Down Club Hurling & Football

[One life one club]

How was that not a straight red card? Clonduff strikes the man in the face and it is a hop ball?

[Square Ball]

The head has gone a long time ago JC helped on its way by yourself during your playing days although there was many more a lot worse than you.

The bottom pitches aren't too shabby either

SB see any difference on Saturday from Friday evening?

Pissing rain

[befair]

Drumgath blew that, kicked some terrible wides, and then had the gall to surround the ref after the game; yes, it was the ref who kicked those wides

[Targetman]

Looked like they had a legitimate claim for a penalty that wasn't given

[upandwin]

Shambles of a referring display in Esler, clear red card not given against Clonduff. Won't matter anyway in the long run. Burren Kilcoo final already assured, and this year I can see Burren beating the magpies easily. Kilcoo were dreadful against the yellas last week and weren't tested the week before against the Ford. Odhran Murdock is a cut above anyone else and Burren will have too much firepower for them up front this year. Big Treanor, Murdocks and half a dozen other county men in the ranks, only a matter of time before they start winning SFCs regularly again.  No Kerr or Magill against Island last day out and they looked as good as I've seen them in years. Hopefully we have a new champion this year, can see it coming back to Burren. They could give Ulster a real rattle

[downtothecore]

Shambles of a referring display in Esler, clear red card not given against Clonduff. Won't matter anyway in the long run. Burren Kilcoo final already assured, and this year I can see Burren beating the magpies easily. Kilcoo were dreadful against the yellas last week and weren't tested the week before against the Ford. Odhran Murdock is a cut above anyone else and Burren will have too much firepower for them up front this year. Big Treanor, Murdocks and half a dozen other county men in the ranks, only a matter of time before they start winning SFCs regularly again.  No Kerr or Magill against Island last day out and they looked as good as I've seen them in years. Hopefully we have a new champion this year, can see it coming back to Burren. They could give Ulster a real rattle

Just reviewed your previoius years posts.Did you copy and paste?

[terrifictommy]

Looked like they had a legitimate claim for a penalty that wasn't given

Unless you were at the game the TV footage wasn't clear enough to help but both commentators said they didn't feel it was a penalty? Of course all of Drumgath did and none of Ballyholland agreed, that's the parochial nature of football.

Aside of that, Drumgath were excellent I thought, their pace of play and directness was brilliant. If they had of scored a couple of them bad wides at crucial points they could have put BH to bed earlier. And they had the chance to go 6 up in first half but ended up missing and going in 1 down. A great effort in Senior Championship for them and they'll be rightly proud of that today I'd guess.

[Truth hurts]

Maybe I'm becoming old and grumpy, but the championships have been of such a low calibre that there hasn't been much to discuss thus far.

[Truth hurts]

Switching to Down LGFA briefly - there was a lot of discussion in county board this year whether to include B Teams in the championship and ultimately they were approved without it going to a vote. Burren B are in the junior final, and Carryduff B just won the intermediate title. Surely this is very unfair to the clubs with only one panel? Players from the senior team involved in the B Teams squads which makes a mockery of it all.

Surely they've a named 10/13 rule in place?

Anyhow this is an awkward one. A club like Carryduff that has a trillion or so players, can't really progress its players  if it's just A football and "junior B".


But there has to be very strict eligibility or it becomes a farce. In men's football this eligibility criteria (for ACPRFC)has been decimated in recent years and in doing this, the only thing it ensures is that the best senior teams also have the best second teams.

And oddly it seems to to be the smaller clubs that voted for it. "We can't field reserves if there's 13 excluded" and so on.

Have you any ideas how to police this better? Reserve football needs to be graded at championship.

[thewobbler]

Truth I'm not saying the old system didn't have flaws, but it was much better at separating SFC standard players from the tiers downwards. And it's probably needed more now than ever given that the RFC and PRFC are usually wrapped up by end of August.

In that system, if you played in SFC, IFC or JFC then you couldn't play for your seconds team in their reserve championship that same season, or the following season. 

Which, in a two year cycle, with the back door system in place in SFC etc, would usually rule out the top 20 players for all senior clubs, and usually closer to 25 for the more successful clubs who tend to get to semi finals and finals.

And whilst I can see the short term thinking in smaller clubs demanding named 10 (instead of 13) and not ruling players out of reserve championships, the reality - I believe - is that the majority of reserve standard footballers would sooner eat warts from their dog's arse than play against teams with a spine of SFC standard and fitness players. So player dropout increases.

[Ed Hardy]

Maybe I'm becoming old and grumpy, but the championships have been of such a low calibre that there hasn't been much to discuss thus far.

100% spot on! Its been absolute rubbish, only gets anyway worth watching once it straight knockout, so that only leaves 3 rounds qtr, semi and finals. Sooner they go back to open draw, straight knockout the better. Doesnt seem to be benefiting the county team, with groups or back door championships anyhow so waste of time imo.

[Truth hurts]

Truth I'm not saying the old system didn't have flaws, but it was much better at separating SFC standard players from the tiers downwards. And it's probably needed more now than ever given that the RFC and PRFC are usually wrapped up by end of August.

In that system, if you played in SFC, IFC or JFC then you couldn't play for your seconds team in their reserve championship that same season, or the following season. 

Which, in a two year cycle, with the back door system in place in SFC etc, would usually rule out the top 20 players for all senior clubs, and usually closer to 25 for the more successful clubs who tend to get to semi finals and finals.

And whilst I can see the short term thinking in smaller clubs demanding named 10 (instead of 13) and not ruling players out of reserve championships, the reality - I believe - is that the majority of reserve standard footballers would sooner eat warts from their dog's arse than play against teams with a spine of SFC standard and fitness players. So player dropout increases.

We need a solution to the ills of reserve football in the county but I don't have the answers myself.

[lumpitin]

Ive watched a lot of Down football this year, it is extremely poor. Tyrone & Armagh a million miles ahead and thats showing in the county scene. Will anyone else win it other than Kilcoo? I cant see it. Burren have murdock but do they have the balls for beating kilcoo im not sure as shown year after year. I think if there is a team that beat them is carryduff.

The 4 quarter finals will be easy wins for all the favs

[johnnycool]

Our minors will play Bredagh in the Minor final for the 4th year in a row next Wednesday night in Pairc Esler.

Bredagh have won all three previous encounters.

TBH within the club we didn't expect this considering we'd lost seven lads from last years team and two of our 18yo's have been injured most of the year and another struggling with a knee issue so doing nets.

In the semi-final v a very fancied Castlewellan we were also missing our normal FB who got a straight red in the previous game but battled through, scoring 6 goals in the process. The lads from the U16 team that have been on the receiving ends of big batterings at that level can hold their own at minor.
Castlewellan will be disappointed, they'll be stronger next year though and will need to learn that when you're dominating the game how to convert into scores.

A Wee bit of testerone got the better of some lads after the final whistle, but all made it to school the next day so no harm. 


Bredagh had a much easier night out against our neighbours, Portaferry and will go into the final as bigger favourites than last year.

[terrifictommy]

Ive watched a lot of Down football this year, it is extremely poor. Tyrone & Armagh a million miles ahead and thats showing in the county scene. Will anyone else win it other than Kilcoo? I cant see it. Burren have murdock but do they have the balls for beating kilcoo im not sure as shown year after year. I think if there is a team that beat them is carryduff.

The 4 quarter finals will be easy wins for all the favs

Tyrone is at a different level I agree. But the limited Armagh games I watched I don't think that's too far in front. In fact, when these teams move to Ulster you soon see.

And I'm not sure all the quarters have a distinct favourite. And some certainly won't be comfortable