Down Club Hurling & Football

[Truth hurts]

First round of the Ulster Intermediate and Junior hurling championship over.

Unfortune for Liatroim but they represented the county well. Always a hard ask to travel away and get a result in North Antrim.

Glenariff have been on the up and up over the past number of years. Not that the league really represents a teams true capabilities but they won Division 2 of Antrim this year and beat our Down teams Bredagh and Carryduff comfortably who are on parr with Liatroim.



They will be strong favourites for Ulster now.

Burt beat Castlewellan away by 21 points, so that's interesting and kind of highlighting a couple of flaws in the 'Junior' aspect of the Junior championship but its been spoken about before.

Lavey and Cuchulainn's also won without much contest.

Castleblaney beat Middletown in the intermediate which was probably the most surprising result for me but Armagh hurling has dropped off alot in recent years.

The reality is our Senior and Intermediate teams are similar in standard to what is in Ulster but our Junior teams are not at that level. The teams in our Intermediate group are closer to the junior level required in Ulster. Should they play Junior and introduce a Junior B for the developing clubs. I seen there was an Ulster junior B completion this year too.
The same could be argued for our Intermediate and Junior football winners too- I hope Saval prove me wrong but Clonoe are a quality s
ide

I have been saying this for a while, it is time to restructure our championships

[Be even better]

A young Castlewellan team ran into battle hardened Burt who had ran Bredagh to 3 points in the Ulster intermediate last year. Competitive first half but Burt took over after half time. Take Burt and probably Lavey out and the Ulster junior this year would be pretty level.
Liatroim will be kicking themselves as they could have progressed but a few things conspired against them.  The one week turnaround not ideal from Down to Ulster for both these teams either.

[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.