Down Club Hurling & Football

[SHEEDY]

Half time: Down 0-3 Armagh 3-8. Embarrassing stuff.

[Ed Hardy]

Truly awful stuff from U21's, really looking extremely bleak from an underage prospective in the county!  Where do we go from here?

[SHEEDY]

Full time: Down 0-9 Armagh 5-16. Enough said.

[forevergreen]

Really is depressing stuff. Watching all the senior lads and now mooney bot commit. There are so many good footballers in the county who aren't available for various reasons. Let's hope the u21's can give us something to cheer about tonight. Could someone post the team and their clubs if they get a chance.cheers

Lads town and country know Mooney went on a bender the week before Donegal game, he was disciplined and subsequently suffered a hamstring problem (smoke screen).
He obviously thinks he's the kid about town and could do what he pleased as opposed to towing the line and leading on the field instead of in the papers.

He is a fantastic athlete, truth is he has been badly handled in terms of the amount of favoura/strokes that were pulled to get him playing college football and now it seems he thinks everything will fall into place without him knuckling down.

He had a decision to make, couple hard work and humility with his undoubted ability but unfortunately it appears he wants the easy life and didn't like having his wings clipped!!

Everyone loses

[wobbller]

The Irish News tweeting this morning that Mooney has quit the panel. You wouldn't know for sure if its actually true.

Why do the best players in the county not want to play for Down?

The so called 'best' of our U21 yplayers were playing for Down tonight,14 pts down at halftime and ended up getting destroyed by 22.We left five minutes into the second half.Embarassing for all concerned.

[snoopdog]

We are a shambles. Absolute embarrassment.

[redzone]

Tough on any team to take a hammering like that. But anyone who leaves 5 minutes into the second half is not a genuine supporter. Wobbler take a hike

[wobbller]

Tough on any team to take a hammering like that. But anyone who leaves 5 minutes into the second half is not a genuine supporter. Wobbler take a hike

Genuine supporter? Lunatic more like.I shouldn't gone at all.Frank Dawson was/is a good Club Manager but can't do it at County Level and the clowns that appointed him again this year were well warned by his Antrim experience and his woeful performance in Celtic Park in last year's  U21 game against Derry.

[Mourne Rover]

The vibes coming out of the u21 camp were not good and it almost looked as though we had sent out a minor side by mistake. We lost possession pretty dreadfully for both of Armagh's first two goals, gave away two early black cards through poor discipline and the game was effectively over after about 20 minutes. The second half was a training run for Armagh even before our red card and we only managed two points from play in the entire game. Losing by 22 points to our main rivals must be some sort of record, but it was probably not that much of a surprise. Our underage structures have been neglected for many years and it will take quite a while to reverse the trends. In fairness, Armagh are a fine team with a particularly strong spine but they were not tested at any stage. Whether anyone will take responsibility for appointing the u21 management, and then allowing what appeared totally inadequate preparations to follow, remains to be seen.

[SamFever]

The vibes coming out of the u21 camp were not good and it almost looked as though we had sent out a minor side by mistake. We lost possession pretty dreadfully for both of Armagh's first two goals, gave away two early black cards through poor discipline and the game was effectively over after about 20 minutes. The second half was a training run for Armagh even before our red card and we only managed two points from play in the entire game. Losing by 22 points to our main rivals must be some sort of record, but it was probably not that much of a surprise. Our underage structures have been neglected for many years and it will take quite a while to reverse the trends. In fairness, Armagh are a fine team with a particularly strong spine but they were not tested at any stage. Whether anyone will take responsibility for appointing the u21 management, and then allowing what appeared totally inadequate preparations to follow, remains to be seen.

The header that Dawson is,was confirmed when this panel had actually been getting together 4 weeks after last year's defeat and they continued periodic training throughout the period after McCorry resigned and the powers that be let him do it and then shoehorned his appointment through afterwards.We've read and heard so much about the Down Way over this past 6 or 7 years that it has really begun to pay such rich dividends for our County.Shame on those to speak this way and worse too the apostles that follow the Down Way.Amen

[elk]

No spine to the down team at all bar o hagan Armagh just came through at will.

[Centre 3/4]

No defensive system whatsoever, terrible kickout strategy and attacking play was non-existent, what exactly have they been doing in training all this time??

[cut the crap]

Is this really the best Down has to offer at u21 level, we were shocking. We can blame the management all we want but ultimately the players do the playing.If that is the best 20 we have, it confirms Down football is in a bad state.We can blame all but we must focus in on the root problem , the county executive who appoint and fire at will.Now is the time for a change at the top,Sean og McAteer must go, no more excuses he along with the whole executive have to go.
The root causes of our problem is our coaching structure and our lack of a centre where we can concentrate on our youth to develop teams that will compete.
What I seen against Armagh was an embarrassment , the performance was truely shocking.From no 1 right through to the last sub it was dire, only glimmer was no 20 Harney andhe's too small.On that performance there is no player in the u21 panel remotely capable of playing senior inter county football.
The keeper was indifferent made two penalty saves but gifted Armagh two goals, the defence couldn't mark or tackle,midfield got cleaned out and the forwards despite being camped in the Armagh half for the first 6 mins could not get a score.They preferred to shoot from silly angles and get blocked down, it was shocking .
Along the sideline ,Dawson Mason and Murray might be good coaches but they must be blinkered or blind, if Armagh are as good as the score line suggests why did we not set up accordingly, managers are supposed to manage , after 10 mins it was obvious the ball coming into nos 11 and 14 would kill us if we didn't stem the source or prevent the ball getting to these guys by employing 1 or even 2 sweepers,No,we went toe to toe and got hammered.
Lastly overhaul the coaching structure , get new blood in, get these coaches to be accountable, get them to compile reports on young players with potential and develop these guys, I can only hope and pray James and his minors give us some hope, because that last night together with some abject senior team performances does not fill me with hope for the future.
RANT OVER. KEEP THE FAITH

[Smurfy123]

That last night was simply atrocious from the first minute until the last.
These lads have been doing strength and conditioning together as a group from august last year.The minds boggles.What have these lads been doing this past 9 months to put in a performance like that?
The whole set up in Down football at the minute is totally shocking
Where we go from here I do not know?Not one of those lads that lined out for Down last night will ever step up to seniors
A clear out from top to bottom is needed.if the top table haven't the balls to sort this out they should walk themselves.Get fresh blood in to move this county forward

[Line Ball]

WTF. This panel has been together for months now and that is the best we can put together. I know everyone has to take responsibility and ultimately if the players do the business then they stand a good chance of winning, we never looked like winning. Marking was very slack, the team played as individuals, we continually gave simple possession away, there was little movement up front and tackling non existent all over the field. The management must shoulder blame as well.  There were no evident tactics, the team did not look fit, there were absolutely no positional changes made during the whole game just substitutions coming in, they looked out of their depth along the line. We needed a sweeper or defensively set up team once Armagh were scoring goals in the first half and getting easy ball into the full forward line and all the do is drop a half fit half forward back to fill space and he hadn't a clue what he was at. We are in a very low place at the minute and I don't see it getting any better in the near future unless the minors can do something. Depressing or what?