Moving the Boys in Blue would revitalise Leinster
ORLA BANNON
Miceal Rooney tackles Patrick McBride of Antrim at Pairc Esler
BY
CONOR LAVERTY insists he’s “not delusional” about Down’s chances of making an Ulster final after a performance against Antrim which he labelled “not acceptable”.
The Mourne toiled to a four-point win in Pairc Esler on Saturday in a dour game marred by a few niggly incidents during the pre-match parade and at half time.
Down will just be glad to move on to a semi-final with Armagh or Fermanagh in two weeks’ time, bidding to reach a first provincial decider since 2017.
“We know where we’re I’m not delusional —I understand where this team’s at,” claimed Laverty.
“This is a young team that’s growing all the time and I feel there’s quality in Down, and we were just well below our standard line there.
“I thought it was a poor standard and it’s not something that is acceptable.”
Down were hoping for a strong reaction after losing the Division Three final to Westmeath two weeks ago, which is why Laverty was so disappointed with the display that followed.
“It wasn’t the level of performance that this team aspires to get to,” he admitted.
“It’s not the reason why I took the job for our players.
“Whenever people would have talked about the
Derry and Dublin match, it was a great game for the neutral to watch.
“I’m sure there wouldn’t have been too many neutrals impressed with that game. Our objective was to be in the hat for the Ulster semi-final.
“I would say if you’re Fermanagh or Armagh looking in, you’ll not be too worried after watching that performance, but that’s a challenge set for us now.”
Antrim boss Andy McEntee was pleased with how his team battled to stay in the game against the wind in the second half, having trailed 0-6 to 0-3 at the break, and defended his players for their part in the pre-match spat.
“Well it looked to me like Down went to run through our players,” he said.
“We were on the inside. I don’t think we did anything, our lads stood their ground.
“What were we going to do, get out of the way and let Down walk through us?
“I saw a bit of pushing and shoving the band was in front of me so I didn’t get to see most of it to tell the truth. There is a protocol for a parade and stuff but if one team is going to attempt to run through the other, you’re certainly asking for trouble.”
When the teams made their way towards the dressing rooms after the first half there was another spat and in the aftermath, Antrim backroom team member Brendan Murphy was given a red card.
“Brendan Murphy got a red card,” confirmed McEntee, “but whoever was involved it definitely wasn’t Brendan. I don’t even know what happened, I was in the dressing room but I know it wasn’t him.”
Down: J O’Hare; P Fegan, R McEvoy (0-1), C Doherty (0-1); M Rooney (0-1), P Laverty (capt), D Guinness (0-2); S Johnston, O Murdock (0-1); C McCrickard, L Kerr (0-1), R Johnston (0-1, mark); B O’Hagan, P Havern (0-1, f), D Magill Subs: O Savage (0-3, 2f, one mark) for Havern (25), E Brown for McCrickard (48), S Annett (0-1) for O’Hagan (53), R Magill for S Johnston (61), R Mason for D Magill (77)
Antrim: M Byrne (0-1, a ‘45’); R Boyle, E Walsh, K Keenan; D Lynch, J Finnegan, D McAleese (capt); C Hynds, M Jordan (0-1); C Hand (0-1), P McBride (0-1, f), E McCabe (0-1); R McQuillan (0-3, 2f), R McCann (0-1, f), D McEnhill Subs: N Burns for McEnhill (HT), P McAleer for Boyle (53), E Hynds for Walsh (66), P Shivers for McQuillan (77)
IN THE name of saving the provincial systems, it may be a benefit to everyone if Dublin are moved out of the Leinster SFC.
If you switch the Boys in Blue to, say, the Munster SFC, you’d probably have a good enough Championship in the province they have left behind, where they have won every title bar one since 2005.
You are looking at it every single year and wondering what can anyone be taking out of what we see, such as the Dubs beating Meath by 3-19 to 0-12 yesterday.
When the Dubs got motoring, everyone lost interest in what was happening on the pitch.
There was no real intensity from Meath after 10-15 minutes.
It looked like one of those games where both sets of players just want to get home and that’s your top billing in the Leinster Championship.
You think of Dublin v Meath and you think back to those games of the 90s; almost full houses, hot summer days, aggression, contests, interest.
It was like Manchester City playing a non-league side.
Such is Dublin’s dominance they can’t be taking anything out of it and the same goes for the other teams as the AllIreland champions land title after title.
The quality of the teams in the province outside of Dublin does not seem to be improving.
If anything, it appears to be going in the other direction.
I’ve often wondered if what has been done in hurling could be replicated cross-code, where they might move a powerhouse out of a province to save the entire system.
Wasting
I sit on the Sunday Game a lot of nights and wonder why we, as a country, are wasting time with provincial games when we know Kerry will win in Munster and Dublin will win in Leinster.
What is the point of all these games in such a tight season and when there is a lot of talk about player burnout?
Maybe some of the teams are better losing their opening game to get out of the Leinster Championship
because if you are going to meet a Dublin in the last four there, then you have to wonder.
The Royals defeated Longford last week to book that Croker showdown with the Boys in Blue but was that result a positive or a negative for Colm O’Rourke’s men?
You go and lose heavily to the Dubs and it becomes more difficult to piece it all together for the rest of the summer.
Leinster might be uncompetitive but you can’t say that for Ulster and the big thing for Armagh is that they have an ability, when they go aggressively at games, to wipe teams out convincingly.
We saw that a couple of years ago when they kind of got into that mode of pressing kick-outs, along with their huge physique (and they are all very powerful players, as Kieran McGeeney teams tend to be).
From the off in Brewster Park yesterday, they looked to be in that sort of a groove.
There is a bit of a hill there in Enniskillen and they played going down that and played with the breeze and just went after the game.
They blocked Fermanagh kick-outs in and the Erne struggled from the off.
Armagh got the goals at opportune times and, as the game went on, Fermanagh, playing up the hill, only got two points before the interval.
Went
It felt like the Orchard went after their opponents from the get-go.
They probably were hurting from the criticism they got from the Division Two League final loss to a very understrength Donegal and the fallout of that.
They felt, that day, like they were playing with the handbrake on, and never took a proper cut at the game.
That will have hurt them. Enniskillen can be a tricky