Massive championship weekend in Down

Read previews of the Down senior football, hurling, Intermediate and junior deciders.

FOOTBALL SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Down senior Football

Championship final

Carryduff v Kilcoo

(Sunday, Pairc Esler, 7pm)

“LET’S go ahead, why not?”

The fighting words of Carryduff goalkeeper Mark Hynes as the Knocbracken Drive men aim to complete their fairy tale season with the perfect conclusion of a first-ever Down Senior title.

Why not? Well the fact that Kilcoo are the opposition would be enough for most, but nobody would have predicted that Carryduff would be the side left standing in the way of Mickey Moran’s men who are aiming to go back-to-back.

“It’s the club’s first senior final. Let’s go ahead, why not? We are going into this with nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said Hynes.

“If you had asked me at the start of lockdown would we be here, I think I would have laughed at you. I think everyone would have.

“But here we are, and it’s an amazing feeling and I promise you that every man will give their all in it.

“The support we have been receiving has been brilliant too and we will aim to do the club proud.”

They’ve already done that, and then some. The ovation from their fans at half-time in last weekend’s semi-final against Ballyholland spoke volumes.

They had torn their opponents apart for the majority of the half and led 1-8 to 0-3 but, amazingly, by full-time they were relieved to see extra-time after a magnificent comeback from the Harps – sparked by the introduction of veteran Ronan Murtagh.

The pendulum swung both ways in those additional 20 minutes, but it was Carryduff who stood tallest at full-time on a 2-13 to 1-15 scoreline, Joe Tunney and Owen McCabe with the goals.

The victory though was only made possible by a superb performance from Hynes who pulled off a number of excellent saves, including one in an incredible few seconds that saw Ballyholland have three great goal chances blocked down.

“It was incredible. I wasn’t even sure what was happening during extra-time,” he said.

“They were getting a handle on midfield. I was kicking it out and the ball was coming back, which was frustrating.

“That triple block, I got the first one, but the other two were down to the defenders. They got their fingertips to the ball and it just showed their determination. They clawed the danger away.”

Now the side are just 60 minutes away from what would be the biggest shock in Down football since Teconnaught’s victory over Burren in 1982. Although, the chasm maybe isn’t as wide as some people may think.

Yes this is uncharted territory and they are going up against last year’s All-Ireland finalists, but they aren’t coming from just anywhere. Last season, the club completed a three in-a-row in the Down U-21 Championship and Hynes was involved in that run of success.

En-route to those titles they played and defeated some of Down’s top teams, and he feels that gives them the confidence that they can compete with the massive name that is Kilcoo.

“Our u-21s have won finals and semi-finals against some of the biggest clubs in Down, so they have been used to playing and winning against them,” he said.

“Even coming through underage, a lot of our players have played with and competed against the top teams. We have never feared these teams because of that.”

Most of the current management team were involved in some – or all – of that u-21 success with DJ Morgan, Paddy Doherty, Danny McConnell and Shane O’Neill all playing key roles. Mark Donnelly is in the senior management team as a new goalkeeper coach, while the addition of Cathal Murray was another boost.

“The lads have been there from our first u-21 win,” Hynes continued.

“Cathal has come in and has done a lot of good work with the forwards.

“The majority of the squad have u-21 titles and that owes a lot to this management.”

For Hynes this run to the final has been particularly enjoyable. Down manager Paddy Tally was in Páirc Esler on Sunday and would have been very impressed. In February Hynes was cut from the Mourne county panel but no doubt the 24-year-old will get the chance to impress in red and black again.

“I got cut in February,” he said. “I loved my time with Down and there were certainly no hard feelings with Paddy and the goalkeeper coach, Joe Cassidy. In fairness I was behind two great keepers in ‘Bubba’ (Rory Burns) and John (O’Hare).

“It was disappointing but you know when you’re not about the matchday squads and things.

“For now it’s Carryduff. We will give it absolutely everything.”

Carryduff. A first Senior Championship final. A first Frank O’Hare Cup – why not?

