Football’s giants are waking up
Rivals of 2010 have reset sights
TWO parties come together at Páirc Uí Chaoimh this Sunday afternoon, like a couple who have long since gone their separate ways, remembering a time, 10 years ago, when they were both in their prime, the world at their feet as they prepared for the ball to be thrown in on a September weekend for a showpiece All-Ireland final.
Subsequent years haven’t been particularly kind to either and they are now left to look back wistfully at the passing of the years.
Back in the autumn of 2010, it was hard to imagine Cork and Down going from contesting the All-Ireland final to meeting in the far less rarefied surrounds of Division 3 of the Allianz Football League.
When Cork lifted the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time since 1990, it just copper-fastened their status as one of the most consistent modern powers in the game, a proper rival to Kerry in Munster and beyond.
They also proved capable of knocking out Dublin in that year’s semi-final, storming back to win a clutch game by a single point before doing something similar in the National League final the following season.
Such was their consistency that the county won four League titles in a row, including a hat-trick of Division 1 titles between 2010-2012.
Graham Canty was the captain and the team’s beating heart, Michael Shields and Noel O’Leary were two of the dogs of war at the back, and Paul Kerrigan and Patrick Kelly and Ciaran Sheehan epitomised the new wave of young talent.
That was a summer during which Down maintained their glorious Championship winning streak against Kerry and had Danny Hughes, Benny Coulter and Martin Clarke in their pomp.
And yet here they are, ready to slug it out in Division 3, in a match that plenty believe will go a good way to deciding the two promotion placings and, with them, the two spots in the All-Ireland Championship proper rather than having to worry about any second-tier competition.
Cathal McShane, the top scorer in last year’s Championship with Tyrone, has turned down a contract with Adelaide Crows in the AFL, but to understand why that’s so significant, it’s worth looking at the career arc of Marty Clarke.
There is a very good reason why counties like Tyrone and managers like Mickey Harte have been outspoken on the topic of losing their best talents to the AFL, and why it’s such a story that McShane has turned down the offer of a spell playing Aussie Rules.
In 2010, Clarke, a talented ball player, showed the full range of his talents — playmaker and finisher, all rolled into one. Here was a prodigious talent who won an All-Ireland minor title with Down in 2005, showing his potential after returning home following a spell playing Aussie Rules with Collingwood. His aim was to inspire his county to an All-Ireland. And he came so close to doing just that.
His three points weren’t enough as Cork squeezed home on a 0-16 to 0-15 scoreline. The lure of the AFL would tempt him Down Under for a second three-year contract and Down football supporters can only wonder how the county senior team’s fortunes might have differed if he was still there pulling the strings.
For Cork, Ciaran Sheehan is another who is back home again after his chances of making a big impact with Carlton Blues in the AFL were hampered by injury — a recurring theme for plenty of Gaelic footballers prepared to take a punt on this attritional professional sport. Just look at Kerry’s Tommy Walsh or the recent misfortune surrounding his fellow county man Stefan Okunbor, who only recently tore his achilles tendon.
The 21-year-old, who joined Geelong at the end of 2018, had been targeting a senior breakthrough this year after impressing with the reserves in the latter half of last season. This is someone who won the Munster Player of the Year award at under-20 level in 2018.
When Kerry supporters think of the fine margins involved in last year’s All-Ireland final against Dublin, they can’t help but think of the impact another Geelong player might have made in the middle third — former underage star Mark O’Connor.
“Down believe
they can have a big season”
The past decade has borne witness to a lot of sliding doors moments, when things might have worked out differently under different circumstances.
There is a renewed sense of optimism in Cork that stretches deeper than the opening two wins of the Allianz Football League campaign.
After a first-half wobble, Ronan McCarthy’s team put 20 points on the board against Offaly in the first round and then beat Leitrim by double scores in round two, 1-15 to 0-9.
The minor and under-20 double of last summer suggested there is another wave of talent coming to drive Cork on, and that is perhaps proving to be the case this year.
Right now, Cork are the only team in the division with full points, with everybody else dropping at least one point.
That includes Down, who have come through two battles in the opening round with their promotion ambitions still intact — a hard-earned draw against Tipperary was followed by a spirited 0-14 to 0-12 win against Derry last weekend.
Kilcoo’s historic first Ulster senior football club title and path to the All-Ireland final also created its own mood for optimism within the county that Down can be back at Croke Park for a big game, sooner rather than later.
A decade on, Cork and Down would give anything to meet again in late summer.