DOWN manager Conor Laverty has spoken of a culture of accepting defeat and ‘players not conducting themselves the best off the field’ that had to be addressed when he took over.
The Kilcoo man has enjoyed a productive two-season stint in charge so far, leading his county to back-to-back Tailteann Cup final appearances.
From the low of Down failing to win any of their 11 competitive games in 2022, they have won 26 of their 36 matches so far in all competitions under Laverty, an enviable 72 per cent win rate across 2023 and 2024 so far.
They did compete in Division Two during that difficult 2022 season, when James McCartan managed them, apparently in the absence of any other takers for the job.
But Laverty’s record across two Division Three campaigns, yielding promotion back to Division Two earlier this year, and their 12 wins from 16 Championship games still represents considerable progress.
If they beat Laois in Saturday’s Croke Park final they will earn a free pass to the All-Ireland SFC in 2025.
“I think a culture had crept in, that losing was acceptable, players not conducting themselves the best off the field, issues around their lifestyle,” said Laverty of Down pre-2023.
“I don’t think it was down to management as much as what people made it out to be. James was with Down when we were in Division One for four or five seasons and he had taken them to an All-Ireland final. I think players just got into a mindset where football wasn’t first for them in their lives.
“Winning didn’t mean as much to them. They got to a stage where they were accepting the level they were at and they were comfortable in that.
“The key to it was a culture change and demanding certain standards, pushing them hard and pushing them to places where they would come out of that comfort zone. And that wasn’t easy. We lost lads who wouldn’t commit and who could not get to the required level.
“I think this bunch of players have thrived off that, they’ve excelled at being driven, at having standards demanded of them, not going through the motions in training, but that high standards are expected.
“That has brought them to a different level. They take a lot of ownership now and would lead it. A lot of the heavy lifting from the management side of things has been done, this is very much a player-driven group now and that is great to see.”
Down are strong favourites to overcome Justin McNulty’s Laois at Croke Park, partly because of their improvement under Laverty, but also as a result of putting 8-16 beyond Laois in last year’s semi-finals.
Laverty described that as a ‘freak’ result and pointed to the defensive strength of Laois this season under McNulty.
But the former Down attacker acknowledged that he possesses a particularly strong Mourne County panel with Liam Kerr, who scored 3-2 against Laois last year, among those pushing hard for a starting spot.
“I would say the competition for places is as strong as it has been in the 18 months, two seasons that I have been involved,” said Laverty. “Our last game against Sligo was probably the strongest panel we have named, our strongest 26 in all that time.”
One player who will miss out is Oisin Savage. The Loughinisland attacker suffered a jaw injury in a collision with Sligo’s Nathan Mullen in the semi-final win, earning Mullen a straight red card.
“He’s well shook up now, so he is,” said Laverty of Savage. “His jaw is still quite swollen, he got the operation on his jaw the Wednesday or Thursday after the game. It was broken down low so he needed to get a plate in it and it is still quite swollen.
“He seems to be in good spirits and I will say both Tony McEntee (Sligo manager) and Nathan Mullen both reached out to the Down management, and Nathan actually reached out to Oisin himself and that was a very nice thing to do.
“It was probably just one of those challenges where the ball was there, I didn’t think there was any malice in it. A lot of people made it out to be a bit worse than what it was.”
