Congratulations to Daithí Sands on his place on the 2024 Joe McDonagh Team of The Year!

This is Daithí's third time being named on the Joe McDonagh Cup Team of the Year, with the Portaferry Clubman having been named also in 2019 & 2022.

Daithí will make the trip to Dublin to accept his award on Friday 11th October.

Congratulations to Daithí on this remarkable achievement!

Be Better Hurling Programme

Saturday kicked off our U14 Be Better Hurling Programme in St Malachy's High School in Castlewellan and we were joined by Paul Sheehan, Danny Toner and Eoghan Sands.

60 young hurlers from the clubs of Down were put through their paces by some of our Down Senior Players along with members of the Senior Hurling Management.

This programme will continue over the next few weeks.

Mayobridge retained the Colly Curran cup as they won a second successive minor championship with a four point win over Bosco.

A lightning start saw the sky blues go 3-2 to 0-0 up with Daire O’Keefe netting twice and Corey Clerkin hitting the other goal. Bosco plugged away however with Matthew McLoughlin their main score better. Daniel Carr tagged on a couple of points as the Bridge led 3-3 - 0-2 at half time.

Bosco rallied well with McLoughlin netting though both teams were able to pick off points with attempts from Darren Doherty and Daire O’Keefe the standout scores. Oran McCoy nabbed Bosco’s second goal in added on time but it was too late to inspire a real comeback as Mayobridge held on for a 3-8 - 0-7 victory.

Eoin O’Hare’s three points along with Charlie McGrath’s well finished goal proved crucial as Ballyholland won the minor cup for 2024 with a one goal victory over Shamrocks.

In a game that was competitive throughout, with not much between the sides at any time, Ballyholland never trailed despite coming under considerable pressure at various stages. Shamrocks had some majestic points, Rio Loughran’s from close to the sideline probably the pick of them. However, it was that goal from McGrath ten minutes from the end, that proved the difference at the final whistle as Ballyholland won 1-10 - 0-10.

Aughlisnafin and Dromara will contest the junior final after beating Ardglass and Glasdrumman respectively.
The Fin required extra time to win their game. Having led for much of the first half they fell victim to Dara O’Shea. The Ardglass man, only back from an 18 month ACL injury lay off scored an opportunist goal to give his side the lead. Having battled to the front again a last gasp John Polley free pegged Aughlisnafin back at the end of the second half and sent the game to extra time. Ardglass edged two ahead in the first period of extra time before a surging run by Peter O’Hare teed up Shaun Murnin to palm to the net. Breanainn McComiskey sent over a superb free off the deck to give the Fin a four point lead before Ardglass rallied. They came within inches, hitting the crossbar but only managing one final point as the Fin booked their spot in final. Best for Ardglass were Caoilan O’Shea, Jamie McDarby and John Polley with Polley ending the day with a personal tally of seven points. For the Fin Breanainn McComiskey, Thomas Beckett and Peter O’Hare.

In the other semi final the returning Luke Savage kicked three points and Colm Flanagan bagged 1-3 as John Fegan’s troops saw off a stern challenge from Glasdrumman. The Harrison brothers were to the fore for the Mourne side, scoring 1-9 of their 1-10, 1-7 coming from Connaire and two points from Shane while Nathan Mills also notched a point.

It should be a thrilling final and the sides will be well acquainted. Dromara may bear the favourites tag but a close encounter is to be expected.

The following arrangements have been confirmed for the 2024 Scór na nÓg competitions:

• Friday 4th October - Deadline for submission of entries.

• Down Competition Dates will be confirmed once the number of Entries have been received, it is hoped that there will be qualifying competitions ahead of the County Final.

• Weekend 9th/10th November - Down Scór na nÓg Final.

Entries should be submitted by Friday, 4th October 2024 to irishculturalofficer.down@gaa.ie or secretary.scor.down@gaa.ie - see your Club Secretary for further information

• The Quiz (Trath na gCeist) will be a stand-alone event at a date to be confirmed.

• Participants must be Under 17 on 1st January 2024 ie born on/after 1st January 2007.

The Parador Lodge intermediate final will be contested by two sides who plied their trade in division three this year as Drumgath and Clann Na Banna won through in their semi finals over the weekend.

