| McCartan
profile - 14/12/03
By Terry McLaughlin
THERE are players who help contribute
towards making headlines.
Then there those special kind of players who always seem
to have the headlines tailor-made to suit their special
brand of football magic. Down’s James McCartan comes into
that second category.
The latest wrangle involving the double All Ireland medal
and All Star and an alleged assault on Westmeath’s Ken Larkin
however has made all the wrong headlines for all the wrong
reasons. It has put on the line the career of the 32-year-old
McCartan.
The circumstances surrounding the attempt by three members
of the Garda to try and invite the Down player to answer
questions inside Croke Park have elements of the bizarre
and grotesque and unbelievable tagged on. The effect however
of the Garda action has been to galvanise support in Down
and across Ulster for a player who, more than any other
in recent football history, characterises the swagger and
the pride and the unquenchable self-belief that comes from
a unique football dynasty.
When that dynasty has been linked to, or been part of every
one of Down’s five All Ireland titles at senior level, its
not hard to understand the perspective on the Larkin affair
as viewed through Northern eyes. Quite simply that view
is that there is an anti-Ulster bias within certain circles
of the Croke Park. It has been reinforced by the treatment
of James McCartan.
The facts speak for themselves. Somebody with a vested interest
set up the Down player. Somebody whispered time and date
and venue to the Garda. Somebody wanted to make it impossible
for McCartan to get a full disciplinary hearing without
being tainted by the spectre of a formal Garda caution and
statement hanging in the background.
The sense of victimisation, of being treated differently
will be dismissed as being hysterical and irrational and
without validity by many outside Ulster.
But that such views are so firmly held within the Province
should in itself give cause for reflection and concern in
Croke Park.
For the reality of what happened inside the corridors of
Croke Park is that James McCartan has become the equivalent
of Gaelic football’s On The Runs. If he steps over the border,
an entity that the GAA in theory does not recognise, McCartan
faces the prospect of being arrested for an alleged and
unproven offence on a football field.
He is one of those rare players who has invariably been
the headline during a career that has been as chequered
with controversy as it has been coloured with sheer class.
Over the years a number of coaches and managers have been
able to help polish and hone the skills generated by a Gaelic
genetic pool that stretches back to his Grandfather, Briney
McCartan, the first member of the family to play for the
county.
None however, including Peter McGrath, the man who helped
nurture McCartan through school and Minor and Senior career,
were able to improve on the core element of total class
that emanated from every fibre of a football genius.
His father, James, and Uncle Dan were all Ireland medal
winners as was his cousin, Greg Blaney.
Later James McCartan senior would become manager of Down.
All the McCartan siblings of the current generation have
played for Down. Brian was alongside Wee James when both
won All Ireland Minor medals in 1987. Charlie Pat and Daniel
have played alongside him in the Senior team. The youngest
member of the McCartan clan, Eoin has come through to the
Under 21 Down ranks this season.
But it is the charisma of James McCartan that typifies the
connection that exists between player and Down supporter.
Those same supporters were there when the McCartan family
pub, situated close to a Loyalist murder triangle in West
Down, was the focal point of a boycott enforced by UVF guns.
They stood by the player when there were rumours that he
was toying with a transfer request to join county rivals,
Armagh.
They understood his brinkmanship tactics with the Down County
Board when he sought and eventually won a transfer from
third division Tullylish to division one giants, Burren.
Supporters will forgive anything when they know that when
the chips are down certain players can deliver in exceptional
style.
He has been given a talent that is as precious as it was
precocious from the first time he exploded on to the football
scene as a 15-year-old Hogan Cup medal winner with St. Colman’s
in Newry.
His short stepped, strutting style was able to be married
to quite exceptional pace and muscular power.
It was an explosive combination, especially when it was
used over the years with his cock-sure cheekiness on the
pitch.
It helped him to collect a Sigerson medal in a Queen’s team
alongside the likes of Anthony Tohill, Kieran McGeeney and
Paul Brewster. At times it would annoy and rattle and disrupt
the opposition. When McCartan is the player to mark there
is never time to relax. His uncanny positional sense allowed
him to be perfectly positioned to slide home what was to
prove the match winning goal against Dublin in the 1994
All Ireland decider.
Earlier that season it was McCartan’s ability to ride a
series of lunging tackles that helped him score an exquisite
point against Derry, the then reigning All Ireland champions
and dump them out of the Ulster championship. After twelve
seasons of inter county football as well as a couple of
years with Glenavon in the Irish League and a brief flirtation
with Banbridge Rugby club, the explosive pace of McCartan
has been blunted.
His body has had to take and absorb huge punishment. The
speed that allowed him to escape from the shackles of ruthless
defenders has been siphoned away by the suction of countless
muscle wrenching tackles. However in the context of club
and county football, where he has been a marked man for
so long, its worth noting in the context of the current
controversy that James McCartan has never been sent off.
His periods of banishment to the sidelines have always been
the result of punishment meted out on the pitch. In terms
of sporting sin he has been sinned against far more than
he has been the sinner. The past few months have been tough
on James McCartan. Those that know him well know just how
much that self contained, confident façade masks
a complex and even vulnerable individual.
He has confided in close friends that he has been shocked
and disillusioned by the events of recent months. He has
genuine sympathy for the suffering that Ken Larkin has endured.
James McCartan is adamant however that he will go to his
grave secure in the knowledge that he had no part in any
pre-meditated attack on the Westmeath player.
The status symbols of medals mean absolutely
nothing to the Down player. It is his reputation as a man
that matters.
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