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com

HURLING SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

By Niall McCoy

Down Senior Hurling Championship final

Ballycran v Portaferry

(Saturday, Ballygalget, 4.30pm)

NOT many teams get the chance to complete the three in-a-row in the Down Senior Hurling Championship these days. Then again, not many teams qualify for a county final on the back of a three-game losing streak.

But in the strangest of seasons, Ballycran have achieved that unusual, and unwanted, feat as they prepare for Saturday’s final against Portaferry.

The four-team group stage provided plenty of drama, and Ballycran’s surprise loss to Bredagh in round six ensured that the race for the final spots went down to the wire. The back-to-back champions edged out Ballygalget for the second of those places thanks to a scoring difference that was nine points better than their rivals.

Veteran defender Paddy Hughes has seen it all during a career that has spanned two decades, but the simple fact remains – three losses or not, his club can complete a treble for only the third time in their history if they can better Portaferry in Ballygalget.

“It’s a great motivation for the players,” Hughes said of the possible three in-a-row.

“If we could do it would be some achievement for this group of players. The teams know each other inside out going into the final because we have played each other that often.

“The first couple of games in the group we won and I don’t know if we took our foot off the gas or what.

“We’re in the final but it won’t be handy to win this game, especially after that losing run.

“We were rock bottom after three defeats in-a-row so the only way is up.

“We have plenty of motivation for the final, we want to prove a point.”

The loss to Bredagh really raised eyebrows across the hurling fraternity in Ulster. It suggests that the gap between the traditional top three in Down and the likes of Bredagh and Liatroim is closing, something that could only help the sport in the county. Hughes agrees with that, although it took a few days to come to that particular realisation.

“Certainly on the Sunday afternoon after the loss it wasn’t great to see, or the Monday after.

“On reflection though it is great to see for Down hurling. It’s great to have another team in the mix.

“They have strong links obviously to ourselves. Big Donal and Cormac and Sean (Hughes brothers) would be first cousins of mine. They have a good pedigree with their father Danny who hurled so well for Ballycran, Down and Ulster.

“They have a lot of good players in that team. They have played well, they got straight into us. We weren’t expecting that because we beat them well in the first game. They turned it around well.”

This will be the eighth final between these two clubs in Hughes’s time with the ‘Cran seniors.

Portaferry have edged the previous seven finals 4-3, but Ballycran have defeated them in the 2018 and ’19 finals.

Portaferry were very impressive in the group stages though and won five of their six games. That run included a 1-18 to 0-13 win in Ballycran although the St Joseph’s club got some degree of revenge with a one-point win at St Patrick’s Park.

Whatever the outcome on Saturday, Hughes knows that this is likely to be one of his last clashes with their rivals, and he is just hoping to soak it all in.

“I came into the senior panel in 2000, I was 15 and I came on in a few games.

“I wasn’t a regular at that stage, but that’s when I started training with them. I was maybe a bit young for that panel, but that’s the way it was done back then.

“It does cross my mind when I’m on the field sometimes. I’m sitting there saying to myself ‘this could be my last game.’

“I’m so fortunate to be play at this stage, but the injuries are starting to mount up. I know I’ll not have too many days left.

“I should be fit for the final, I’m fairly sure. I took a blow the last day against Portaferry and I took a bit longer to recover than I expected. But I’m feeling better.”

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com

FOOTBALL INTERMEDIATE CHAMPIONSHIP

By Niall McCoy

Down Intermediate Football

Championship final

Saul v Drumgath

(Sunday, Páirc Esler, 3pm)

BACK in 1993, Greg McCartan captained Ballymartin to the Down Intermediate title. The mascot that day against Ballyholland was Greg’s younger brother Ronan who this weekend will be aiming for his own bit of glory in the competition.

McCartan is the manager of a Saul side that has made massive strides under his watch, and they will aim to underline that when they face Drumgath in Sunday’s final at Páirc Esler.

