Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE MOURNE SUPREMACY
O’hare says this is Down’s time to shine
THEY are a happy ship once more and with an Ulster final to look forward to, no one will be rocking the boat in Down about team selection ahead of the clash with Tyrone.
Donal O’hare hopes to force his way into Eamonn Burns’ plans for the July 16 showdown at Clones but like a few other established first-team regulars this year, he’s had to be patient. The Burren forward missed the entire League campaign as he recovered from ankle surgery but was disappointed to be overlooked for the Championship opener against Armagh. His first act of the 2017 season was to clinch the insurance point in Saturday night’s shock semifinal win over Down. “At the start of the year if you’d told people you’d be in an Ulster final they’d have laughed at you, so it’s brilliant,” he said. “Now we’re only three weeks away from potentially getting a medal. “No one gave us a chance to stay in Division Two, no one gave us a chance to beat Armagh and no one was giving us a chance to beat Monaghan. “It will be the same for the final but we’ll take it as it comes. “Everyone will be pushing hard for places now to be on the pitch for the final – I know I will be.” It took them a while, but Down are finally getting their best men on the pitch when it really matters. Mark Poland was left idle for most of the spring but came on as a late sub in the Athletic Grounds on Saturday, while the Kilcoo trio of Darragh O’hanlon, Ryan and Jerome Johnston have been excellent during the Ulster Championship having also seen little game-time during the League. O’hare admits he had hoped to feature in the opener against Armagh three weeks ago. “I got an (ankle) operation at Christmas time and thought I would have been back sooner, but it just took a bit longer than I thought. “I was disappointed not to get on against Armagh to be honest, but you can’t complain when you win. “It was good to get on (against Monaghan) and have three weeks now to force my way into the manager’s plans. “It’s a long time since we won a game in Ulster and now we’ve won two in the space of three weeks. “Hopefully I’ll be involved but everyone wants to be involved. An Ulster final is where everyone wants to be.” Any unrest or internal divisions that resulted from 14 straight league and Championship defeats in a row between April 2015 and February 2017 have been forgotten. They are moving forward as a united force with so much to look forward to. “The performance we had in Cork instilled a bit of belief in us,” added O’hare. “We were four points down at half time and managed to get a draw to stay up and that showed us we have great character. “Everyone’s been very together since that. We just took that performance and that confidence into the Armagh game and things just kept rolling ever since.”