Down Club Hurling & Football

[Lotto]

Agree why was Donnelly not put in for Flynn in the middle

He's not 100% fit yet.

Cleaned out in the middle of the park yet again, this time by a player from the Westerns, who play in the lowest division in county Louth, but we didn't even try to change the kick out strategy until mid way through the second half. I may just stick pins in my eyes instead of watching the Armagh game.

Two positives from today's games, we won't have to pay those inflated prices into Div2 games next year and Sean og is overseeing this shitshow on 50 grand a year.

After today there is another man on much more than 50 grand overseeing a much bigger shit show on the field.

[CornUladh02]

Agree why was Donnelly not put in for Flynn in the middle

He's not 100% fit yet.

Cleaned out in the middle of the park yet again, this time by a player from the Westerns, who play in the lowest division in county Louth, but we didn't even try to change the kick out strategy until mid way through the second half. I may just stick pins in my eyes instead of watching the Armagh game.

Two positives from today's games, we won't have to pay those inflated prices into Div2 games next year and Sean og is overseeing this shitshow on 50 grand a year.

After today there is another man on much more than 50 grand overseeing a much bigger shit show on the field.

Can't see where the county secretary comes into louths first victory in newry for a long long time.

[Leftmidfield]

Agree with Smurfy. 14 (possibly 15) in own half when we had strong wind in first half WTF ??. Maybe wouldn't have mattered because our shooting was atrocious. End story BEST TEAM WON

[saulzer]

Playing McKernan as an orthodox corner back was plainly a mistake that should have been rectified but wasn't. The settled full back line of Wells, Collins & MaAleenan with McKernan as sweeper would have been a much better option. As others have stated, the absence of a functioning kickout strategy & effective Midfield is baffling. Louth ghosted through our halfback line far too easily in the first half & had they been decent finishers would have notched up another 5 or 6 points. Paul Devlin should have come on in the first half to kick long range points when we had the wind advantage. Lot of managerial mistakes today. Defeat snatched from the jaws of success but the players lacked urgency & creativity & must take some blame - with the notable exception of Darren O'Hagan.

[Targetman]

If all else fails blame Sean Og, the blame lies with the management who pick the team and issue the instructions, and the players who are not up to playing at a higher level ffs at one point 2 Down players ran into each other!!

[snoopdog]

Down managers have been overseeing poor kickout strategies since mccartan couldn't see what was happening in the 2010 all Ireland final. With the mark is there really no good tall men in the 4 divisions of  club football who can catch a high ball. Sickening year after year with Down. Soul destroying to see the same mistakes and lack of plannimg year on year and nothing ever done to improve it
Div 3 could be our.level for a few years. Armagh have nothing to worry about.

[BarryBreensBandage]

Down managers have been overseeing poor kickout strategies since mccartan couldn't see what was happening in the 2010 all Ireland final. With the mark is there really no good tall men in the 4 divisions of  club football who can catch a high ball. Sickening year after year with Down. Soul destroying to see the same mistakes and lack of plannimg year on year and nothing ever done to improve it
Div 3 could be our.level for a few years. Armagh have nothing to worry about.

Nail on head

[BarryBreensBandage]

Imo it is all down to management, and not player ability.
Especially when it is something like a kick out strategy.
One story that stuck with me - my uncle won a McRory cup under Gerry Browne's management in the fifties. He told me that Browne had a tactic that for every sideline ball that the Abbey won in the opponents half, that the end result was a player in position to take a scoreable point. And 99% of the time they scored.
If there is a manager getting paid to manage a team, surely a kick out strategy isn't too much to ask.

[saulzer]

Peter Turley was dropped too readily. He would have been great for winning kickouts for a half in the league. The prize this year was promotion to Division 2, we're not going to win Ulster. Today's game had huge significance. We weren't set up right for it & decision making on the line was poor. Massively disappointing as we really could have been a decent Division 2 team

[Ed Hardy]

The only player Ive seen this league campaign to take any high catches was Owen McCabe from Carryduff and he only played for 10mins. Surely he was worth more game time? I think Donnelly bar his injury would have been playing no.8 just finding a partner for him.

