Good luck saturday night girls. No pressure on you at all as Monaghan are clear favourites. Good to hear you are all very happy with the present set up and your popular management have had the foresight to look to have you downgraded next year. We can look forward to next year with absolute confidence.

soprano (Down) - Posts: 38 - 17/06/2011 18:26:50    959140

I have never witnessed such a disgraceful performance in my life. The girls looked like they were gathered up from around the county as the cars drove down the road. What is up with our county board when we cant even get a bus to a championship game? We looked unprofessional from the off and the game mirrored this approach. Monaghan are a top tier team granted - but we should be putting up a better performance than this. Our county girls started training at Christmas or thereabouts and this is the return we get. Its not good enough. Our minors got tanked in Ulster as well and U16 and U14 are not getting the results needed to feed into a senior team of the future. Where do we go from here? The whole structure needs to be looked at and systems put in place. Year after year we get this beating and nothing gets done about it. I know those in positions of responsibility are trying their hardest and sometimes are hitting a brick wall - but maybe we need to address these issues before we are unable to compete at all...

singer (Down) - Posts: 330 - 20/06/2011 10:42:45    960671

What was the final score of the match?

boozehell (Down) - Posts: 39 - 20/06/2011 12:03:10    960773

Final score Monaghan 5.12 and Down 1.5. This was a very inept performance and the management should step down. The ladies have had a rough year and there have been girls coming and going all year to the panel. Singer - you talk about structure - well the structure for the senior ladies is lets just get 15 players onto the park. there are girls only in the panel a couple of weeks and they started the game - thats a disgrace. there are other girls who are there most of the season and didnt get to start. is it any wonder that ladies football in the county is a poor second class citizen. Off course - some of the girls need to look at themselves as well. They dont look like finely tuned athletes in my eyes and there must have been a lot of bluffing goin on at training....

duff (Down) - Posts: 145 - 20/06/2011 13:18:37    960880

I think we need to be realistic; our playing population is small and that will always limit our ambitions. We should also recognise that Ladies is GAA is very poorly financed compared to mens football.
I should point out that the minors were not "tanked;" they beat Cavan and trounced Monaghan and were beaten in close matches by Donegal and Tyrone, the eventual champions, by 5 pts and 6 pts respectively.

befair (Down) - Posts: 238 - 20/06/2011 15:28:40    961079

Saturdays result was a foregone conclusion and not the fault of those players that took the field, at least they saw out the season when it might have been understandable if they had walked. The manger was unfortunately always in the control of darker forces and while maybe a decent enough fella not his own man or a decision maker. The girls battling performance, considering they had little direction could not really be faulted. They certainly earned my respect in the second half. Both full backs really stuck to their task against two top quality inside forwards, but they really needed their manager to provide them with some kind of cover before the goals started to go in. It is a worry that so many players joined the panel in the week of the game and that a few of those named in the programme have never even met the manager? Incidentally one of the players brought in late and not included in the programme did not look at all out of place in midfield, and it has to be noted she has not had the benefit of the highly enjoyable training sessions singer has been referring to recently? The Fegans were also outstanding! It's not all bad, the senior league has never been as competitive as it is this year, and enough of the young quality players will step up next year when the inevitable changes are made.

soprano (Down) - Posts: 38 - 20/06/2011 18:11:45    961320

County Board meeting tonight with senior manager, what will the outcome be...

vocational (Down) - Posts: 26 - 20/06/2011 20:56:26    961447

What players did the manager not know???

vocational (Down) - Posts: 26 - 20/06/2011 21:06:18    961452

the senior league is competitive - yeah right - ask clonduff or saval how competitive it is..... two teams with no points is hardly competitive. Plus bredagh didnt get their usual quota of players this yr - mayb thats why its competitive. Some of the girls on our county panel - would they make a club team in cork/dublin/monaghan/laois?? The Fegans are average players when playing university football - they do shine for us but thats caus noone else is good enough. The Fegans were better players 2 years ago when they were fit as was Pyers, Trainor, mcclean, mulhern... There were a number of other players on the panel 2 years ago that won a national title - were are they now?? Morgan, Cunningham, Keary, Carr, Laverty, Campbell, O'Neill, Hardy, Dohertys (2), Gibney, McArdle aswell as others - Michaela and Aveen have served there county well and there time is up... surely these players can be enticed back and they all have youth on there side and are the type of quality we are looking for... Is county football treated the right way by the club players in Down??

raffles (Down) - Posts: 8 - 20/06/2011 21:37:52    961493

Raffles - interesting post. Clonduff have had their day a the top and are now getting a bit of their own medicine back. its good to see another few teams rising to the top as the same old gets boring after a while. I agree with your statement about the players getting on club teams in the top five or six counties in the country - doubt they would. the Fegans are good players at club level caus they can work the ball between themselves and dont need those around them - but they were definitely better a couple of years ago. Those players who have left from couple of years ago should be left alone - they obviously dont want to play for their county so let them stay with their clubs. There are couple of key names among those listed tho that would help most county teams. What does your last question mean though?? Do you think the club players dont give a hoot about the county?/

singer (Down) - Posts: 330 - 21/06/2011 10:13:23    961602

Any word of the county board meeting last night??? You say it was meeting with the manager - who exactly is that? Are the ladies being dropped to intermediate next year or is that just a rumour??

