THE hairs stood on the back of your neck at the thought of it.
Down playing Meath was clash-of-the-Titans stuff and the All-Ireland final of 1991 is one of the best there has ever been.
The action was 100 mile-an-hour from the throw-in. The crowd at fever pitch, Connaire Harrison’s oul boy standing on the Nally Stand roof waving a Down flag and a tricolour, Barry Breen hammering the ball long to James McCartan, Mick Lyons clearing the danger, Meath counterattacking towards the Canal End… And so on and so forth.
It’s no wonder supporters who were brought up on that blood-and-thunder football can’t – and never will – content themselves with today’s possession-first tactics. One day they might decide enough is enough and go elsewhere for their kicks.
I was talking to a loyal veteran this week who’ll be in Omagh to watch Tyrone and Armagh.
“See when they start this passing the ball back and sideways… Jesus, I can’t stand it,” he said.
There are many like him who yearn for the old days before so much of the game’s innate Celtic energy was sucked out of it.
Take that 1991 final for example. Paddy O’Rourke played a ball up to McCartan who came flying out to meet it. Diving, he caught it and today he would shoot his hand up and call for a mark. The game would stop and he’d do his routine and kick the ball over the bar for an easy score.
While we’re on the subject of the mark; it has to be looked at. For evidence of that, look at the opportunity Rory Grugan had to win the Ulster final for Armagh.
A simple crossfield ball to unmarked Grugan who was standing on his own just inside the Derry 45. Meaning no criticism of Grugan, he caught the ball unchallenged, put his hand up and was left with a free shot. To win the Ulster final?! Surely that can’t continue.
The rule was brought in to encourage teams to kick the ball long and of course there is merit in that but the mark isn’t playing the role it was intended to and it is now a cheap route to getting a score and means another stoppage in a game that is increasingly littered with stoppages.
Back to Down versus Meath 32 years ago. O’Rourke kicks, McCartan runs and catches. There was nothing easy then, so he springs to his feet, his marker Brendan Reilly hits him with a couple of right hooks, McCartan shrugs them off and sprints past him. Reilly tries to grab his jersey, McCartan keeps going until Liam Harnon clothes-lines the Down forward as he zeros in on goal.
McCartan, Mickey Linden, Peter Withnell, Greg Blayney… the Down forwards took a battering from the Royal defence that day - it was the same at the other end of the field - and that hot-kitchen furnace brought the best out of them all.
There’s no point in harking back to bygone days too much except to say that the product we had then might not have been as scientific or as clever but it was better to watch and better to play.
NOTHING lasts forever. The game has changed, the contenders have changed and this weekend Down meet Meath again in a game that is a far cry from both counties’ heyday 30-plus years ago.
It’s a Saturday not a Sunday, it’s Parnell Park not Croke Park and it’s the Tailteann Cup, not the Sam Maguire.
Parnell Park at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon has a bit of backwater ring to it - it is what it is. “How the mighty have fallen,” you might observe a little unkindly but you have to be realistic - the Tailteann Cup is the best route for Down and Meath to make steps to recover the ground lost over the last three decades.
Ross Carr was the top-scorer for Down in that All-Ireland final in ’91 and his son, Ross junior, will be involved in this latest instalment.
Of course Ross, like all Down fans, would prefer to see the Mournemen up there competing with the big dogs but Down – like Meath - have been banging their heads off the wall for far too long and Conor Laverty’s team needs a competition that will give them games they have an opportunity to win build for the future.
“You’d be some gobshite not to see how the Tailteann Cup will benefit Down,” said Ross.
“They’ll be playing against teams at their own level – it’s not like the Ulster Championship or the Qualifiers when you could run into a team of a higher standard.
“If Down win four games on-the-trot they’ll have won the Tailteann Cup and they’ll be in the Sam Maguire for next year. They are winnable games and Down would be mad not to grasp this opportunity.”
Absolutely right. It’s not Croke Park on a September Sunday and this meeting no longer gets those hairs standing on the back of your neck but let’s give it five years.
“Aye, if we’re still watching in five years,” you might say with a nod of your head.
You know you will be.
THE toughest sport of them all? Boxing, without question.
In many ways it’s the ultimate sport, in others it’s hardly a sport at all.
I’ve loved boxing since the Barry McGuigan days. That courage to fight anyone, the skill to thrive one-against-one in the hot kitchen, the dedication required to be the best...
I’ve hated it too. Last year I watched Owen Duffy boxing Owen O’Neill in Belfast for the Celtic welterweight title. Duffy was on top for most of the fight but then, in the final round, O’Neill caught him and Duffy dropped in a crumpled heap on the canvas.
As the O’Neill fans went into wild celebrations, Duffy lay unconscious. I felt ashamed to have been a part of the build-up to an event in which he risked his health as he was taken out of the ring on a stretcher. I rang him the following day and, thank God, he was right as rain and he had no issues with what had happened.
“I rang Owen and I said hats off to him and I was happy for him and thanks for a great fight,” said Duffy.
“That’s what you sign up for.”
Fighters love boxing but it doesn’t love them back.
Last Saturday night a South African fighter called Ludomo Lamati boxed on the undercard of Conlan-Lopez at the SSE Arena. He never looked like winning but he hung in there. He was too brave for his own good and, in the 12th round his corner finally threw the towel in to save him from further punishment.
Lamati collapsed exhausted and was taken to hospital seriously ill. A Go Fund Me page has been set up by the Belfast Boxers group to allow his family to travel and be with him. If you’d like to contribute, go to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/boxer-ludumo-lamati
