By Shaun Casey

ALL-IRELAND Minor finals aren’t held in Croke Park anymore. Youngsters don’t get to experience the thrill of running onto that hollowed turf in front of a big audience to showcase their footballing skills.

Marty Clarke was lucky. In 2005, he lined out on Jones’ Road twice. An Ulster final and an All-Ireland final. He also played in the 2004 provincial decider at HQ as well. That’s three Croke Park run outs before his 18th birthday.

Some players can go through their entire career and not be as lucky. But Clarke’s Mourne men came through at just the right time and when the Ulster finals were moved to Croke Park, the minor showpieces followed.

“For a 16-year-old lad to have the opportunity to play in Croke Park, I remember that first game so well,” said Clarke, reflecting on their Ulster final clash with Tyrone, a curtain-raiser for the 2004 senior finale between Armagh and Donegal.

“We got back there in 2005 and although we didn’t get the win from those two games, by the time the third on came around, we were ready. It’s such a unique venue, especially as a young player, with even the depth perception of the stadium in behind you and the surface

“It was an incredible opportunity and something I was really grateful for because it was fortuitous. It was brilliant and those were brilliant times, those days in Croke Park, and that was a massive thing for my career, to be able to play in Croke Park as a minor.”

Playing in Croke Park is one thing, but winning there is another. Clarke’s first two attempts failed, drawing against Tyrone in ’04 while Armagh came out on top in 2005 Ulster final, but Down made it back to the big time.

The All-Ireland final proved a case of third time lucky. When Down faced off against Mayo, there was only going to be one winner.

“From memory, the battles with Tyrone in ’04, they were pretty big,” said Clarke, currently part of Conor Laverty’s Down coaching team.

“We were clearly the two best teams in Ireland that year. We lost to the in the replay in Ulster and then again in the All-Ireland semi-final in Casement Park so when 2005 came round, Armagh got the better of us then in a close game in the Ulster final.

“But by the time we got to the All-Ireland final, we were extra motivated that we weren’t going to lose three in a row in Croke Park.”

And they were head and shoulders above their Western opponents. The game was over long before the final whistle sounded and Clarke, along with the rest of his crew in red and black, got to savour the last few minutes.

“Because of the nature of the final and the way the game went, we had built up quite a big lead,” Clarke added. “After about 45 minutes or so, when the crowd was filling up for the senior game, we knew that Mayo weren’t coming back into it.

“We had introduced a few subs onto the field that were scoring, and it just had that feeling, which is quite a rare feeling in a final, where you knew it was done.

“Back in the old rules, when you were 10 or 11 points up, there was no coming back.

“It was one of those special game that you were able to absorb everything and realise you were going to win it before the final whistle. I remember being able to enjoy the last ten minutes, knowing that we were going to win it.

“That was special, but I suppose it took away that edge of the final whistle when you’re finally getting over the line in a real tight game. I do remember knowing that we’d won it and it was nice.”

Mark Turley was the man leading the ship and his “old school” style left a memorable mark on the group. The management team were key driving forces behind the success, and as Clarke recalls, a quarter-final win over Galway turned everything around.

“Mark was a real steady figure, an old school manager in that he had really good discipline but he allowed our team, which was full of talent, to go and express themselves. We had John Morgan as well as one of the coaches and he was very innovative.

“We did a lot of our training in Dundrum, which was his local club, Paul McComiskey’s club as well and we trained at the Natural Park in Murlough. We had Dessie Kennedy and Mark McGarry so there was a good balance to the management group.

“There was a really strong connection between the management group and the playing group. Because we were young players, there was a real father figure in Mark Turley and all of that management team.

“They let us go out and express ourselves which, looking back, was very, very important. It helped the squad to grow as a group, and I think the big turning point for that group was a game against Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

“Galway were stacked with quality and they had won Connacht. The game was played in Leitrim, and I think they went four or five up, but we managed to come back in a real ding-dong battle and beat them in a real high-quality game.

“I felt after that, we looked around and we knew we were going to win the All-Ireland. We disposed of Offaly and Mayo then fairly easily. That was the big game for us, after losing the Ulster final, to beat the Connacht champions was the real turning point in the season.”

From the steps of the Hogan Stand, back to the Mourne County, the highlight of Down’s achievement was back home. Back where it had all begun. Back at An Riocht.

Having watched his brother John win an All-Ireland Minor title in 1999, Clarke was bringing another winning medal home to the club.

“It was really special coming back to the home club on the Monday. James Colgan was the captain and An Riocht had a good representation and that was the final stop on the journey with the cup late on the Monday night.

“I remember it well, we were in the big hall at An Riocht where a lot of us would have trained as u-8s and u-10s and to bring back an All-Ireland trophy to there was a nice moment at the end of the homecoming.

“Meeting the people that had trained us coming through, that was all part of it. I went to the home house after that, and I slept pretty well because we had stayed in Dublin on the Sunday night, so it was brilliant go back to your home club at the end of it all.

“It was a great feeling because my brother had won an All-Ireland with Down minors in 1999, so I always knew the magnitude of it, and it was something that I really wanted to do. We would have felt that we had an even better team in 2004 in terms of the quality.

“But the 2005 team just had a real togetherness and an ability to do the right thing on the field and it was maybe a more balanced squad. I had two really brilliant years playing for the Down minors and I really loved that time of my life.”

Five years later, five of that team lined out for James McCartan’s seniors in the All-Ireland final. Clarke, Conor Garvey, Peter Fitzpatrick, Paul McComiskey and Kevin McKernan all graduated to starters on the biggest day of all.

“It gives you that confidence. It’s massive for the players that when you’re joining the squad as an All-Ireland Minor winner, those existing players on the senior panel, they get a boost from it as well.

“It really is a big thing. I didn’t actually know that there were so many of us that started that 2010 final, that’s an interesting statistic. That’s a third of the team in five years so that’s really interesting.”

Unfortunately for that five and the rest of the Mourne County, Cork shaded the showdown by the minimum of margins to collect Sam Maguire. But 20 years on from that All-Ireland win, that team has plenty of happy memories to look back on.