duff (Down) - Posts: 145 - 21/06/2011 11:52:41    961733

Have to agree that the team as a whole was not fit when playing Monahgan. This was probably due to lack of intensity at training. On the other hand if the fegans were average players for their university how did they pick up college All Stars?

sun (Down) - Posts: 19 - 21/06/2011 13:53:23    961876

I really don't think it's fair to single out players in this way; the points made about intensity at training and the inability to keep the squad together are likely the key issues. I have no doubt those that took on the responsibility over the last two years started with the best of intensions but simply lost their way as they never really understood how teams are brought together and developed at this level. We have not been able to tempt experienced coaches into the senior position and may well have allowed those best placed to bring things forward to be driven away. Leave off the girls they did the best they could in the circumstances.

ladiesman (Down) - Posts: 20 - 21/06/2011 15:03:03    961964

Down should be regraded down to intermediate, Armagh dropingfrom division 2 will almost certaintly want to be regraded aswell. I think unfortunately this is where both teams are at present, with Armagh only scoring 0-4 against Monaghan in the 1st round of the championship. County board missed the deadline for this to happen to last year so here is hoping they are on the ball.. Droping down to intermediate would benefit the senior ladies greatly but this needs to happen with the right managment in place or it will be a waste of time. Its looking very likely that this years minor managament will step up to the seniors for the start of the new season and have already been talking to the county board to take over.....

vocational (Down) - Posts: 26 - 22/06/2011 18:41:26    963298

I agree the shift to intermediate level would give the girls a more achievable target and I also believe the minor management would be the ideal way forward, but I don't believe they are in talks with the co board or will be taking the senior team next year. Who else is on your list?

ladiesman (Down) - Posts: 20 - 22/06/2011 19:57:10    963365

My list is the following:

I think this is too big of a job for one person so i propose the following combinations.

Ryan Mc Shane/Paul Mc Shane - Senior Managers - both have good experience with ladies football and Ryan is currently involved with Clonduff and Paul was with county before and knows what it takes. These lads are to be looking at girls who are over 18 years of age and cannot represent minors. We need a "senior" team and let the others look after themselves. There are loads of senior players in this county.
Francis Toner/Paul - Development managers - working with girls that are not senior and not minor - preparing them for the step up. We have had good minor teams in the recent past and quite a few of these have not made the next step. the two lads obviously know them really well so let them train them at higher level and introduce them to senior football by organising challenge games etc for the senior management and watching girls in different situations. The two lads would also be at senior training and recommending any player in the county they see fit for the step up. they should also develop girls at u16, u14, u12 and prepare them by taking spot training sessions here and there. The only reason i dont recommend them for senior post is that they have an obvious way with the underage girls in the county so let them do what they do best.
Tommy Mc Cauley/Michaela Downey/Aveen Downey - Minor managers - working with this group of girls exclusively and trying to feed the senior team with players fit for the next level. All Minor players play minor football only
Catherine Mc Conville/Noel Haughey/John Mc Carthy - U16 Managers - working with this group of girls - of which the lads have had experience and success with in the past - and developing them for next level. All u16 players play u16 football only
Elaine Mc Court/Brenda Russell/Sinead Murphy - U14 Managers - past players who got lots of joy wearing the red and black jersey - time to put a little back and this is best place - girls would listen to them as they have been the face of ladies football in down for long time. All u14 players play u14 football only.

I think the most important thing is to realise that the senior teams is the main priority every year and that every team is just a stepping stone to senior football. Sure winning minor games and u16, u14 games is important so the girls realise they can compete with the Donegals and Monaghans out there - but it counts for nothing when they play senior football.. We won an U16 all ireland a few years ago and there are only a handful of these girls playing senior football now and some there are not fit for it. That group should have been developed and worked with and a full data base kept of all players to ensure they are playing football and feeding into the structure above.

Any thoughts??

duff (Down) - Posts: 145 - 23/06/2011 10:18:35    963565

You've really thought about this Duff and I have to say you seem to have a decent insight into things. Your senior and over 18 development approach would certainly up standards quite quickly if it could be implemented by those coaches you have specified and yes it's essential to replicate the process that bonded the current minor girls so try and persuade those coaches to also work with the underage teams. I would also agree Catherine and Aveen could connect with the girls if they could be tempted on board. I would also suggest Mark and Garvan could do a decent job at U14 or U16 level rather than lose them altogether?

ladiesman (Down) - Posts: 20 - 23/06/2011 17:40:25    964183

Duff - thats interesting. But how about Michaela comes back to play?? She is still young enough and has loads of experience. |Could she not be used in this development role you are talking about?? If she cant get the best out of the girls in down there is no hope... I also think this years management should be gone in total. Mark, |Garvin and Frank have done a good job but move aside and let someone else in for a while. Not sure about the Mc Shanes coming in as Paul had a chance before and there was little progress made. Maybe Ryan has something different to offer though...

singer (Down) - Posts: 330 - 24/06/2011 19:15:09    965261

have the chicks with sticks had any camogie matches recently?

God7 (Down) - Posts: 354 - 06/07/2011 14:25:38    976299

Any word of the management team for next year yet?? the club championship kicks off this weekend and it would be important that the management team are there to watch potential players for the season ahead. We are still in division 3 and still in senior championship next season so need to do alot of work to get the results we need. I hope the county board have done the decent thing this year and appointed someone in time.......

singer (Down) - Posts: 330 - 05/08/2011 16:48:20    1004388