and dates released yet for Div 3 NFL yet?

[Be even better]

Re The grading system in Ulster. The big issue is Derry Donegal in Hurling and Cavan in football. Senior takes care of itself. Intermediate football will always throw up a senior team who slip down for a year or two. The Tyrone championship is cut throat and for example Clonoe could be running Errigal close in 2024 but then find themselves in Intermediate the following year. Cavan invariably seems to throw up a team in junior from their top leagues. Arva were div 1 I think.
Lavey competing with Slaughtneil and Kevin Lynchs one minute find themselves in Ulster JHC while Burt ran Bredagh to 3 points in Intermediate 2025. They should not be in Ulster JHC. Would Down like Donegal nominate the top 3 in the county round robin to play in Ulster? Hardly. Time for Ulster to tighten up on their competitions.

[GTP]

Swatragh Derry's representatives in Intermediate lost to Lisbellaw of Fermanagh. Lavey have not won a hurling championship above junior in years. Neither team was slotted in as they are too good for their level and guaranteed to win it.

[DuffGael]

The junior and intermediate hurling teams who come out of Ulster do not compete at all Ireland level so if anything the cutoff in standard needs to be higher

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

I don't think Swatragh playing intermediate is a major issue, but Lavey playing junior is wrong.
Eight adult clubs in Derry could be distributed as Slaughtneil out on their own, then another five at a similar level and then eoghan rua and na magha as realistic ulster junior clubs.

[marty34]

I don't think Swatragh playing intermediate is a major issue, but Lavey playing junior is wrong.
Eight adult clubs in Derry could be distributed as Slaughtneil out on their own, then another five at a similar level and then eoghan rua and na magha as realistic ulster junior clubs.

That's a fair comment. They all play senior championship and they Derry grades them on where they finish.

Only 8 teams, excluding Finbarr's, so 3 teams go through to Ulster every year. Not a bad change to go percentage wise, especially at Junior level.

The problem then comes in the All-Ireland series when they come up against a Cork team say. Cork have probably 30 junior club so it's a numbers game.   

But then as DuffGael say, they normally get tanked in the All-Ireland series.

[Splash]

The big issue for Ulster Hurling is the likes of Derry and Donegal putting teams out that are going to trounce other teams.

This isn't to say that the Ulster Championship is dead- in the past decade teams from Derry, Donegal, Monaghan, Antrim, and Armagh have all won it.

But anybody saying that Lavey shouldn't be in Junior needs to have another look. Lavey gave Cuchulainns of Armagh a big beating today. Cuchailainns, the Armagh Intermediate Champions. Lavey maybe haven't won much in Derry in recent times, but it is only this year Slaughtneil overtook them on the role of honour, and they'd probably win most senior championships outside of Down, Derry, and Antrim.

On the flip side, it is concerning that our Ulster Champions are so uncompetitive on the Junior All Ireland scene. Eg, Ballinascreen were so dominant in Ulster last year, but got badly beat by the Cork Champions in the All Ireland.

Obviously, the key issue is we need to drastically improve the overall standard of hurling in Ulster. But that's a long term project.

We do need to improve the standard of our clubs in Down, ie, the likes of Derry Junior (Eoghan Rua or Na Magha, etc.) would be a better than Down Junior.

But, it is no good having our Junior teams getting big beatings. Castlewellan are probably the best junior team to come out of Down in a few years. They got a big enough beating off Burt. But as others have said, Burt are a strong team, who won the Donegal Senior Championship last year, and are in around the level of Bredagh, Carryduff, etc. I am fairly confident that Castlewellan would have beaten the Donegal Junior Champions, Letterkenny Gaels, by a similar score line that Burt beat Castlewellan.

We do need to improve the standard of hurling in Down (and Ulster) to catch up with the rest of Ireland, but I don't see the benefit of other counties putting Intermediate or Senior sides into the junior championship. As has been said, Down wouldn't put Ballycran into the Ulster Junior.

[thewobbler]

f**king hooters

[thebigfullforward]

Can't see Lough getting within 6 or 7. Hooters should be confiscated upon entry

[Splash]

I see Saval acted as a home venue for Aghaderg in the Ulster Camogie Championship. Would it be the first camogie match to have been played on Nan Sands Park?

I think Saval put out a hurling team many, many years ago.

[Splash]

Best of luck to Portaferry in the Ulster Semi Final against Slaughtneil this weekend.

Very hard to call. Slaughtneil won Derry at a canter- they're only getting going now. This is their first real game of any meaning since they were pipped by the narrowest of margins by Sarsfields from Cork last year in the All Ireland Series.

Portaferry won the Senior Championship convincingly at the end, but they made hard enough work of it, and at half time I really fancied Ballygalget to kick on and shock them. Portaferry did what Portaferry do and found that next level and were well out of sight by the end of the game. The Slaughtneil crowd down in Newry that day didn't look too impressed, but they won't be taking the Ports lightly. It still feels more like Portaferry lost last year's Ulster Final than Slaughtneil won it, and they'll be eager to get that back.

Portaferry probably aren't just as strong as they were, but I don't think Slaughtneil are either. This is undoubtedly the tougher side of the draw, and whoever comes out of this will have to fancy themselves for Ulster. Slaughtneil will be more wary of Portaferry, but the Ports have shown they are no flash in the pan and are amongst the best in Ulster. Should be a good days hurling.

Liatroim and Castlewellan will be disappointed with how their respective years ended.

The intermediate final was a lot closer than I had anticipated, and Carryduff looked heartbroken. Losing 5 finals in a row is sickening. They have improved massively though in that period, and should really be looking at making it to the next stage of the senior championship in my opinion.

Liatroim very much seemed as though they had bigger things on their mind, as alluded to in the speech after the final. However they probably had the unkindest draw and came up just short against a very strong Glenariffe side away in Antrim. I'd have said those two teams would have been the strongest intermediate sides in Ulster. Liatroim probably didn't have the year they would have wanted, but I don't think many would have tipped them to win the Intermediate at the start of the championship given their performances.

There's a couple players from both Liatroim and Carryduff who in my opinion should be involved with Down going forward.

Castlewellan won the Junior Final in the most dominant display we've seen in years. Not really sure what happened to Kilclief. They were reminiscent of Cork in the second half of the All Ireland Final with a complete break down in play, scoring only 2 points in the second half.

Castlewellan will feel they should have won that championship 4 or 5 years ago. It will be a massive money off their back and I feel like they have the potential to establish themselves as a serious intermediate team, and with the work being done at underage in the club, they could kick on even further.

Kilclief will no doubt be there or there abouts next year. Next year's JHC should be a good spectacle, with Clonduff coming down, leaving it as open as it's been in a number of years, with no clear favourite as of yet.

Castlewellan couldn't deal with Burt in the first round of Ulster, but it's been well discussed the flaws in having a team of Burt's quality in the Junior Championship. Castlewellan likely would have beat the Donegal Junior Champions, Letterkenny, well, but it is what it is. Looking forward to seeing how Castlewellan fare in Div 1 now next year.

[PAULD123]

Does anyone know when the national league masters fixture plan is released?  Thanks