By Shaun Casey

A huge home crowd in Newry with the Leinster champions coming to town, excitement is certainly at fever pitch ahead of Down’s round two clash with Louth and Kevin McKernan can understand why.

The former Down defender, now coaching Dundalk Gaels in the Wee County, has a firm grasp of the feel-good factor currently surrounding both counties.

Conor Laverty’s side head into the game off a comfortable first round victory away to Clare while Louth are eyeing up their first win of the competition having lost out to Monaghan by six-points last weekend.

“I think when you saw the excitement of Louth getting over the line in Leinster, it was always going to be hard for them to hit the ground running again so for Louth coming to Newry, it’s a big game for them,” McKernan told the Gaelic Lives podcast.

“For Down to go to Clare, they maybe caught Clare on the hop a wee bit and they weren’t going down there expecting to win as easily as they did and the performance that day was very impressive.

“This Saturday night in Newry, I suppose it’s something that Down people have been looking for over the past few years with this young team developing well and the Tailteann Cup run rewarded all the effort that has been put in under the new setup with Conor Laverty.

“I think the stand in Newry is sold out already and it’s verging on a full house if the excitement continues to build. To think that Down could win back-to-back games and give themselves an opportunity to reach an All-Ireland quarter-final, it’s very exciting.”

Down were in remarkable form against the Banner County and racked up a 3-27 and their scoring power has been something that has stood to them all season long, despite their relegation from Division Two.

“They seem to have a bounce in their step and having seen the highlights of the game down in Clare, they just look so dynamic and so pacey and the potential for two-pointers is something that teams are really going after.

“I think between Danny Magill and Pat Havern, Down have a couple of good strikers there and a few other options like Daniel Guinness and Odhran Murdock so there’s a lot of excitement around Down.

“Ciaran Meenagh is in there with Conor Laverty, and they have an impressive backroom team of coaches that have been around, and the two-point score is a big reward for having kickers that can do that, but you have to have the ball in the right part of the pitch.

“You can see that with Louth as well, Sam Mulroy, Ryan Burns, they have players that are capable of scoring from dead balls and from play and I think Louth will go after the two-pointers because they’ve been relying heavily on goals in their last two games.”

Stopping Mulroy is easier said than done but Down will hope to nail down Louth’s marquee forward’s influence on the game. Pierce Laverty is the usual go-to man-marker, but McKernan believes Down can’t get caught up in just stopping Mulroy

“At the Down and Donegal game, the match ups were very fluid, you couldn’t really pinpoint who was on who. For Louth, if you put your eggs all in the one basket of stopping Mulroy, it’ll leave the likes of Ryan Burns in pockets of space where he can hurt Down.

“I think there might be one or two man-marking duties, but you can see more from teams now that they’re going very zonal and whatever defender is within touching distance of Mulroy at a certain time might be told to tag him.”

While the ins and outs of all the on-field action will raise plenty of debate, there’s also the interesting subplot of Down legend James McCartan and his involvement as a coach in the Louth management team.

McCartan won two All-Ireland’s in the red and black and guided Down to their most recent All-Ireland appearance in 2010. More recently, he held the bainisteoir bib for a single season in 2022 before Laverty took over.

“It’ll be a strange one for James, it won’t be one that he’d have everhavef dreamt of I’d say when he went to Louth,” added McKernan, a Burren clubmate of McCartan. “He’ll have a job to do with Louth, informing them of all Down’s strengths and weaknesses.

“He’ll know a lot of those Burren and Kilcoo players, he’d know Pat Havern well too. In this day and age, when you see the footage that is there, any man can pick teams apart but James will be able to give his tuppence worth but I don’t think it’ll be a nice experience for James, but the Down people won’t be too worried as long as they get the two-points!”

Check out this week’s Gaelic Lives podcast with Seanie Johnston and Kevin McKernan looking ahead to the weekend of All-Ireland SFC action.