GAELIC GAMES: KEITH DUGGANon the enduring legacy of Down's glorious football tradition and why the county may be set to make one of their periodic, swashbuckling raids on the Sam Maguire
IN MAY of 1999, the Down footballers had gathered at St Theresa’s on the Falls Road in Belfast when they were surprised to see a familiar figure making his way towards them.
James McCartan was captain of the county that summer but a serious knee injury not only left him on crutches, it threatened his future as a footballer. Down would play Tyrone in Casement Park a few hours afterwards and McCartan’s absence was bothering everyone as they began kicking the ball around.
Immediately after McCartan’s arrival, the mood lifted and Down, largely regarded as a team in decline, beat Tyrone by 2-14 to 0-15.
“It was a huge lift to see him there,” Michael Magill, corner back on Down’s All-Ireland winning team in 1994, would remember a few days later.
“Everyone had heard the rumours about James’s career being in jeopardy. We were aware of that going into the match so to see him appear was inspirational.
“One minute, you are used to James there as the star forward and captain of the team. Then you hear that he might not play again. James gave a pep talk before the match and then I remember in the second half you would catch him from the corner of your eye trotting up and down the sideline waving these crutches like the Messiah.”
As it turned out, that Tyrone match was something of a last hurrah for Down: they were soundly beaten by 0-10 to 3-12 by Armagh in the Ulster final and, like every other county in Ulster, they were largely eclipsed by the excellence of Armagh and Tyrone over the following decade.
But the episode on the Falls Road underlines just how lengthy McCartan’s service has been to Down football and of how, on any given afternoon, it is a county capable of responding to nothing other than a feeling generated among themselves.
By 1999, McCartan had already given a full decade of service to the county and his scintillating pace and skill was one of the highlights of Down’s ’91 and ’94 teams who, in a tradition loyal to their predecessors, played football with a gloriously attack-minded approach.
Barney Carr, trainer of the Down teams which won the All-Ireland championships of 1960 and 1961, recognised that same trust in craft and ability when he saw Down extend their championship hex over Kerry in Croke Park in early August.
Even though it was against a Kerry team weakened by injuries and suspensions, Down made staggeringly light work of the All-Ireland champions.
Carr watched the match in his house – he was under doctor’s orders to stay off his feet to treat a slight problem in his legs.
“I spent more time on my feet than I would have done in Croke Park. They played like a Down team plays in Croke Park. That was missing for a while there.
“After we beat Tyrone a few years ago (in 2008 following a replay that went to extra-time), they did not go on and do as well as they should have done. But they really got it right against Kerry. It was a decisive victory.”
Carr’s influence on Down football needs no embellishment. The Mourne men hold perhaps the most fascinating football pedigree of any football county. The traditional narrative is that championship tradition is earned through patience and hard slog and repetition but Down alone seem to have produced teams capable of shirking such mortal qualities by just going out and winning the damn thing when they put their minds to it.
It is an illusion, of course. Down’s celebrated 1960s vintage had its origins in the collective frustration that led men like Carr, Maurice Hayes, Brian Denvir and Danny Flynn to form a committee and replace the lackadaisical system which prevailed in the county. The teams they produced may have played with an élan that came naturally to them, but the preparation behind the show was precise.
Down were the first football team to have a dedicated team doctor in Martin Walsh – who was involved with the county until the All-Ireland minor success of 1999. They plotted out a graph of improvement through each season, jumping the gun on themselves in 1960 when they held Offaly to a draw in the semi-final, took stock and went on to win the whole pot.
Carr believes the brand of football Down played evolved instinctively and it may be partially responsible for the way that Down seem to surge to create periodical chapters of glory and then retreat again.
Between the three All-Irelands of 1960, ’61 and ’68 and the stylish raids of 1991 and ’94, Down decorated their cabinet with just three Ulster titles in 1971, ’78 and 1981. It seems odd that a county of Down’s All-Ireland heritage could disappear for such long periods.
“It’s a good question. But I think it comes down to the fact that the talent wasn’t quite there during that period. I wouldn’t blame the people in charge or anything like that. It comes in cycles and that bit of history that we had, even in the 1990s when we won our two titles we were fortunate to a degree with the one against Dublin.
“But that team was playing a very distinctive Down brand which does require a certain calibre of player. I would love to say that the style was my idea but I am not claiming that at all.”
He feels the current team bears some comparison to the Down team of 1968, which was comprised largely of veterans from the back-to-back All-Ireland wins and younger players. He watched Benny Coulter give shimmering displays for Down during many dismal summers and believes that, at his best, the Newry man could have easily graced Down teams in any period.
“Oh, he would. He is a gem. He would have fitted right into our team. But he had to be leader too and he had all that responsibility. It was unfortunate that during his own vintage or halcyon period that there were not more players around him on the team. We were lacking.
“But he would have fitted into Down teams of any era. And I think now his role has changed, there are other leaders and he can concentrate on his game again. The major presence for Down has been Martin Clarke because he has given the team that bit of leadership that we did not have in other years.”
Carr’s nephew, Ross, was in charge of Down when they executed that famous first-round win against Tyrone two years ago. But the team failed to build on it and were watching that September as Tyrone went on to win their third All-Ireland of the decade.
In this year’s Ulster championship, Down came up against Tyrone and once again came up short. That made the quiet progression through the qualifiers and the sacking of Kerry all the more pleasing.
“In Ulster, they went to pieces after being reasonably good in the first half. But that day against Kerry it was real vintage Down. I would say that it is true to Down football because they use space and they have pace. I couldn’t believe the way they managed to get Kerry leaving huge areas of the field exposed and they used it so well.”
That McCartan is at the forefront of the revival is also important. Ross Carr and Paddy O’Rourke had both done their best to kick-start this generation of Down players. Greg Blaney (a cousin of McCartan’s) and DJ Kane were among those who served on backroom teams in this decade.
Just as the 1990s generation of Down players honoured the legacy of the 1960s teams, the family links continue in this team, with McCartan the most obvious example. Carr, of course, trained James senior on the Down teams of the 1960s but also encountered his grandfather.
“There is something to be said for family tradition. The present James’s grandfather in the 1930s was a sterling figure and I only have vague memories of him. Briany McCartan was a leading figure in the Down teams at the time even though Down football during that period didn’t really ever go beyond beating Cavan.
“But he is only a memory to me now. I think I saw him playing once when I was a very small boy. But Briany McCartan had that name about him.
“So tradition in the association is a big thing and it has been very prevalent in our county.”
But tomorrow’s match is curiously free of tradition. This is Kildare and Down’s first meeting in the championship and their last really significant match was in the league final of 1968, which set Down up for their last All-Ireland success of that decade.
Down are just one match away from their sixth All-Ireland final, an arena in which they hold a perfect record. Nobody is claiming that Down are the complete article – Down teams tend to reserve the third Sunday of September to make those statements.
Carr feels that it will take another superb and expansive performance if the county are to reach that stage. But they are in with a shout and presenting the red and black in a way that is recognisable again.
“I think Kildare’s performance against Meath might have been the best display by any Kildare team in the last 15 years. God, Down will need to be at their best. I have no doubt about that.
“Kildare were very impressive. They seem to get the balance right between kicking and short-passing. They play a good style of football and it should be a terrific. But Down have shown now they have that in them.”
The right stuff.
