THE MIDDLE THIRD:Although knowing they can win will inspire Down, Cork should find the form they know is within them to take the ultimate prize
THIS IS a great All-Ireland final to be looking forward to. There are so many permutations on the pitch and so many games to be played in fellas’ heads off the pitch.
Cork should win.
Down can win.
Knowing they should win could cripple Cork. Knowing they can win will inspire Down.
It’s great for football to have Down come out of the undergrowth in the way they have. They always bring some dash and colour when they come out on these guerrilla raids on the All-Ireland title.
Even now with them in an All-Ireland a lot of people would struggle to name 10 of the current Down team, whereas Cork have household names on the pitch and on the bench.
Down won’t care, though. They have a lot going for them. This summer, for instance, they have lost Ambrose Rogers, but found Kalum King, who has impressed me hugely. He has been a massive influence in his first season.
He knows his limitations, that he is not Mick O’Connell. He knows where he can be most effective. When to hold and when to fold. He plays accordingly.
When you hear he used to be a cage fighter you wonder what that must have been like. He’s fearsome enough to handle on the few acres of Croke Park. Being locked in a cage with him where he might get a hold of you?
Throw in a sub there quick, the hamstring is gone . . .
On top of that, Down have a manager who is smart and relaxed and has been around the block a few times in recent memory. They have a game plan and in Marty Clarke and Benny Coulter they have two of the players of the year.
The attitude in Kerry towards Down says a lot about the sort of place Down is. Sure there is the feeling in Kerry they never met us when we were strong.
Beyond that little gripe, though, there is a very evident mutual respect. Down just regard themselves as equals.
The green and gold isn’t worth a four-point lead to us in terms of any Down team being spooked by it. In fact, whatever it is about the red jerseys and black shorts, even small handy fellas tog out big when they play. I played for Munster against James McCartan a couple of times. He looked a lot smaller on those days than he did when he played for Down in the red and black.
That confidence they have in themselves, wherever it comes from, means they are hardly likely to let a lead slip in the way Dublin did in the All-Ireland semi-final.
They have an incredible belief in their own powers and why not?
They talk the talk, but they walk the walk as well. If they get off to a good start on Sunday they will cause trouble.
People ask what is this Down arrogance all about. On Monday night I was up at Newstalk radio in Dublin for a do. I was standing talking to Bernard Flynn and Johnny Giles was there. Conor Deegan, the great Down full back came into the room, walked straight over to us and somehow turned his back on poor Johnny.
I said to him if anybody else asked me about Down’s arrogance I would give the example of being able to walk straight into a room and turn your back automatically on one of the greatest footballers ever to play for Ireland!
Conor got a good kick out of it, but even just talking to him in a casual situation I could tell he believes without doubt Down will win. One hundred per cent.
I know a lot of the fellas from the golden years in Kerry and they had massive self-belief, but they knew the days they were in trouble.
Even those fellas would have trouble with Down’s self-confidence.
It’s like the old joke. A Down footballer with an inferiority complex is a fella who thinks he’s only as good as anybody else.
If they are to win on Sunday they will have to keep going through it all, though. They will need at least 12 players playing well and they are going to have to increase the dosage from time to time.
When they have to turn up the pressure, will they be able?
Have they the extra strength on the bench?
Cork have quality across the board. Their challenge on Sunday is to get the ball to their inside forwards quicker than they have been doing. I have huge time for Colm O’Neill as an inside forward.
He got 1-1 in the All-Ireland final in the first 10 minutes, but what I remember most is the Cork-Kerry game last summer we had a drawn game and he took the ball 50 yards out and it was only taking off as it was going over the bar.
If Sheehan and Goulding are doing well in there and the ball comes in early they can rattle Down.
Cork have lost a few finals, but I think they have winners in their team, guys with the experience to nail this one down.
From a Down point of view, Benny Coulter and Marty Clarke have huge responsibility.
If they can pull it off, well and good. If not, experience will go against them.
Experience makes such a difference. In the last few years, for instance, I found it was harder to get into games early.
Last year’s final took off like an express train. It was hot and heavy out there and hard to get under the skin of the game.
I knew, though, that if I didn’t chase it, if I stayed fresh, the game would come to me – that I would have a part to play later.
I don’t know if I did or not – it’s for others to judge – but you have to believe your time will come to make a difference.
And if it doesn’t come to you, well, then you have to take the hit and make sure it comes to somebody else in the same colour jersey.
Whatever is happening in a final, you have to figure out a way to play it to your advantage. Sometimes that involves more than just bursting blood vessels chasing the ball. It means figuring out what is happening around you and working with it.
If Conor Counihan realises early on what Down’s strengths are he will have to throw everything into snuffing them out.
On the face of it, Down like to leave just four forwards up and use the space which that creates for Marty Clarke to fire good ball in to. So the match-ups will be important, but Cork will have to take Down on aggressively in midfield and make sure most of the ball that gets brought out of the middle third is going in the direction of their own inside line.
The one place Down have done well every time I have seen them this year is in the middle.
Cork have to take them on in their strongest area and decimate them there. I think they have the players to do that. If they do, the other stuff will happen easier.
The challenge is getting it out of themselves. Last year they were superb and for periods of the final they played some of the best football of the year.
This year they have struggled with being favourites.
If they don’t win, it will be Nicolas Murphy’s fourth final to lose. That thought should give a fella like Nicholas the mental toughness to produce the goods on Sunday.
It’s the same with Graham Canty. He hasn’t enjoyed a good year, but he will want this more than anybody. He will burst a gut to get right to be on the pitch and he will do the same again when he gets out there.
After that, it’s about how the others cope with the pressure. In 2007 when we played Cork in the final there was massive pressure on us to beat them. It was the first All-Ireland final against each other. The feeling in Kerry was if Cork beat us they would have revised the entire history of Cork and Kerry in one afternoon.
They would have cancelled out all their bad days. It put us under huge pressure and only for the Gooch having the day he did we might have struggled.
We won well enough, but people forget how hard it was for long periods and how tense we were. We got a goal right after half-time which made a big difference to both teams.
You can’t legislate for or predict something like that in terms of Sunday. One setback or freak thing can turn a game, but in the big, open expanses of Croke Park with the footballers they have, Cork can do it.
They have so many players who can be the trump card.
Down have Coulter, Clarke, Danny Hughes, Kalum King, but not a lot more in terms of marquee names.
The dressingrooms will be different and the mood will reflect the way each county is. Cork’s will not be a place for banging tables.
Everybody will be told what their job is, they will nail down their concentration and their intensity and try to stay calm.
At the other end of the corridor, Down will rely a bit on the pride and the tradition that they have. They will milk that.
They have a little naivete about them, but it’s also a nervous energy which if you can tap into it right can make them more than the sum of their parts.
If Down harness that properly it will give them an extra few yards all over the pitch.
Cork know what they have to do, though. They have to atone for the games they have left behind and they have to find the form that they know is within them.
If they do, the sheer relief will make it the sweetest of All-Ireland wins.
