Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[oakleaflad]

If Drumsurn were as committed as you lads are in defending them they would still be playing Senior football.
Rafferty x2 and Mc Hugh are delighted to be playing intermediate football I would think.

You've missed out a player who was on the All Ireland Minor team of the championship.

7 years ago, Great achievement but I think we all know that theres a limited number who move from Minor to senior. But having 4 lads of that quality and not using that as the benchmark to raise expectations? Tell me what's went wrong here?
To hanging on this as the glass ceiling achievement highlights the point trying to be made. Drumsurn are no smaller than Newbridge, Castledawson, The Loup, Faughanvale in Geography, clearly a good bit smaller in mentality but.

Drumsurn would be smaller than all of those imo and a lot smaller than Faughavales reach in particular.

Which leads me to a separate point, we're seeing teams with simply bigger player pools to pick from now reaching Senior/Div1. Steelstown, Faughanvale and Limavady being examples.

[Rawhide]

Fair play to Castledawson, who played every game in the senior league, 15 infact and eventually got relegated, but took it on the chin. No emails to the CCC looking to get put into next seasons intermediate league & not finishing out their league games.

Your attack on Drumsurn is funny. Did one of their ex-Derry minor players or College stars get a turn at your ex-mrs one night?

College stars? Ex- Derry minor player. I think their ex Derry minor players are about 40 at this stage and can't recall any college stars.
Lets try and keep statements half true/ realistic.

Two things Ryan. They've had a few recently  and I haven't put a time frame on my query.

I'd be interested in hearing the names of the recent ones?

Embarrassing. Just like rawhides attack.

Its not embarrassing, if you can't see that they just quit, trough in the towel, all the things in life we tell people not to do when the going gets tough. Dig in, see it though. practice what coaches tell players all the time to do. That all this is about for me. Its a mentality I am glad I was never infected by and thankfully my gaa community hasn't either. We all have have had manys a bad day and manys a bad season but ffs don't be a quitter.

[Ryan O]

I've drove to away grounds with u14/u16 games facing a mountain of a task to keep the score below a 20+ defeat.(No benefit to either team) The only message was don't give in, no matter how bad it gets we keep on going. We are in no means one of the powerhouses in Derry football but we want to be and are trying to be and thats good enough.

Faughanvale vs Bellaghy - Bellaghy
Banagher vs Dungiven - Dungiven
Newbridge vs Loup - Newbridge
Lavey vs Kilrea - Draw/Kilrea

Has to be a shock in there somewhere?

[JoG2]

Fair play to Castledawson, who played every game in the senior league, 15 infact and eventually got relegated, but took it on the chin. No emails to the CCC looking to get put into next seasons intermediate league & not finishing out their league games.

Your attack on Drumsurn is funny. Did one of their ex-Derry minor players or College stars get a turn at your ex-mrs one night?

College stars? Ex- Derry minor player. I think their ex Derry minor players are about 40 at this stage and can't recall any college stars.
Lets try and keep statements half true/ realistic.

Two things Ryan. They've had a few recently  and I haven't put a time frame on my query.

I'd be interested in hearing the names of the recent ones?

Embarrassing. Just like rawhides attack.

Its not embarrassing, if you can't see that they just quit, trough in the towel, all the things in life we tell people not to do when the going gets tough. Dig in, see it though. practice what coaches tell players all the time to do. That all this is about for me. Its a mentality I am glad I was never infected by and thankfully my gaa community hasn't either. We all have have had manys a bad day and manys a bad season but ffs don't be a quitter.

https://youtu.be/VjEq-r2agqc?si=aQ758Dkl1Agvgz8c

#song makes my skin crawl BTW 

[jmcgdoire]

Newbridge were playing Division 2 and Intermediate football throughout the 00s and 10s. Won the Intermediate in 2017 and less than a decade later they were senior champions. Thats almost unprecedented in Derry (save for Coleraine in 2010).

Playing at the top tier against the best is the only way to improve and get the best out of your group. Look at Steelstown. They were clearly a step behind the other teams when they moved up to senior a few years back and now they are holding their own and sitting in a quarter final (with a good chance of making a semi if they can avoid Newbridge).

Its disappointing to see a team actually wanting to play at a lower level. Especially when there are teams (eg Glenullin) who have been crying for a chance to play against the best. What happens if Drumsurn win Intermediate next year? Do they ask to remain Intermediate again and forever more?

I dont think Drumsurn fielded a reserve team at all this year and I understand how that is difficult for a small club, but thats a different issue and this defeatist attitude will do nothing to fix that problem. Back yourself and if you have to go down, go down fighting.