Already he earned a big play-off win over Saval last year to preserve their Division Two status, and a win this weekend would be a massive step forward for a club who haven’t been in a championship final since their 1964 Junior Championship success.

McCartan knows how close they are, but he is also wary of a Drumgath team that crushes them when it comes to experience of the latter stages of this championship.

“They are really good goal-getters and they score heavily,” he said of their opponents who have averaged 17.75 points per game on their way to the final.

“They are a very good young team and they are backboned by some brilliant experienced players as well. Mark Connolly has been there, done that.

“They are a team that likes to play good football but they proved in their semi-final that they can play both ways because Annaclone were set up to counter on them.

“They are fit and fast and they also have much more experience at this level than we do. We are still learning on that side of things, but they have played in these sorts of fixtures.”

Saul have taken some big scalps en-route to the final, including last year’s finalists Newry Shamrocks and a heavily-tipped Liatroim with Ruairi O’Hare’s late goal rounding off a fine 5-9 to 0-16 win last weekend.

McCartan feels that the side’s eagerness to learn, along with the confidence that they took from that play-off win over Saval, has been crucial in their development.

“They are a special bunch of boys. They are so good, everything that John (Fegan) or myself ask them to do they just do it.

“They don’t question anything and they are so coachable. They’ve had a focus this year and hopefully they’ll get over the line.

“In that Saval game we were down heavily at half-time and we came back and beat them in extra-time. They’ve had that fight in them that day and they’ve kept that coming through.”

And like before the semi-final, Ronan can expect a text from his big brother. Greg, based now in London, is a keen supporter of his efforts, as are his parents and his wife Tiffany. It would be a nice story to add to that ’93 win, but Saul are coming up against an in-form Drumgath side, so this is sure to be a real battle.

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com

FOOTBALL JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

By Niall McCoy

Down Junior Championship final

St Paul’s v Aughlisnafin

(Friday, Páirc Esler, 7.30pm)

HISTORY will be made one way or another at Páirc Esler on Friday night as St Paul’s and Aughlisnafin are both aiming for their first-ever Down Junior title.

This current St Paul’s team have already written themselves into the record books having reached the club’s first county final in their 41-year existence.

The Holywood side, managed by Peadar Heffron and coached by Paddy Hannigan, have defeated Newry Mitchel’s, Glasdrumman and, last weekend, Drumaness to reach this stage.

The 1-10 to 1-5 win over Drumaness was particularly impressive. They had kept Glasdrumman to 0-1 in the quarter-final, and they managed to keep Drumaness to that tally in the first half of the semi-final. Marty Cox’s palmed finish helped them to 1-5 in reply with Sean Tucker and Niall Grimley also proving accurate.

Drumaness came back strongly in the second period but Tucker kept the scoreboard ticking over while Patrick Eastwood excelled in midfield.

Tom Grimley returns from suspension for the final, and that should give them a much-needed physical boost around the middle while Daire Rooney returned from injury for the match with Drumaness.

Aughlisnafin may also be aiming for their first title but, unfortunately for them, they know all about losing finals having missed out against Bright last season.

Their opponents did claim their first title after a series of final losses, so maybe they can take inspiration from that.

Dolen Croskery is again in charge this season (Conor Rea, Gerard Leneghan and Gerard O’Hare making up his management team) and his side have shown good battling qualities to get to this stage.

They started with an easy win over Ardglass with Shea Croksery starring, while Adam Garland chipped in with 2-3 in their 3-13 to 0-8 win.

The luck of the draw pitted the sides against each other in the quarter-finals again and on that occasion it was much closer with the ‘Fin leading by just two points with four minutes remaining. However Croskery (2), Garland (2) and Oran Flanagan landed the scores to take them into the last four.

There they met Dundrum in a repeat of last year’s semi-final and again they came out on top as they recorded a 1-16 to 1-10 win.

That win owed much to a brilliant last quarter when the introduction of Ruairi Croskery sparked them into life as they outscored their opponents 0-9 to 0-1. Garland again was the goal-scorer.

n.mccoy@gaeliclife.com