Down Sen Footballers 2007

[Brick Tamlin]

Challenge matches this weekend against Meath twice it seems. One away and one home match, then panel being trimmed down.

[amallon]

Any word on venues & times?

[No1]

  I can't see that Jackie Lynch will add anything to a Down team. 

  He might be a decent squad member to have at the training to push other better players along.

  Don't get me wrong he had a fantastic last season, but I don't think he is up to inter-county football.

  I don't think we have unearthed any hidden gems.

[TORGAEL]

I cant say that i entirely agree with your comments re Jackie Lynch No1. My opinion is that he would be a welcome versatile addition to a Down panel which as we all know requires new blood. I believe that would thrive in a Down team with better quaiity players around him than have been playing in the McKenna cup[no disrespect intended to those players]. Unfortunately this is only my opinion & there is only one way of finding out if this is correct-only time will tell.

[No1]

  Fair enough comment TOR.  I'd love to be proven wrong.  As you say, time will tell!

[downredblack]

D Rafferty is interviewed in the IN today , anyone seen the article yet ? How is his injury doing ?

[5 Sams]

Apparently this game is all ticket and the county have received 1900 tickets....any word on where it is yet?

[goldenyears]

Down need determination 
NFL Focus 2007 - Down 
By Eamonn O'Hara 

KNOCKED back at the first time of trying. Knocked back at the second. At 5'9'' both Peter McGrath, manager of two All-Ireland SFC winning squads, and Paddy O'Rourke, the captain of the first of them, thought he might be a shade too small. At 10 stone, Damian Rafferty was told he was too light on the scales, into the bargain.

He refused to accept his ambitions of playing senior football for Down would fall on the sword of either, size or weight.

Mark Twain once said "it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog". Rafferty had pace to burn and as his manager at Newry Shamrocks, DJ Kane, appreciated, he had tenacity coursing through his defensive qualities.

A year spent in Dublin working for the family's building firm required a transfer to the St Jude's club to maintain his Gaelic interests and it was there, at the club's gym facility, that Damian spent extra time working weights and developing body mass.

"I was told I was too small and light, too lightly built. After a squad trial when Paddy took over he said to me to go away and put on some beef, so I did. Two years ago I made the squad and I am now up to 11 and a half stone and that extra stone and a half has made a difference," he said.

"I have done a lot of work in the gym, a lot of strength and conditioning. I needed to get stronger when I moved to St Jude's because Dublin club football is very tough. I can feel the difference now, especially when you're making tackles. Instead of being knocked over and getting hurt, you bounce back up and it doesn't hurt as much now."

As with his approach to the game and the task of trying to man-mark tricky and tough forwards, Damian was never one to shirk a challenge and his determination to get over his initial obstacles has established himself in the senior county squad over the past two seasons.

With the new season, there's a new management in place. DJ Kane, who guided his development when he stepped up from minor football at Shamrocks, is in with Ross Carr. For each player, there is a new challenge, fresh demands and no place to hide as Carr and Kane seek to get Down football moving forward from last year's disappointing conclusions to both NFL and Championship campaigns.

The low point of 2006 arrived as the sun went down at Markievicz Park in Sligo on Saturday, June 17.

From the early moments of their All-Ireland SFC Qualifier against Tommy Brehony's 'All Blacks', potential disaster stalked their every misplaced pass, stumble and almost non-existent scoring threat. The first score was Sean Davey's goal and while only three points in it at the turn, Down suffered 35 minutes without raising a flag, managed just four points, only one from play and lost.

It echoed the tail-off to the League when, in their final Division One game, they managed only four points at home to Galway and ended up comprehensively beaten. The year had started so brightly, four wins in five games. But, as they left Sligo last June the season had turned very bleak.

The challenge to identify the reasons for what happened and get Down football back on track this year is one, like others he's dealt with just to be part of senior county football, that Damian will not take a single step back from.

"What happened at Markievicz Park was desperate. We couldn't do anything that day. We had no ideas how to beat them at all, couldn't get going and the defeat was an embarrassment more than anything else," he said.

"I couldn't put my finger on what caused it. At the start of last season things were going great, then Laois beat us and in our last League game at home to Galway they hammered us. Sligo was terrible. At the start of the year things were great and I don't know what changed in between.

"As players we've chatted about what happened and it's up to the players to sort it out and make sure we've got our heads right before every game and make sure what happened then doesn't happen again."

Ross and DJ will have their own thoughts on it. In the last number of weeks they have used the McKenna Cup to try out a raft of inexperienced players. The squad for the League may show a few changes, offer tougher competitive opportunities to some of those involved in the McKenna trials. Building towards the Championship will then gain steady momentum, one way or another, before Down go to Cavan in the Ulster first round.

In spite of the setbacks endured last year, Damian is relishing the prospect of fighting for his place in the new-look red and black 15 and says:

"I have really enjoyed it so far. It is tough, a lot quicker playing county football than club, because you don't get as much time on the ball don't get as much time on the ball and you're getting hit from all angles. I enjoy the challenge. It is great. I love it. I've marked some very tough forwards, Ross Munnelly of Laois, Peter Canavan in the Championship and you learn something from every player you play against and then work in training to improve your game.

"With a new management in, there's a bounce about the place but that is nothing against the last management. When a new manager comes in there's new ideas, bit of fresh optimism, but everybody knows they have to up their game to try and improve, to try and impress Ross and DJ. It's a new challenge for everyone. The McKenna Cup has been used for trials and hopefully a couple of players will come through from that.

