Downings claim an historic first

By Michael McMullan

THREE days after playing a central role in Downings lifting a first ever Ulster title and Julie Trearty is still showing the signs of battle.

There is the elation and a level of immense satisfaction but her walking is still laboured.

Like the rest of her team, she poured everything into 80 historic minutes. Cramp in both calves was telling her to stop but she ploughed on.

After surrendering a five-point lead in normal time, Shannon McGroddy’s point was all they had to show for a wind assisted first half of extra-time.

Warrenpoint voices were heard expressing all they needed was two points with the wind at their backs. They didn’t come. Downings dug in. They weren’t going home without the cup.

“We took our bodies to a place they’ve never gone before,” Trearty said. “I’ve never had such a hard game, physically. I can barely walk still and it’s now Tuesday.

“In the first half of extra-time, I got two severe cramps in both my calves and I never had cramp in my life.”

The rest of her team are still in bits but it was worth it. In those precious minutes after the final whistle, she can still see the entire parish converge to embrace them.

“You’re just meeting everyone, people you haven’t seen in ages and everyone was congratulating you. It was just so surreal,” she said.

All the hours of graft were worth it. They’d rehearsed for tight games, working the ball over and back until they found an opening. They knew how to aggressively press up on teams when that was needed too.

“We all sat together on Sunday and we watched it again, and I’d say a few of us have watched it a few times since,” Trearty said of Saturday’s final.

There is also a deep respect for Warrenpoint. Trearty found herself almost apologising for winning and recognising the level of disappointment on the other side of a result.

“I’ve never played a game like it,” she said.

If a Downings leg had been hanging off, they’d have demanded it to be taped up. Nobody wanted to come off.

In those moments of reflection before extra-time they didn’t know where they’d find anything to go another 20 minutes.

“The amount of work that went on in extra-time, the runs, the defending, I don’t know how the girls did it,” Trearty said.

“We worked so hard for each other and every single one of our girls left everything out on that pitch.”

Another factor was the nerves going into the semi-final with Eoghan Rua on home soil. They can’t put their finger on why. The final was different. There was a more relaxed group in the bus with the tunes pumping. They were ready.

“After you win something with a team like a county championship you do share a bond,” Trearty offered.

The dynamic changes. Looking around the bus, she could tell the group were perfectly pitched.

“I said to the person beside me, I’d only ever had this feeling once before, where I looked around a bus and trusted every single person,” she said.

“The only other time I ever felt that was in college when we won the All-Ireland two years ago.

“I had a similar feeling. I couldn’t see where we were going to slip up.”

When the game was in the melting pot, she remembers the referee saying there were only 48 seconds left and Downings were a point up. It seemed like an age.

“I’m like, ‘oh, God, please don’t let this go now,’” she recalls. “We’re the first Donegal team to have won this, we’re the first Downings team to bring home an Ulster title.

“There were only five or six players in the whole parish that had Ulster titles to their name.

“Now, in the space of a weekend, we have 30, nearly 40 who now have an Ulster medal.”

There is the joy of that but also a satisfaction of delivering for their supporters, their families and everyone who played any part in making history.

“Some of the spectators have been watching the football for a long time, but they’ve never watched a game like that,” she added.

“It might not have been an easy watch but they said it was the most entertaining game they’ve watched, possibly ever, that’s just so good to hear.”

There is an All-Ireland series to get the teeth into but there is the hope the Ulster success will filter into next season and bring a few more fans through the gates for their early Sunday morning league games.

Success breeds success. At half-time on Saturday the club’s u-12 team were in action.

The following morning some of them were on the u-13 team who won their championship.

As they ate and mingled with the seniors in the Beach Hotel, the penny dropped. Role models are so important. The young girls looked up to the seniors who were fully aware of the production line below them.

They know they have girls looking for their jerseys in a few years. Not just yet.