Morgan Fuels Down SFC semi-final
Burren v Carryduff (Sunday, Pairc Esler, 6pm)
WHISPER it quietly, but there’s a bit of a buzz building about Carryduff.
It’s not just the sweet afterglow from the opening of the club’s third pitch last week, or the exciting development plans afoot for the years ahead.
It’s not even the magnificent steel beacon signalling the long-awaited arrival of the new Lidl - like a discount phoenix rising from the flames of suburban abandon - on a site that has been subject to more speculation than the Derry manager’s job.
No, this particular buzz surrounds what is happening on the pitch rather than off it; the few purple and gold flags that flutter at the turn off to Ivanhoe Avenue a tentative nod to a run that has brought Carryduff to a first Down semi-final in four years.
Standing in their way on Sunday evening are Burren, challengers-in-chief to the Kilcoo crown during their years of domination, yet only managing to rip it from their head once.
That was in 2018, the same year then-Fermanagh captain Eoin Donnelly married wife Claire and relocated to the outskirts of Belfast. When Carryduff reached a first-ever senior county final two years later, losing out to the Magpies at an eerily empty Pairc Esler, Donnelly was still making the three hour round trip back home to Coa.
Eventually, though, something had to give.
After calling time on his county career at the start of 2022, plans were already in place for a switch that would bring an end to those gruelling journeys. Already Donnelly had been around Carryduff club, knew a lot of the other players; it made sense.
Former Orchard player Finnian Moriarty, fresh from leading Maghery to the Armagh title, had taken over the managerial reins as sights were set on stepping through the gears. That’s why, in a strange way, it was both familiar and a world away from what Donnelly was used to.
“When I was playing down in Coa, you’d have been struggling to get training numbers out, you were in the teens and then on matchdays you weren’t filling out the 26 in the squad list. Then when you move up to Carryduff you could have 40 or 50 at training… it’s such a difference,” said the 36-year-old, a physiotherapist based at Lagan Valley hospital in Lisburn.
“But then, you could just think that with numbers you’re going to get success, but most people who are around football know it comes down to a lot more than numbers – there are so many other factors that come into play.
“You need to be getting things right on and off the pitch. It’s easy to say that, but you have to be realistic. It doesn’t come down to who’s got the most players to pick from, it’s who’s doing things right consistently over a period of time.
“I came in just after leaving county football, Finn has come in and there’s a brilliant set-up, so it was seamless going back into that sort of system.
“They’ve upped the ante to try and close the gap to some of the top teams in Down, they’re doing that to some degree but the litmus test is when you come to championship and unfortunately over the last couple of years we’ve been knocked out in the quarter-final.
“There’s been a bit of progression this year, but nobody really remembers who got to the semi-final; they remember who wins it.”
Last year, they had a golden opportunity to lay down a maker but let it slip through their fingers.
Leading Kilcoo by three, 0-4 to 0-1, as a grind of a first half drew to close, Carryduff had control; the Magpies unable to find a way through as a dominant Donnelly set the tone.
But then they lost Cian Clinton to a second yellow on the cusp of half-time, before James Guinness and Donnelly followed suit as Karl Lacey’s men slowly but surely turned the screw.
Going into Sunday’s showdown with Burren, days like those have to be learned from.
“Discipline is the easy thing to say, when you finish with 12 players on the pitch… it’s a hard lesson to take during the winter.
“You take heart from competing well for a half but ultimately it’s a new season, new players and things change.
“You can’t take too much from it, it was a low-scoring affair, most games in Down are in the first half so who’s to say that, if we still had 15 on the pitch, it wasn’t going to open up a bit more in the second half anyway?
“Kilcoo have shown for the last decade why they’re the top team - they’re not just going and winning a county championship either, they’re winning Ulsters and All-Irelands, so that’s the bar everybody else has to try and reach.”
