An hour or so after Down’s All-Ireland football final defeat to Cork in 2010, James McCartan sat among reporters and spoke positively about the future of his team.
“We got beaten in an All-Ireland final, we’re not happy with it, but the thing I would like to see is that we wouldn’t be one-year wonders,” said McCartan. “We’ll try to ensure we’re not. We think we have a squad that can compete year-in, year-out.”
Danny Hughes, an All-Star for Down at the end of that remarkable season which saw them ultimately come up a point short in the decider, spoke in similar terms.
“None of us want to be one-hit wonders,” said Hughes, who, seven years on, has acknowledged that those worst fears have come to pass and that the county’s form has ‘fallen off a cliff’ since.
Down face Cork again on Sunday in the final round of Division Two games in the Allianz League and while the Rebels’ decline since 2010 has been a gradual one, Down’s has been more obvious and alarming.
They did return to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2012 but were heavily beaten and have bowed out of the Championship at the first or second round of qualifiers in each of the years since.
Both counties were relegated together from Division One last year and consecutive relegations for Down will be confirmed on Sunday if they lose to the Rebels.
“Cork have been going consistently downhill since 2010 but it’s more like we’ve fallen off a cliff in Down,” said Hughes. “It’s sad, very sad to see. Nothing would thrill me more than to see us back at the top table and playing Division One football and really competing in the Championship but the reality is we’re a bit off that. It’s going to take time, maybe a generation or two even.
Bottom two
“I would say, hand on heart, we’re probably Division Three standard right now, that’s probably our level and it would be a battle in that division too. Look at Armagh, they haven’t had it all their own way down there.
“I don’t think it would be a complete disaster for Down to play there next year. We actually probably need to go into Division Three to enable the boys coming in to get a bit of experience and for us to rebuild.”
Hughes is talking the language of defeat before their rivalry with Cork has even been renewed this weekend but simply can’t see them winning away from home and escaping the bottom two.
“There’s always a chance but do I see Down winning? No,” he said. “Cork will be looking to get ready for the Munster championship and I would think they’ll be looking to send out a statement that Munster means something to them.
“ People have said there’s nothing really for Cork to play for, that they’re not going to get promoted or get relegated. I think it could go the other way, I think they could view this game as a last chance to lay down a championship marker.”
Cork have consistently had Down’s number in the league too, administering some serious springtime beatings to the Mourne men since winning that 2010 final narrowly.
Perhaps that’s because the Cork players privately felt they didn’t get the credit they deserved for winning the 2010 final, coming as they did with a late burst for the winning line that edged a one-point match.
“I remember the following year, 2011, they gave us a trouncing in the championship and beat us pretty heavily in the league too,” said Hughes.
“They just seem to have had that hoodoo over us. The All-Ireland win probably made them think that they could beat us over and over again and that’s pretty much how it’s been.”
That Cork side, which won a three-in-a-row of league titles between 2010 and 2012, are often accused of having underachieved in championship terms though, in Down’s case, there are mitigating circumstances for their decline.
Their four All-Stars from 2010 – Hughes, Brendan McVeigh, Benny Coulter and Marty Clarke – had all retired, or in the case of Clarke, returned to Aussie Rules, by the end of 2014. Others have made themselves unavailable in more recent years and a county perhaps punching above its weight in 2010 has found itself struggling on the ropes.
“For different reasons guys left, boys decided they weren’t getting enough game time and left,” said Hughes.
“Marty’s case was obviously a bit different but he went too and there wasn’t too much depth at the end of the squad, or the experience, to cope with that. So all of that made life a lot harder and we are where we are now. I don’t see any quick fix for it, to be honest.”