[Wildweasel74]

Some man say the Loup small? G we used to call them Mid Ulster at underage level. Goes 3 mile to moneymore, 3 mile to Ballyronan, full area from there and the Loup to the outskirts of Mfelt.And down towards Ballinderry/ Coagh in the other direction.

[Wildweasel74]

The 2 schools in the Steelstown area have 20+classrooms at Primary level. Though soccer still the main burner there! They massive underage no's.

[Brendan]

Yet the rest of the town teams except maybe Trasna are struggling big time at underage.

On a side note I seen an advertisement for Gaeltots for nursery aged kids being held in Creggan, £6 a session! why aren't the local clubs taking a lead on this

[zapped]

Newbridge were playing Division 2 and Intermediate football throughout the 00s and 10s. Won the Intermediate in 2017 and less than a decade later they were senior champions. Thats almost unprecedented in Derry (save for Coleraine in 2010).

Playing at the top tier against the best is the only way to improve and get the best out of your group. Look at Steelstown. They were clearly a step behind the other teams when they moved up to senior a few years back and now they are holding their own and sitting in a quarter final (with a good chance of making a semi if they can avoid Newbridge).

Its disappointing to see a team actually wanting to play at a lower level. Especially when there are teams (eg Glenullin) who have been crying for a chance to play against the best. What happens if Drumsurn win Intermediate next year? Do they ask to remain Intermediate again and forever more?

I dont think Drumsurn fielded a reserve team at all this year and I understand how that is difficult for a small club, but thats a different issue and this defeatist attitude will do nothing to fix that problem. Back yourself and if you have to go down, go down fighting.

Small point of clarification.

If memory serves, Glenullin played a weakened team last year in the final game of the IFC Group vs. Desertmartin so that they would actually play Ballinderry in the Qtr Final, precisely to *avoid* the IFC Semi Final (and promotion to the SFC)..

[jmcgdoire]

Newbridge were playing Division 2 and Intermediate football throughout the 00s and 10s. Won the Intermediate in 2017 and less than a decade later they were senior champions. Thats almost unprecedented in Derry (save for Coleraine in 2010).

Playing at the top tier against the best is the only way to improve and get the best out of your group. Look at Steelstown. They were clearly a step behind the other teams when they moved up to senior a few years back and now they are holding their own and sitting in a quarter final (with a good chance of making a semi if they can avoid Newbridge).

Its disappointing to see a team actually wanting to play at a lower level. Especially when there are teams (eg Glenullin) who have been crying for a chance to play against the best. What happens if Drumsurn win Intermediate next year? Do they ask to remain Intermediate again and forever more?

I dont think Drumsurn fielded a reserve team at all this year and I understand how that is difficult for a small club, but thats a different issue and this defeatist attitude will do nothing to fix that problem. Back yourself and if you have to go down, go down fighting.

Small point of clarification.

If memory serves, Glenullin played a weakened team last year in the final game of the IFC Group vs. Desertmartin so that they would actually play Ballinderry in the Qtr Final, precisely to *avoid* the IFC Semi Final (and promotion to the SFC)..

I wasnt aware of this. All the noise I was hearing out of Glenullin was that they wanted to be playing SFC? Is that not correct?

[GTP]

Drumsurn are the lowest ranked side in the SFC and were promoted due to a restructure when they arguably they did not merit getting out of Intermediate. It is very likely they would get relegated through the play offs if they were played. Whilst I don't agree with them going down without playing in the play-offs (if they have done so) Intermediate does appear to be their level. If any team got promoted as Intermediate champions and didn't want to move up or if Drumsurn had not fulfilled their 2 SFC matches this year criticism would be warranted but the only loss here is the finances from the play-off games and perhaps to the other 3 clubs involved who may have wanted to prove themselves strong enough for Senior and end the season by winning a game.

[LoughNeagh]

Cahir O'Kane live on twitter with the minor final

[Newbridge Exile]

Loup nearly pulled of the mother of all comebacks but Dungiven held on to win by two ,

[Brendan]

Senior semi finals
Slaughtneil V Swatragh
Screen V Lynches

Junior semis
Lavey V Coleraine
Na Magha V Banagher

What's going wrong in Lavey hurling  cant seem to escape junior since the rejigging of the grades

[Link]

Senior semi finals
Slaughtneil V Swatragh
Screen V Lynches

Junior semis
Lavey V Coleraine
Na Magha V Banagher

What's going wrong in Lavey hurling  cant seem to escape junior since the rejigging of the grades

Unlucky with the draw this year arguably having the best 2 teams in the county in their group.

They could have finished top 2 in the other group but I'd say very little different between banagher, screen and lavey with swatragh possibly slightly ahead of these 3.

Swatragh beating Kevin Lynchs last year during a hurricane on a day where the senior final was cancelled really affected seedings.