Drumgath got the action for the weekend underway with their game against Darragh Cross on Friday night. The first 25 minutes saw little separate the sides and a Shane Murray goal gave them Darragh an unlikely lead but in the moments before half time Cathal Tumilty’s flicked goal gave the Gath a significant boost going in at the break.

A flurry of early second half points which saw ‘keeper Ronan Burns bring his personal tally to four left Drumgath in charge and they plundered two late goals through Shea Byrne to seal the win in style with the final score coming in at 3-11 - 1-6.

On Saturday afternoon Clann Na Banna upset the odds against Rostrevor. A goal in either half from Conor Leneghan proved too much for the Seasiders to recover from with no standout, consistent scoregetter stepping up over the hour. There were moments of individual class from Ardghal McMahon, Hugh Pat McGeary and Shaun Parr among others for Rostrevor but as the game wore on the influence of Donal and Niall Scullion at key moments massively helped in relieving the pressure on the Clann Na Banna rearguard and their net minder Michael McAllister also played a key role with a standout double save to deny Conor Rock’s and Peter Magee as his side finished strongly to claim a four point win; 2-8 - 0-10.

For the third time in four years the Morgan Fuels senior championship final will be played between Burren and Kilcoo. The Magpies are in the decider for a thirteenth year on the spin following their 0-17 - 0-10 win over Glenn. Much of their work was done in the first half, a thirty minutes at the end of which they led 0-10 - 0-2.

As ever, Kilcoo has a wide range of scorers, ten in all with their joint top scorers in the game Paul Devlin and Niall Kane who each converted three points. Kane was in action at the other end too, repeatedly keeping Glenn at bay, his second half save from Shay Millar was key in sustaining the comfort Kilcoo were enjoying in the game.

In the second half Glenn showed more ambition with Millar repeatedly on target and driving bursts from defence from the likes of Patrick Brooks typifying their performance. In the end though, Kilcoo had the work done and were a constant menace on the counter attack, Sean Og McCusker reminding people of that with their final breakaway point as they sealed passage to another final.

They will play Burren in that final after the St Mary’s side beat Carryduff by a goal on Sunday evening; 1-10 - 0-10 the final score. It may not have been a classic but that won’t matter too much to the Burren men. After a tit for tat start a rather fortuitous James Guinness goal gave them a significant leg up. If Donal O’Hare was at fault for the concession of the goal he more than made up for it with a trio of fine points from dead balls.

Burren led by the slenderest of margins - a single point at the break and, right through the second half there remained virtually nothing between the sides. John McGeough helped push Carryduff forward while Burren launched retaliatory counters. In the end it was a stabbed Ronan Kelly finish from point blank range that gave Burren enough breathing space to be able to see the game out which gives the club celebrating its 100th year a chance to prepare for a county final in this landmark season.
 

Congratulations to all our winners in our September 2024 Draw and our Super Draw. An Ríochts - Nicky Doran was the main Super Draw prize winner, winning £5000.00 - Congratulations Nicky.

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialDownGAA/videos/1040707600703955/

FULL RESULTS:

Draw 6 - SEPTEMBER RESULTS

SPECIAL CLUB DRAW £200.00:
21AS051 Ardglass - Kieran Shields
22BT139 Bright - John Beattie
24GL020 Glenn - Danny McHugh
24OL049 St Michael’s - Billy Drake

5 Monthly Prizes of £1000.00:
24KO038 Kilcoo - Kerry Hynes
24BA014 Ballela - Owen McGreevy
23AN056 Aughlisnafin - Gerard O'Hare
24SJ118 St Johns - Jonathan Addis
23DK163 Downpatrick RGU - Sean & Ryan Conway


SUPER DRAW RESULTS
£1000.00 Winners:
243SS030 Newry Shamrocks - Gareth Loughran
24BS061 Ballyholland - Paul McAteer
24BD011 Bryansford - Eoin Murray
24MI003 St Michaels - David McCabe
24BD215 Bryansford - Bryansford GAC

£2000.00 Winners:
24CB186 Clann na Banna - Ciaran Bradley
24ME208 Mayobridge - Sharon Fitzpatrick
24CL106 Clonduff - Blaithn Shields
24PY037 Portaferry - Brian McNally
24CPN300 Cumann Pheadair Naofa - Ronan Gray

£5000.00 Winner:
15AR178 An Ríocht - Nicky Doran