Troubled times for the two counties either side of the Newry border. Signified by the fact neither county can get their best players on the pitch. Down have a wonderful history but there has been a slow and steady decline since 1994 punctured by the wonderful renaissance in 2010. Armagh, 2002 All Ireland Champions, have seen the fortunes deteriorate even more sharply after a decade in which they were one of the best teams in Ireland.
What is to be done to improve the counties fortunes???
Down are "20 years behind" -Danny Hughes.Is that correct??? Like the players that have remained can only do their best in a situation where their squads have been decimated by withdrawals.
Laverty,Clarke,King,Madine,Gordon, Coulter,Fitzpatrick, Mooney,Rodgers,McComiskey, Garvey etc have all been unavailable for Down. Three more players left before the Monaghan game. (Howard,Boyle and Downey). On top other key players like Danny Hughes have retired.The Johnstons are injured.
Some of the reasons cited for Down's problems: (No particular order)
1.Lack of forward planning during the good times 2. Unable to adapt/ play the modern game with defence systems etc 3.No centre of excellence 4. Players opting out in increasing numbers 5. A vindictive club scene where many couldn't care less about the county team 6.Lack of money/ resources 7.Personal agendas 8.Emigration 9.County board failure 10.A poor under age structure to bring young players through.
I believe there are still quality players in Down and Armagh.
Armagh fans what is going wrong in the Orchard county???
Some the problems affecting Down in no particular order
Replying To REDANDBLACK30: "Troubled times for the two counties either side of the Newry border. Signified by the fact neither county can get their best players on the pitch. Down have a wonderful history but there has been a slow and steady decline since 1994 punctured by the wonderful renaissance in 2010. Armagh, 2002 All Ireland Champions, have seen the fortunes deteriorate even more sharply after a decade in which they were one of the best teams in Ireland.
What is to be done to improve the counties fortunes???
Down are "20 years behind" -Danny Hughes.Is that correct??? Like the players that have remained can only do their best in a situation where their squads have been decimated by withdrawals.
Laverty,Clarke,King,Madine,Gordon, Coulter,Fitzpatrick, Mooney,Rodgers,McComiskey, Garvey etc have all been unavailable for Down. Three more players left before the Monaghan game. (Howard,Boyle and Downey). On top other key players like Danny Hughes have retired.The Johnstons are injured.
Some of the reasons cited for Down's problems: (No particular order)
1.Lack of forward planning during the good times 2. Unable to adapt/ play the modern game with defence systems etc 3.No centre of excellence 4. Players opting out in increasing numbers 5. A vindictive club scene where many couldn't care less about the county team 6.Lack of money/ resources 7.Personal agendas 8.Emigration 9.County board failure 10.A poor under age structure to bring young players through.
I believe there are still quality players in Down and Armagh.
Armagh fans what is going wrong in the Orchard county???
Some the problems affecting Down in no particular order"
Would O'Rourke over Armagh and McGrath over Down help?
Replying To Killarney.87: "Would O'Rourke over Armagh and McGrath over Down help?"
Yeah possibly could help but to be fair to Eamonn Burns and Kieran McGeeney they had the courage and conviction to take the jobs when they knèw how tough they would be and there weren't many takers.
In The Irish News today Danny Hughes seems to think that the decline will continue for Down into the future.
"I fear that nothing will change in the future because nothing has changed for many years".
Replying To Killarney.87: "Would O'Rourke over Armagh and McGrath over Down help?"
Yeah possibly could help but to be fair to Eamonn Burns and Kieran McGeeney they had the courage and conviction to take the jobs when they knèw how tough they would be and there weren't many takers.
In The Irish News today Danny Hughes seems to think that the decline will continue for Down into the future.
"I fear that nothing will change in the future because nothing has changed for many years".
Replying To REDANDBLACK30: "Yeah possibly could help but to be fair to Eamonn Burns and Kieran McGeeney they had the courage and conviction to take the jobs when they knèw how tough they would be and there weren't many takers.
In The Irish News today Danny Hughes seems to think that the decline will continue for Down into the future.
"I fear that nothing will change in the future because nothing has changed for many years"."
That's sad to see. Down seemed to start the match off in typical stylish fashion and then had a complete meltdown in the second half. The young forward who opened the scoring was very composed.
Down can't seem to defend to save their lives. It was too easy for Monaghan to cut them open.
Replying To Killarney.87: "That's sad to see. Down seemed to start the match off in typical stylish fashion and then had a complete meltdown in the second half. The young forward who opened the scoring was very composed.
Down can't seem to defend to save their lives. It was too easy for Monaghan to cut them open."
Yeah thats true I was at the match and I was very pleased with the way they had played at half time. I thought we should have been three up instead of three down.
Its not the players fault though they are so inexperienced and when Monaghan upped the ante. Its unfortunate because a lot of these players would be squad players who in normal circumstances you would ease them into Championship football gently but they are being thrown in at the deep end. Hughes said you can't blame them the players - he is totally right.
We are not good at the defensive side of the game.Too often teams just run forward and get points at will. Unfortunately a lot of our best forwards are unavailable so our attack which has always been strong has been severely weakened.