| Championship
Sunday - In Down
Championship sandwich to have Mayobridge on top - 01/10/03
Taken from Newry Democrat
Since winning their first Down County
Championship for generations in 1999, Mayobridge have continually cemented their
place at the summit of the local game.
Sunday's final against Bryansford
will offer the club the chance to win its fourth county title in five years and,
in doing so, provide a path to the 2003 Ulster Club Championship, an honour they
have yet to win.
After going so close against eventual All-Ireland Club
winners, Ballinderry, in 2001, the club is determined to make up for previous
disappointments, but all involved realise greater goals will prove meaningless
unless the substantial hurdle of Bryansford can be negotiated.
Club spokesman,
James Gallagher confirmed as much during the week when assessing his side's chances
of glory this year.
"The boys were definitely disappointed by the Ballinderry
defeat because we didn't perform that well on the day and we let them back into
it right after getting a goal.
"We know the players believe it to be
a failure not to have won the Ulster Club Championship but we will have other
chances providing we can win the county title first.
"At the start of
the year, the main aim is to win the Down Championship. You can't look further
than that because you have to show respect to all the other teams in the county.
"If you look at the semi-final against Castlewellan, that game was on
a knife edge until we got the goal in the second half, so you can't think too
far ahead.
"The players would ultimately consider it a failure not to
reach the Ulster Club Final but you cannot give it too much thought until the
first aim is won.
"It's very dangerous to look too far ahead of yourself
because any complacency that sets in can cost you. Shocks are possible.
"We only have to remember the great Burren team of the 1980s being beaten by Teconnaught
from Division Two. It was a great lesson that in a one-off situation, anything
can happen."
At the start of this year's championship, many pundits believed
Bryansford would prove the greatest obstacle to a remarkable 'Bridge three-in-a-row
and Gallagher agrees the Newcastle side were always going to be one of two other
sides involved at the business end of proceedings.
"We considered Castlewellan
and Bryansford to be the main challengers at the start of the championship as
both were strong during the league campaign.
"In last year's semi-final,
we beat Bryansford but it was very tight until they had a man sent off at the
end of the first half which changed the game in our favour. They're very hungry,
having not won the championship since the 1970s"
"This time around, we
were especially wary of Castlewellan as they turned us over twice in the league,
indeed they beat us badly at their place although we had the county players missing.
"That is not to make an excuse, though, as we have a great reserve of
talent at our club. We play so many games without the county boys and the rest
of the lads still have us top of the table."
The return of the club's
Down contingent has, however, given Mayobridge a new sense of urgency and the
nature of the county's unfortunate demise in the Ulster Championship has only
served to reinforce the determination of those involved against Tyrone and Donegal.
While it is widely accepted that Down are not quite as good as their
performance in the drawn Ulster Final suggested, they are nowhere near as bad
as their display in the replay would have onlookers believe and Gallagher agrees
the 'Bridge players are intent on showing that.
"There is no doubt the
players were disappointed with the way they went out. It wasn't good but the players
have come back to club football with a renewed vigour and hunger to win.
"At the end of the day, Paddy O'Rourke predicted that it would be three years
down the road before the Down players really reached their peak so the boys at
our club have their best years to come."
It often takes reminding that
players like Benny Coulter, Mickey Walsh, Ronan Sexton and Brendan Grant are still
in their early twenties, such was their meteoric rise to the senior stage.
An All-Ireland minor win in 1999 suggested a glorious future but it has taken
a long time for the class of '99 to achieve even modest success at inter-county
level.
The story could hardly be more different with Mayobridge. County
titles at under-12, under-14, under-16 and minor were not merely the path to years
of hardship for Coulter and co.
On the contrary, the young guns came
aboard the senior train with ease and county championships followed without hesitation.
The clean sweep of county medals had been won by the ripe old age of 19!
Yet not only have the new guard come in and helped Mayobridge take their place
at the top seat of the Down Championship table, they have given the great Mickey
Linden a new lease of life.
Much like the case with Peter Canavan and
the new Tyrone, Linden is no longer the only man the supporters depend on to pull
the team back from the brink.
Opponents now have much more to contend
with and their difficulties in doing so have meant the experienced Linden has
had more space to wreak havoc in the last few years than he possibly ever had
before.
Such has been his form of late Gallagher sees no end in sight
to a wonderful career.
"Mickey could go on for another four or five years,
I've no doubt about that. He's a phenomenon and in great shape."
Whether
he gets to add another county championship medal to add to his two All-Irelands
remains to be seen. The pretenders to the throne have, all but one, fallen by
the wayside and the prize is clearly in sight.
"There's no point in thinking
you're the best without going out and proving it," concluded Gallagher. Mayobridge
should do just that this Sunday.
Site
was Created and Designed by Diarmuid Cahill
© DOWNGAA.NET
|