DOWN ON THE UP
Five straight wins, scoring for fun, a solid age profile and a settled management team, it looks like...
ONE of Conor Laverty’s comforts as he takes his Down team to Mullingar this afternoon is that recent history informs this may just be the start of something big. Avoiding defeat today will, after two seasons in the Allianz League’s third tier, seal their return to Division 2 and the form book suggests that is how it will roll.
A run of five straight wins – although their Westmeath hosts hold the same perfect record – has seen them set the pace at the top of the division, but it’s the manner in how they have got to this point which excites.
After five rounds, they are the top scorers across the league’s four divisions, having already crashed through the 100-point ceiling, while averaging almost 22 points and two goals a game.
And that recent history?
The last time Down truly contended for the All-Ireland, this is the exact pathway they took.
They spent two seasons in Division 3, winning promotion out of it in 2009 and 12 months later they were in the All-Ireland final, losing by a point to Cork.
‘I was only saying to my father last week that when I look back on 2010, I can see a similar trajectory with this team,’ suggests Kevin McKernan, who gave 16 years of unrelenting service to the county before calling time at the end of the 2022 season.
‘I do believe that Down are in a position where if they get promoted to Division 2 that there is an opportunity with the age profile of this team to being very close to becoming a last eight team in the Championship.’
The problem for Down, though, is that promotion may not be enough to see them become even a top 16 team this summer.
In the event of Clare – favourites to get to the Munster final – failing to get promoted out of Division 3, it will mean the runners up in the division will remain in the Tailteann Cup with a lower-tier Munster county guaranteed a place in the All-Ireland series. But even if Down win Division 3 – and they look virtually certain to be playing in the final in a fortnight’s time in what is likely to be a rematch of this afternoon’s fixture – they may still miss out on playing in the Sam Maguire this summer given the odds of a county from the lower tiers reaching the Leinster final having increased this spring, especially given Kildare and Louth’s struggles in Division 2.
It is the cloud on Down’s horizon, concedes McKernan.
‘I think the GAA should seed the championships, Ulster should have more opportunities to have more teams in the AllIreland series. ‘Down and Antrim are the only two counties from the province not in the top two divisions.
‘Look at Leinster, outside of Dublin what other Leinster team has regularly made it to the last eight of the All-Ireland?
‘What other competition in the world is run like this where Leinster has 11 counties, Ulster nine with Connacht and Munster both having six each. There are preliminary rounds in Ulster and Leinster while some teams go straight into semi-finals in Connacht and Muster. It is laughable, absolutely laughable.
‘There is a very strong argument for any team who makes it to the semi-final stage in Ulster should be guaranteed a place in the AllIreland series,’ insists McKernan.
That aside, though, there is much to lighten the mood for McKernan as a supporter, although he can be forgiven being envious of the stability which the current group enjoys, rather than the state of flux which he had to contend with for much of the latter stages of his career,
He played under six different managements team. After James McCartan departed at the end of his first stint, Jim McCorry lasted just one season despite taking the team to Division 1 in 2015, citing lack of support from the county board while Paddy Tally was denied a request for a one-year extension in 2021, and 12 months later the Tyrone native coached Kerry to the All-Ireland.
On top of that, the late Eamonn Burns and, in a second stint, McCartan filled the hot-seat, but were hindered from the outset by delays to their appointment and a sense of chaos at board level that left players slow to commit.
‘James and Eamonn had to come in at a time when the county needed them because they got rid of a manager and that left us chastened as players and we struggled but that was never down to those management teams, it was down to a load of other issues,
‘You can see the results in most counties when you see a management team that is given time and the space to develop a group of players and right now it shows when there is a plan put in place and there is complete backing from the county board, the clubs and the players you reap the rewards from that.’
Down also struggled in latter times because of a sense that players from the county’s strongest club Kilcoo were slow to commit, but that has changed now that one of their own in Laverty is at the helm, in a management team beefed up with Ciaran Meenagh, Derry’s Ulster-winning manager last season.
But it is the dual role handed to another member of Laverty’s management team, Marty Clarke, who is now on the brink of a possible intercounty comeback as a fly goalkeeper after 13 seasons which is dominating the local news agenda.
When I look back on 2010, I can see a similar trajectory with this team
Play-making ability and that creative mindset is going to be needed
‘When you look at Marty, most of the things he turned his hand to turned to gold. I played minor with him and then he went to Australia and he came back home and when we got to the All-Ireland final, he was a massive part of that team.
‘I don’t think it would be an option if they did not see merit and strength in it. I don’t think he is the kind of player who would go and play that position with any sort of nerves or uncertainty. He will go in there when he is ready and I don’t think Down will put him in unless he is ready.
‘If John O’Hare does a good job and Down win on Sunday to secure promotion, you might see Marty used in the game against Clare.
‘If Marty was at the back of that defensive screen and had a bit of space, he would play quarter-back and make the passes. That playmaking ability and creative mindset is something that is going to be needed to break down teams come the championship.’