Laverty and Down trying to find all pieces of the puzzle
Mourne selector Donnelly wants his players to embrace the next challenge
Conor Laverty’s Down project has hit speed bumps, no doubt. Croke Park final defeats in the Tailteann Cup and the Division 3 deciders will sting, but the graph trends upwards nonetheless.
After all, Down will operate in Division 2 next year and, of more immediate concern, they find themselves on the kinder side of the draw in Ulster, avoiding the likes of Derry, Donegal and Tyrone.
Tomorrow they’ll face Antrim in Newry. Jump that hurdle and there’s a shot at Armagh or Fermanagh for a place in the provincial final and a spot in the All-Ireland series. As Ulster Championship draws go, it’s about as forgiving as it gets and offers a chance to keep their stock rising.
Down won by double scores (1-15 to 1-6) when they met in Corrigan Park back in February but in the main Antrim looked like they belonged in Division 3, winning a final-day duel with Wicklow to settle any remaining nerves around relegation.
Wicklow’s subsequent win over Westmeath in the Leinster Championship and selector Mickey Donnelly’s first-hand knowledge of some of the Antrim players from his role as a teacher in Lurgan means Down are well warned.
“A lot of the lads I would know came back against Wicklow – Eunan Walsh. Adam Loughran has been out after his hernia operation, Ryan Murray is a huge loss, Peter Healy has been out. Antrim have been riddled with injuries and, when you look at six league points and another few near-misses, it wasn’t a bad league campaign at all,” Donnelly says.
“We know it is going to be a huge challenge in Newry. They are going to have no fear of coming to Newry, especially with the likes of big Ruairi (McCann), who is a massive handful and changes the dynamic.”
Down are still pulling together parts of their panel. The highly-rated John McGovern, a soccer underage international with Northern Ireland, is being reintegrated as his season with Newry City in the Irish League winds up.
“Conor had him at U-20 level as well as he was freakishly good for that U-20 team. We’ve done a lot of video and you pick out wee bits that these lads have had along the journey.
“He scored a hat-trick against Kerry in an U-20 friendly in one of the Covid years. He is a freakish athlete. You aren’t a captain at international level of any sport without having transferable skills, but he is also an excellent Gaelic footballer and we are trying to accentuate the abilities he has in that realm.”
Swooped
Charlie Smyth was in the plans before the New Orleans Saints swooped while there’s been talk that another member of the backroom, Marty Clarke, could be reformed as a goalkeeper. Donnelly suggests it’s more an ‘in case of emergency break glass’ option.
“I know ‘Lav’ was on television recently and said that it is very much a work in progress.
“It is something we are exploring and I don’t think he could have used any more appropriate language than that.
“I said to Marty that it was organic. We’d always intended on keeping a limited number of personnel. With the goalkeepers, we’d always intended on keeping three and Charlie (Smyth) ended up going to pastures new.
“‘Bobo’ (Niall Kane), for different reasons, wasn’t able to commit. That left Kevin (Anderson) and John (O’Hare) and that created an issue. If someone is carrying a leg injury and can’t do kickouts . . . we are no different than a club.
“Ultimately, you pick up injuries. You look at how you can press the kick-outs and if one ’keeper is injured, Marty stands in – things maybe blossomed from that.”
Down have endured a difficult few years and even if they are back in the Tailteann Cup come May, Donnelly insists they will pursue it.
“We really embraced the Tailteann Cup last year and so did Antrim. We went after the Tailteann Cup. Lav has been very strong with the view that most of these lads haven’t won anything with Down.
“Down last won Ulster in 1994, they won the Dr McKenna Cup in 2008 – maybe the McKennas don’t even count that.
“Any silverware at all is going to be huge. I am not trying to be flippant, but even getting to the Tailteann Cup final and the groundswell that created in the county was huge.
“I don’t think it is any coincidence that Down junior ladies went on to win the All-Ireland only a matter of weeks after that.
“People were feeling good about Gaelic games and feeling proud to put on a Down jersey again.
“We want these fellas to be role models. We don’t want Darragh Canavan, Shane McGuigan and Conor McManus to be the role models for lads from Mayobridge, Kilcoo or Carryduff.
“We want it to be Liam Kerr, Daniel Guinness, Pierce Laverty, Danny Magill – they are the lads we want young Down fellas to look up to.”