Could Down be the Ulster team to shake things up in Championship?
FOR a young man, and a young intercounty manager, Conor Laverty has already packed a lifetime’s experience into his Gaelic football career.
This is someone who first made a name as a coach as a 16-yearold, guiding the Kilcoo Under12s to a trophy. ‘I think by the time they had won the championship I was maybe 17,’ he recalled in a previous interview.
When James McCartan stepped away as Down manager, Laverty’s full immersion — whether as a player with Down, an All-Ireland club championship winner with Kilcoo, manager of the county U20s who won provincial honours, or a decade spent as a games development officer with Trinity College — meant he was an obvious choice, even though he was just 36 when the appointment was made in the autumn of 2022.
And all of that experience taught him to lighten the mood at training in the build-up to last Sunday’s final-round meeting with Clare to decide promotion from Division 3. An off-colour draw with Westmeath in the previous round left the players a bit deflated and clearly struggling with the weight of expectation.
So instead of a regular training session, to mix things up, the players enjoyed a game of basketball. Last Sunday, they came out and performed like a squad liberated, putting up 3-15 on Clare to clinch promotion and set up a Division 3 trophy decider with Westmeath at Croke Park tomorrow night.
It was Down’s seventh consecutive League win at Páirc Esler since he took charge, a venue they have turned into a bit of a fortress.
In the four home League games this year, they have put up a staggering 12 goals and 60 points across the four games against Limerick, Offaly, Sligo and Clare.
As Clare manager Mark Fitzgerald succinctly put it: ‘We spoke about Down’s running power, their physicality, their record up here in Newry, but what do you do? You try and plan for it but, as Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get a punch in the mouth.’
It felt very much like watching another Ulster version of Derry — all pace, angled support runs, and weaving patterns that cut holes through the opposition defence.
For All-Star Conor McCluskey, look instead at Down number four Céilum Doherty. For his team’s first goal, he came slicing through at full tilt from defence — when his right-foot thumping drive was saved, he squeezed the rebound home off his left, the umpires judging it had crossed the line before being cleared. Danny McGill’s goal came after a necklace of passes and flickons which had echoes of the club team that have dominated the Down SFC. With the likes of Ryan Johnston curling over a lovely sweet right-foot score, it was all so reminiscent of the devastating counter-attacking play that characterised Kilcoo’s path to All-Ireland club final glory, where Laverty was the vital link man in attack. Mickey Moran was the managerial figurehead for that one and it’s hard to forget Laverty’s touch in summoning the welltravelled former Derry manager up the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup together.
When he was involved with the Down U20s he also had Meath legend Seán Boylan as part of the ticket so he has surrounded himself with managers who have seen it all.
‘I’ve been very lucky to be able to work with two legends of the game, being able to tap in to them and to learn from them has been a privilege,’ said Laverty. ‘I think, I hope, that will stand me in good stead in whatever path, coaching-wise, further down the line.’
And that’s exactly how it is panning out.
Now Kilcoo’s tactical set-up and approach did divide opinion. When they lost the 2020 club final to Corofin, the meeting provided the ultimate clash of styles. The sublime kicking game that Corofin love to exhibit was frustrated at every turn, Kilcoo setting up so as to negate their strengths and turn it into a cagey, counter-attacking game that only saw the Galway champions secure a record three-in-arow after extra time.
If Kilcoo also showed how they can put up big scores, Down’s display against Clare last Sunday showcased them in full flow.
And yet there is no denying the pressure that comes again with this repeat fixture against Westmeath on Saturday evening at Croke Park in the Division 3 final, the one team who really caused them problems in that dour recent affair at Cusack Park in Mullingar.
PROMOTION is a considerable achievement for sure. As Laverty put it in the build-up: ‘Two years in and if you had another year in Division 3, what were you trying to tell these boys? Was this going to be the end of the journey? Did they want to stay Division 3 footballers all the time?’
But the complicated nature of the interlocking league, provincial championship and All-Ireland series competitions means that they are still not yet guaranteed a place in the Sam Maguire Cup.
There is a real sense that after the divisions at club level, the county team’s progress has acted as a real unifying force.
And now the question is, could Down be the springer from the pack in Ulster?
So much of the talk to this point has surrounded the return of Jim McGuinness to Donegal and the shock acquisition of Mickey Harte by Derry. Then there is the two counties’ Ulster SFC first round meeting that is generating such box-office billing.
That is going to remove either the back-to-back Ulster champions from the equation or a Donegal side that has already clinched promotion back to Division 1 for 2025.
Down meanwhile, take on Antrim at Páirc Esler in Newry, a venue where they have such a formidable track record. And they will also be buoyed by the League meeting when they won on the road against Antrim by double scores, 1-15 to 1-6.
The nature of the semi-final pairings means Down are on the other side of the draw to Derry, Donegal, Tyrone, Monaghan and Cavan. Beat Antrim and the winners of Fermanagh against Armagh stand between them and a place in the Ulster final.
While Armagh’s promotion and path back to Division 1 football has been another story of the spring League, Down could yet be the team that really shakes things up in Ulster.