13 REASONS WHY

Down go to Croke Park with real point to prove after 12 straight final failures but former star Dan doubts Mourne ‘instinct’

YOU know the one about Down’s great record in finals? Turns out it’s rooted more in myth than reality.

The perception is built around Down’s one-time 100 per cent return in All-ireland finals, having won on their first appearance in 1960 and again in ‘61, ‘68, ‘91 and ‘94.

The record fell in 2010 when Cork beat them by a point but, still, five out of six ain’t bad. However, when you list each of the finals that they competed in either side of that, all the way back to their last All-ireland in 1994 and up to now, it makes for pretty stark reading.

Since that two-point win over Dublin 30 years ago, they’ve been in 11 finals and lost each one, five of them in Croke Park, the ground where the county’s swagger is supposed to be at its most impish.

Granted, Down have won all three of the Mckenna Cup finals they’ve been in over the last three decades but the county’s tradition hasn’t been built on a pre-season tournament.

The closest they came to major silverware was in the 2003 Ulster final when they led Tyrone by nine points, were reeled in for a draw and stuffed in the replay.

A young Danny Hughes didn’t get off the bench that day but played later in the campaign and the All-ireland final of 2010 (above), the Ulster final two years later and a smattering of divisional finals that they came out the wrong side of.

“We were beat by a point in 2010 but you could argue that we were unlucky that day,” says Hughes. “We could easily have won it.

“In 2012 we were beaten by a better team, which they proved.

“In 2003 we were beaten by a better team, which they would go on to prove. Would we have been able to do what Tyrone did that year? No. There’s no point deluding yourself.

“In 2012 Donegal were a serious team. I could see it. I was injured but I came on in the final. They were a seriously well coached, well drilled, serious outfit. Football nearly had fundamentally changed at that stage.

“I had noticed a big difference from 2010, 2011 even. I noticed 2012 was on a different level.”

When you add it all up, does it point to a lack of a ruthless streak in Down that they’ve lost so many finals?

For

Hughes, it’s a much wider problem than that.

“Listen, I think there’s a lack of killer instinct in Down on a general basis.

“I think in Down, now and in the past, it’s not that they haven’t been good players, it’s not that they have lacked a killer instinct, we just don’t have enough players in the county at the minute that are willing to put county football ahead of everything else and to dedicate their lives to it.

“County football is a vocation and do I believe there are enough good players in Down that are dedicating their lives to it at the moment? Probably not, and there hasn’t been.

“But, to be fair, the players that are there at the minute, they are.. and it was the same in my time.”

Hughes points to the four divisional finals that Down have lost in the last 20 years and diminishes their relevance given that promotion had already been secured.

But that’s not the case in tonight’s Division Three final as defeat to Westmeath will ensure that they play in the Tailteann Cup this year, the competition in which they suffered their most recent final defeat last July and one that Hughes little enthusiasm for.

“We played in an All-ireland final and you’re remembering ‘91 and ‘94, so did it grab the imagination? I would argue that it didn’t really.

“It would have been nice to win it, of course, but you can’t tell me that it grabbed the imagination in Meath – a county with their tradition and history? Nah. I wouldn’t think so.

“Westmeath, when they won the first Tailteann Cup, it was brilliant for them and they competed brilliantly well. I think there’s a lot of merit in that.

“And I think there’s a lot of merit in getting into the qualifying stages in the

Sam Maguire and it would be worth a lot more to a county than a Tailteann

Cup win, definitely. No doubt .”