"While a young group of players have been in at the deep end in the McKenna Cup, the rest of the squad have been at all the training sessions, training two or three times a week, working in the gym. Ross and DJ are looking long term, the next three or four years, but they are aiming to stay in Division One this year.

"We need to be in there playing Division One football. That is important and we will be aiming for the top four so that we're in Division One next year when they do the restructuring of the National League. The aim is to get Down back to where we were. Last year, when it came to the bit, against Galway in the League and Sligo in the Qualifiers, we crumbled away.

"Now it's about getting a bit of Down steel back into it."



ONES TO WATCH

On some of the better performances delivered last season, the likes of Daniel Hughes, Ambrose Rogers, if he recovers well enough from knee surgery last Autumn, and Eoin McCartan look capable of impacting strongly.

James Colgan (below) fits that profile also and after watching UUJ's Sigerson Cup hopefuls carve out an emphatic win over an experimental, inexperienced Down select in the McKenna Cup, full-forward line player Packie Downey looks an option as does Jordanstown's creative half-forward John Boyle and UUJ half-back Eamon McConville. Impossible though to suggest many individuals, indeed if any, with the new squad for the National League yet to be confirmed. Whether those named are included obviously remains to be determined.



THE VERDICT

By the time Ross Carr and DJ Kane offer words of motivation and advice in Galway's home field on April 8, a honeymoon period for the new management team that will take them a few miles down the road to visit Louth, to Mullingar and Crossmaglen will be virtually at an end. They will hope to see a place in Division One for 2008, if not already secured, there for the players to fight for against the Tribesmen.

The core of last season's faltering squad, which for some reason lost its way in both the League and, most alarmingly, the Championship is expected to provide many of the building blocks for Ross and DJ. Improved attitude, commitment to winning each and every game and improvements in all key areas will be anticipated during the NFL to ready themselves for May's first Championship D-Day at Breffni Park against time-honoured rivals, Cavan.

The management and fitness coaches can only do so much in movitating, preparing, developing a tactical game plan designed to play to team strengths and getting all the necessary strength and stamina targets reached. As others have stated in the past, once the players cross the white line on match day, it is down to them to apply themselves, apply the game plan and, at the heels of the hunt, hope things go well enough for the forwards to deliver the finishing to challenge for NFL points or SFC successes consistently. The latter was missing last year in both results and scoring quality – the fragile four points managed against Galway in the final League game and at Sligo in the Qualifiers the stark examples.

A fresh start for all, renewed optimism, renewed commitment to battle for the red and black jersey. Ross and DJ enjoyed the highest possible achievements during their playing careers with Down and while season one will be a learning curve, improvement on 2006's inconsistencies is the bottom line. Year one of a longer termed plan, the aim beyond this will be to steer Down back to being a competitive force at the business end of the two main competitions – a genuine contender again for Gaelic football's 'Holy Grail' – sooner rather than later. They appear a long way off that target at present.

For this year, patience and some measured progress. Retained Division One status is the initial bonus hoped for. With away games at up-and-coming Louth, at Westmeath, Armagh and Galway, a top four finish is a very tough ask. After that, an extended, exciting run in the Championship (through either front or back door) is the challenge. Again, with a first game at Cavan, a very tough ask. Forming a team, the depth of squad needed, to challenge at either Division One or Championship levels will take time and players with the talent and temperament Ross and DJ are looking for and need to move Down forward. Championship is where it's at for Down football fans but titles are some way off on the evidence of last year and, whatever about the League, there is a substantial gap between them and rival neighbours Armagh and Tyrone, for example, at Championship level.

Like all good, quality workmanship, there's no quick fix method. The task is the cliched 'tall order' and is bound to require a lot of time, dedication and determination – if all the best of material can be sourced – to get to a point that completion is in sight. For the moment, this looks a long way off.



NFL SQUAD

No information available. A panel will be announced prior to the National League first round game away to last season's Division Two title winners Louth. This follows assessment of an experimental squad used for the Dr McKenna Cup and their university players.

[5 Sams]

Yes sorry LOUTH V Down ffs.....

[thewobbler]

5ive times - People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[thewobbler]

Newcastle wouldn't be fit to host any sort of a big game these days. So while Newry is out of action, Down are pretty much at the bottom of the pile in regards county grounds.

Personally I don't understand how anyone could like Newcastle. I've been there maybe 20 times in the last 3-4 years between county and club games, and not once has the sun shone. At best it is damp and grey, at worst (such as Galway last year), it is is downright inhospitable for spectators. It is the dampest, bleakest venue in the country as far as i'm concerned.

[downredblack]

Agree about facilities at Newcastle , couldn't get into the stand last year for the Galway game and got a right drowning over the other side . Added to that the woeful Down preformance not a good day out . Will Newry be ready for any games in the league ?

[thewobbler]

That's a bit of a selective thought process there 5iveTimes. If you stand on the Newry bank at the Marshes and look up, I presume you miss the meat factory and instead you can see the Mournes on one side and Carlingford Mountain on the other. I say presume because I don't go to matches for the scenery! Maybe my mind is playing tricks, but the stands at Navan and Crossmaglen surely dwarf that at Newcastle? I can't remember Celtic Park, haven't been there since '94.

[downredblack]

The money has been spent now so Down fans better get to like Newry . I think it will be a great wee ground when all works have been completed and hopefully the myth that Down don't play well in Newry will be laid to rest .

[amallon]

God forbid any trouble ever started in Drogheda, it would end up in a riot.  There is no fence along the front of the stand, I think that is a recipe for disaster.  At the end of the game the a lot of supporters leave the ground by leaving their seat in the stand and heading straight across the pitch.  Its been a few years since I've been there and hopefully these things have been sorted.