[Cuan12]

Read all these posts, lot of doom and gloom, lot of work required and a lot of patience required. I'm no different from all who post on this forum in wanting Down back at top table, our neighbours Armagh had been in Div3 for 3 yrs , Derry dropped to Div4, whilst these facts should not be used as excuses for our demise both these counties are on their way back up due to a lot of work at under age level and this work gradually developing genuine talent. I believe we are on this journey , we will bounce back , we have talent coming through the age groups and we are going to be in a good place within a few years so patience is required. Paddy Tally is working with a limited squad , I would love to see the fear of defeat thrown aside and go 15 on 15 , if not leave 3-4 forwards up beyond the opposition 45 but we need a good defence to do that and a decent midfield who can either pick a pass or carry the ball quickly out of defence.Kick out strategies are exactly that - strategies and we need more than one because we are sadly lacking in that area , Mooney is a natural forward , Flynn a half back , so to pillar them on this forum is unfair, these guys give up 5 out of 7 nights for their county and I include us in county, so go easy lads when critising players , we all get frustrated but let's get behind this group of players for Armagh game.

[thewobbler]

Imo it is all down to management, and not player ability.
Especially when it is something like a kick out strategy.
One story that stuck with me - my uncle won a McRory cup under Gerry Browne's management in the fifties. He told me that Browne had a tactic that for every sideline ball that the Abbey won in the opponents half, that the end result was a player in position to take a scoreable point. And 99% of the time they scored.
If there is a manager getting paid to manage a team, surely a kick out strategy isn't too much to ask.

All I'm getting from this is that your uncle greatly exaggerates the ability of players from his youth, and that you're daft enough to believe him.

[Targetman]

Read all these posts, lot of doom and gloom, lot of work required and a lot of patience required. I'm no different from all who post on this forum in wanting Down back at top table, our neighbours Armagh had been in Div3 for 3 yrs , Derry dropped to Div4, whilst these facts should not be used as excuses for our demise both these counties are on their way back up due to a lot of work at under age level and this work gradually developing genuine talent. I believe we are on this journey , we will bounce back , we have talent coming through the age groups and we are going to be in a good place within a few years so patience is required. Paddy Tally is working with a limited squad , I would love to see the fear of defeat thrown aside and go 15 on 15 , if not leave 3-4 forwards up beyond the opposition 45 but we need a good defence to do that and a decent midfield who can either pick a pass or carry the ball quickly out of defence.Kick out strategies are exactly that - strategies and we need more than one because we are sadly lacking in that area , Mooney is a natural forward , Flynn a half back , so to pillar them on this forum is unfair, these guys give up 5 out of 7 nights for their county and I include us in county, so go easy lads when critising players , we all get frustrated but let's get behind this group of players for Armagh game.

Patience is required, we haven't won an Ulster title since 1994, I think we've been more than patient!!

[BarryBreensBandage]

Imo it is all down to management, and not player ability.
Especially when it is something like a kick out strategy.
One story that stuck with me - my uncle won a McRory cup under Gerry Browne's management in the fifties. He told me that Browne had a tactic that for every sideline ball that the Abbey won in the opponents half, that the end result was a player in position to take a scoreable point. And 99% of the time they scored.
If there is a manager getting paid to manage a team, surely a kick out strategy isn't too much to ask.

All I'm getting from this is that your uncle greatly exaggerates the ability of players from his youth, and that you're daft enough to believe him.

Yeah I know, an ulster schools cup winning side completing a set play devised by a future All Ireland senior winning manager.
Mad stuff altogether.
Kevin O'Neill must be daft as well:

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/down-teams-dont-always-win-but-they-always-believe-they-can-win-26682053.html

'ON the old Dublin Road in Newry, on a hill overlooking Páirc Esler, lives Kevin O'Neill, wing-back on the 1960 team and brother of the celebrated attacker Seán. He attributes much of Down's style to the coaching input of Gerry Brown in the local CBS, the Abbey, in the 1950s, which he attended. He sees the style Brown cultivated and Down's brand as virtually indistinguishable.

"Brown was the first real coach that I encountered in football and he used to break the game down into different facets. I remember him having a team, an under 14 team, my brother Seán played on it in the Abbey, and it was the nearest thing to a machine you ever saw. He would show them how to make decoy runs, go through routines. Some of the scores they ran up in their games were staggering. Goals all over the place.'

Q.E.D

[Downman1996]

A lot of people here saying about downs poor or lack of a kick out strategy.. would just like to point out down haven't had a quality midfielder since Ambrose & Big Dan, personally think this is a major flaw in downs game which from seeing a lot of club football I can't really see where the next quality midfielder is coming from!! Also a real star in the forward line is missing too, Ohare our closest thing but is too inconsistent & gets bullied by the big boys!