GAA:THERE IS more at stake for Down football this weekend than just a place in the Allianz Football League final. If they can beat Kerry in Killarney on Sunday, and Cork lose to Armagh, they'll join Dublin in the Division One final, but in the meantime there's an All-Ireland at stake for St Colman's of Newry.
They face fellow schools’ stalwarts St Jarlath’s of Tuam in tomorrow’s All-Ireland Colleges final at Croke Park, and victory for the Down school would put the county’s future on an even stronger footing. They’ll start as defending champions, as favourites, with the brilliantly-talented Caolan Mooney certain to front their scoring charge.
Unfortunately for Down, Mooney is bound for Australia later this year, and a professional contract with Collingwood – although like the similarly talented Marty Clarke it may not prove a long-term move. Down forward Mark Poland, who only returned to the senior set-up last year after a couple of years’ break, believes the county has a bright future, but they’ll need to win some silverware soon to prove it.
“I believe the quality is there,” says Poland, “and hopefully there will be more quality coming through, and that we are here to stay. You play to win medals. Last year Down played in two finals, got beat in both.
“Go through my own career – I have lost an All-Ireland under-21 final, I’ve lost an All-Ireland senior final. If things had gone differently I could be sitting here with the two medals that anyone would die for. It is great playing for your county but you do want to win things and hopefully this group of players can achieve success in the near future.
“But the likes of last Saturday night, against Dublin, is what you play football for. Croke Park, I never dreamt it would be the experience it was, even the atmosphere when the stadium is half full. But I would like to think with the work going in on the training field and throughout the county Down will be hopefully here to stay. Because there are 30 boys that go to training every week and it’s hell for leather and that’s hopefully how it will remain.”
Their defeat to Dublin – after conceding a late goal to Alan Brogan – capped off a frustrating evening, with several players describing Dublin’s defence as a “wall”: “It was strange and it was tough,” agreed Poland. “You hear sometimes in Ulster about blanket defence, but it was actually a very strange game to play in because they were more or less zone-marking, and you never had a man following you. They got the result and . . . winning is all that counts. Hopefully if we ever come up against it again we will have a way of counteracting it.”
As for Sunday’s game against Kerry, Poland isn’t looking beyond it – nor indeed reading too far into it. Any talk of a rematch of last summer’s All-Ireland quarter-finals, which Down won 1-16 to 1-10, (and Poland scored 1-2), is quickly dismissed as distant past. It’s the future that matters – starting with this last chance to make the league final.
“Things may be out of our hands in a way, but we’re going down to Killarney knowing we are free from relegation and hopefully we can express ourselves and if a result comes it comes and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
“But this team doesn’t have a great record against Kerry. The county maybe do. We played Kerry once last year and we beat them but they were missing players. We would rather play Kerry 30, 40 times in the championship and have won 20 and got beat 20. But Down have only been in six All-Ireland finals. We are looking to get back there again and to win one but it would be great if Down were competing at that level constantly every year.
“Because that is hopefully where Down will be in the years coming, competing against the likes of Kerry, Cork, Tyrone and Dublin in the latter stages of the championship. It’s going to be a massive test going down to Killarney on Sunday but it’s something we are really looking forward to.”
