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Both managers look to future and real battles to be fought

DURING STEVIE McDonnell’s victory speech in the Hogan Stand the Cork footballers tip-toed through the celebrating Armagh players…

GAVIN CUMMISKEY at Croke Park
Mon Apr 26 2010 - 01:00

DURING STEVIE McDonnell’s victory speech in the Hogan Stand the Cork footballers tip-toed through the celebrating Armagh players and on to the pitch for their warm-up.

It put what we had just witnessed in context. Two of Ulster’s great footballing powers, one more recent than the other, had just played out a Division Two final that everyone conceded will have little relevance even if Down and Armagh meet in the Ulster final. That is, except for one point made by Down manager James McCartan as the provincial brawls loom on the horizon.

“Some of our guys were getting the personal attention they are going to get in the Ulster championship. They are going have to get used to it. They didn’t like it today, some of them, but if we are going to survive at this level and hope to be back here we are going have to figure ways out to get over that.”

Down have five or six talented attackers, particularly the long serving Benny Coulter and the prodigal Marty Clarke, but the rigidity of Armagh’s defensive structure had them in a vice.

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“They set up a defensive system very similar to the one that I recognised and they were quite honest,” continued McCartan. “We didn’t move the ball quickly enough to break it down or break the line. We knew what we wanted to do. We just seemed to end up playing back and forth, lateral balls and that makes it easy for them to get numbers back. It gives them time.”

For Armagh manager Paddy O’Rourke it was a strange experience to be celebrating winning silverware at the expense of his beloved Down.

“I would always have mixed emotions when Down are the opposition. I didn’t get any pleasure in going into the Down dressingroom and seeing young fellas I have managed at under-21 and senior level and it doesn’t do me any good to go in and see them with their heads down.

“As I said to them, today wasn’t really about a Division Two title, it was about two teams getting ready for the championship.”

Much ado about nothing really, besides the straight red card Down corner back Daniel McCartan received.

The linesman saw it, making the interpretation by referee Gearóid Ó Conamha crucial to McCartan’s championship availability.