|
Class of ’99 ready to take their final test -11/07/03 2003
Ulster Football Championship - Final
Tyrone vs Down 
@ 2.30 p.m. Clones, Sunday 13th July 2003
Class of ’99 ready to take their final test by Seamus Maloney Irish News
Article taken from Fridays Irish
News
THE step-up to senior level from underage football is massive. Eighteen-year-olds who swept all before them in the minor ranks often come to a shuddering halt when their match is the main event rather than the curtain-raiser. Sometimes it’s the pace of the game, sometimes the weight of the tackles, often it’s the weight of expectation.
After Down minors won the All-Ireland title in 1999, most pundits predicted a new golden age in the very near future for the Mourne county. What happened next? No wins in the Senior Championship until this year.
Liam Doyle, who lifted the Tom Markham Cup as minor captain in 1999 and scored four points in this year’s win over Monaghan, knows that the class of ’99’s coming of age was well overdue.
“This year was the first time alot of us from that minor team won a Championship game. Everybody’s been talking about this young side for the last couple years, but this last couple of years we’re all 21-22 – not young anymore. It’s just not an excuse you can use anymore,” said the Liatroim man.
Doyle will be joined in the Clones parade on Sunday by five alumni of 1999 – John Clarke, Brendan Coulter, Michael Walsh, Ronan Murtagh and Ronan Sexton – while another, Brendan Grant, missed out on selection due to injury.
Familiar faces who know what it’s like to be the new wunderkinds on the block pepper the opposition. Cormac McAnallen, Kevin Hughes, Owen Mulligan and Brian McGuigan all won All-Ireland minor medals the year before Down. Doyle tangled with Tyrone as a minor three times in 1998 and 1999. The score stands at one win each with one draw. Sunday sees a decider of sorts, but for a much bigger prize.
“A lot of those Tyrone minor teams have come through as successful U21s and progressed into the seniors.
“They have shown the last few years that they have the mentality to cope with senior football.
“They seem to have made the step up from minor to senior a wee bit quicker than we have. They’ve a couple of National Leagues and an Ulster title under their belt, and there’s no substitute for that kind of experience,” said Doyle.
Doyle’s football career at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown also saw him share pitches, and dressing rooms, with many of Sunday’s opposition.
“I would know alot of the boys through Sigerson football, playing with them, playing against them and they are all very good footballers.
“I played with Sean Cavanagh, Enda McGinley, Kevin Hughes, Declan McCrossan and I played against the likes of Cormac McAnallen (Queen’s), and Mark Harte (St Mary’s)."
Doyle continues "Another successful springtime for Tyrone and, Derry in Clones apart, a comfortable run through to the Ulster final is in sharp contrast to Down’s season so far. After relegation to Division Two of the league, few expected them to beat Monaghan, conquerors of Armagh. But they did. A few more, but not many, expected them to stop Fermanagh
qualifying for their first Ulster final in 21 years. But they did. Hardly anyone outside Down thinks they will beat Tyrone.
“It’s great. The pressure will all be on Tyrone, they really are raging-hot favourites. We’re coming in as almost unknown quantities after the last three or four years. It’s the first time we’ve put some wins together.
“We’ve grinded out results this year. We’ve gone into every game as underdogs, and we just feel we’ve got a wee bit more to give. It’s a chance we want to take. You don’t get to an Ulster final every year and you have to make the most of it.”
Site
was Created and Designed by Diarmuid Cahill
© DOWNGAA.NET
|