Down Club Hurling & Football

[Mournenan82]

Fair play to burren, great to see a new final pairing

[downtothecore]

Well done Burren. Murdock and kerr particularly  produced a big display when required.

[DaleCooper]

Pairc Esler surface did not look great. Has it had many games recently ?

[befair]

Good to see a novel pairing in senior final after years of dominance from Kilcoo.

Kilcoo's bench was very poor

[manwithnoplan]

Good to see a novel pairing in senior final after years of dominance from Kilcoo.

Kilcoo's bench was very poor

They didn't seem to have the same depth as in previous years, but they seem to have a crop of young lads just starting senior football that bodes well for them in the next year or two. Maybe a couple of the veterans will be phased out for the young blood now.

[Mournenan82]

Good to see a novel pairing in senior final after years of dominance from Kilcoo.

Kilcoo's bench was very poor

They didn't seem to have the same depth as in previous years, but they seem to have a crop of young lads just starting senior football that bodes well for them in the next year or two. Maybe a couple of the veterans will be phased out for the young blood now.

They don't have as much strength in depth these days but the 2 brannigans would be huge losses

[clonian]

Good to see a novel pairing in senior final after years of dominance from Kilcoo.

Kilcoo's bench was very poor

They didn't seem to have the same depth as in previous years, but they seem to have a crop of young lads just starting senior football that bodes well for them in the next year or two. Maybe a couple of the veterans will be phased out for the young blood now.

Was in Kilcoo over the summer for a camogie game and their minor footballers were playing on the main pitch.

One of their supporters I'd know didn't rate any of their minors, saying they're very weak, in Div 2 and not going well.

Has the conveyor belt dried up?

Minors and 16s are decent enough in div2, but they are very strong at 14s.

[Get Over]

Burren deserve serious credit. I didn't give them much of a chance beforehand, but they stood up when it mattered most.Kerr and Murdock were the standouts.

In that frantic final 15 minutes, Kilcoo simply had no answer for the sheer pace and power of Kerr, Burns and Magill driving at them.

Burren Management got the matchups perfect and used the bench brilliantly to inject energy right when Kilcoo started to fade. Even the referee deserves a shout. He handled a massive, high-stakes game incredibly well and let the football flow.

We are now set up for a 50/50 final on the 11th

[inroundthesquare]

Is there highlights available of Burren v Kilcoo

I see the Clonduff-Carryduff highlights on Down GAA facebook

[the waffler]

The two semi-finals were done yesterday and we were made work for our win, but for Cathal Laverty in the Crans goals it could have been over in the first 20 minutes, three outstanding saves from point blank range, although I didn't think Timmy connected well with his shot, he was only 6 yards out, a fine save nonetheless.

Ballycran weathered the storm and got themselves back into the game, helped by some needless frees by our lads, one for overcarrying by our fullback who had all the time in the world and evidently decided he'd take it only to be rightly blown up by the ref.
They did get a good goal and went in at half time up by four and deservedly so.

Second half started well for us, a good goal from our best player on the day, Owen McDermott (who just needs to be more consistent) and a few points to take the lead.
Ballycrans second goal was well taken, but we've a young lad in at fullback, who doesn't yet have the instinct of a full back, went too early off his man to meet a forward coming in the sideline with no one back to cover his man, and that put the Crans back in a 2 point lead. Those kind of situations it's all about timing the moment to go and the angle of the run to cut out the pass if you can, probably not helped by the other corner back not reading the situation well either and bombing into the danger area to help out.

That was their last score of the game and we powered home with another goal from Owen McDermott and a good spread of points from several other players to win out by 7 in the end.

Ports did what they needed to do in the other semi-final, rested some of their key players and will go into the final as the hottest of hot favourites and I'd be a fool not to acknowledge that.

Our lads show glimpses of what they're capable of, but they will need serious improvements in converting scores when the chances present themselves to give Portaferry a game.

We'll travel in hope of a performance we haven't seen yet from them this year, but for once we go into that game with none of our key players strapped to the balls with taping holding them together which has been the case the last two years.

While none of the key players are strapped very lucky 1 don't receive a red card yesterday,  vould be a problem in the final if there's a red nit afraid to call things out.
But overall was a fair decent game galgets always likely to win with the better legs other semi complete waste of time, not sure liatriom are in the right grade tbh 

[Akinfenwa]

Personally I was hugely impressed with the Ballygalget defending in the last 10 minutes. Ballycran just couldn't find a way through, every time they got inside the 50 they were met with a wall of green jerseys. Then the counter and racking up scores at the other end simply won Ballygalget the match.

That being said Portaferry will be a tougher task. The speed which they moved the ball against Liatroim was again impressive.

That being said, we could have a cracking final ahead.

[thewobbler]

As expected a topsy turvey and close IFC final tonight, and here's hoping for the same tomorrow.

In particular big congrats to the Rostrevor lead mentor, who was very much once of the GAAboard parish. I'll not reveal his handle as well that's not fair, but he was a good, honest and engaging contributor for a few years.

And to the 2 x James, Piaras, Nicky and Conal whose careers I've watched for years. Absolute red stalwarts who deserve success.

[befair]

Brilliant match; thought Rostrevor were the better team, but An Riocht came back tigerishly, and could have won but for a dramatic off-the-line clearance with virtually the last kick of the game

[DaleCooper]

Whos the fav in Burren Clonduff? Clon 7- 2 up after 22mins

[Mournenan82]

Another disappointing burren final performance, outside of the last 5 minutes when it was basically gone